Today I received my escrow deposit check in the mail. It was $424.00 less than what I deposited. That brings the total amount of my loss down to about $1300.00.

Not buying a house is expensive. I wish that it was something I could have prevented, but it is all due to the buyer not selling for what the house is worth.

I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be buying a house soon. For me it’s way too much of a gamble to be just throwing the money away.

At least I’m putting money in to the economy without getting any goods out of it. Maybe that’ll get me some points somewhere with someone. Haha it would have been cool to blow $1300 on some cool gadgets though.

It’s not going to end the way that I wanted it to, but I think it’s for the best.

They sent me another offer for $233,000 ($8,000 over the appraised value – yeah, they want the $8,000 tax credit I would be getting). They also slipped in the offer that they wouldn’t be paying the $5,500 previously agreed to for closing costs, which would mean that if I had just accepted the offer thinking that I had the $8,000 coming at the end of the year, that I would have to pay the $5,500 extra, or lose my $7,000 deposit.

It all just seems really sneaky to me and seems like they’re really trying to get me to pay more than what the house is worth. Sure, I would have paid $250,000 for the house. I was assuming that the house was worth what they listed it for. But, the house is only worth $225,000, and they’re just trying to make more money than that. I would understand if they put some labor or investment into the house, but they didn’t. They bought it and turned around and sold it without making any improvements (which is in the paperwork they sent me). I’m just not going to let them sucker me into paying more than the house is worth because they think I’ll do whatever it takes to get the house – even spend money that I don’t have (yet).

I’m going to spend the rest of tonight praying about it and thinking about it. I had more clarity on the way home from work that I should just pass this up and let them have their bad investment and try to find someone else to sell the house to.

I love Jenna a whole lot, and she helped me edit every “in to” into “into”.

The updated appraisal has been sent to the selling agent. Now I wait to see what happens from here.

I don’t sleep enough these days.

Got the revised appraisal just now. It went up 2% to $227,000.

The comparables that that seller wanted the Appraiser to use are COMPLETELY different than the house that I’m trying to buy. The original Appraisal compared houses in the same track as mine. The new one they wanted to compare with houses in a completely different neighborhood about a mile away. They’re nicer houses and are roughly 10-15k more than the appraisal of the house I bid on. It seems legit. The sellers just need to accept that this is truly what the house is worth.

I asked my Realtor why we were trying to get the seller to give us a response right away. She said it was because we don’t want to be held up in finding a house by having this deal hang in limbo for however long it takes them, and that we could just start looking again.

I told my Realtor that I won’t be able to resume the hunt until early-June at the earliest because I’m going to be really busy with stuff going on at work. I asked her if there was any harm in letting them take their time, and she said “no”. So, we’ll going to just let them take their time to do whatever they need to do, and if in the end they decide not to sell, thats fine. I have nothing else to do during this time except work.

This would be the best decision in my mind because I’ve already spent the money on the inspections and stuff, and may as well give the sellers time to realize they made a bad investment. Either I say no now, and wait till June. Or, I give them till June and then resume when I have more free time.

My part is done. I’m waiting on the sellers. I have nothing else I really need to do which means I can focus on work.

Of course this means that I could be in escrow for who knows how long. They have till June.

By the end of the day, it should be for sure that I’m not getting the house. The sellers want to dispute part of the appraisal, but if unsuccessful in justifying the higher price, it’s likely the house will fall out of escrow. They’ve already said that they’re not going to sell for the price the house appraised at. My Realtor gave them until the end of today to make a final decision, as now everything is halted and waiting on them.

So, later today/tonight I’ll talk to my Realtor and find out what the decision is. Either way, I’m not going to be house-hunting tomorrow – I’ll put that on hold for a while since I’ve already lost about $900 on this house that the sellers have far to much confidence in.

The appraisal was for $25,000 less than the offer of $250,000. The Seller doesn’t want to sell for $225,000. They challenge the validity of the appraisal that I got and we’re trying to get them to do a second appraisal (they pay for it this time).

It’s really a tough spot for them. They bought it at $196k thinking they could turn around and sell it and make $50k. However, they’ll only be making about $29k if they sell it to someone who actually cares about appraisal values (which is the majority of people I think). So, their house isn’t worth as much as they thought and they refuse to believe it.

So, my Realtor is looking in to seeing if FHA will accept a second appraisal, and if so, will ask the sellers if they want to pay for a second appraisal.

If the first appraisal was accurate and they won’t sell, then that’s it and I find something else.

They listed the house the same day they bought it (with cash) and they didn’t have it appraised. You would think they would have appraised it to see how much it was worth, but I guess they could just get some sucker buyer to pay for the appraisal instead, since they could always back out if it gets a low appraisal.

I’m almost over it.

We haven’t heard back from the seller or the selling agent since they were notified of the Appraisal Report results yesterday morning. My realtor is going to try to convince them to sell for that lower price, however the decision is ultimately up to them. They probably won’t be able to sell for the price they want, when compared to the selling price of other houses around there.

If this falls through, I’ll be out about $1000 bucks from the home inspection and appraisal report. Home hunting is sure expensive.

I’ll of course update twitter or this website as soon as I hear anything.

I have a feeling its going to be a long long weekend.

Escrow is supposed to close in 5 days.

The Appraisal Report came in today while I was on my way home from work. It’s $25,000 less than my offer, which means they have to lower the price or they can go with someone else (others made offers).

I don’t really know what else to say now. Let’s just hope my spit-balling from the previous post is true. Otherwise, I’m just assuming I won’t get the house.

[update]

Talked to my Realtor. She said she’s going to call the seller tomorrow and “re-negotiate” the contract, and hope they agree to take the 10% off of my asking price which would make it purchasable for me.

If this falls through, I’m going to be taking some time off of this home buying crap.

Appraisal should be in on Wednesday. Escrow closes middle of next week. I’m pretty freakin’ nervous.

We drove by last night on the way back from Hemet. The neighborhood looked nice and quiet.