Househunting trip...frustrating

[Nathans_Dad]

Well, we made our first official househunting trip up to the D/FW area this week. We went out with our realtor yesterday from 9 AM to 7 PM and all I can say is FRUSTRATING.

First off, I had been scouring Realtor.com since Christmas looking for listings. I had our saved list up to 22 properties in the areas we were looking. One of the top three sold about 2 weeks ago, ok no big deal. Our #1 (and it was by far the #1) sold 3 days before we arrived in Dallas. The #2 turned out to be not as advertised and not an option. Out of the others several were in the "well, this might work, but" catagory and the rest were just "no". We did find one that was a foreclosure that we really thought would work, it was priced well under market and had been on the market for a while (which was a little bit of a red flag). We talked about it and decided to put in a lowball offer this morning and see what happens. We call our realtor and....Whoops, that house went under contract yesterday morning. The listing agent didn't list it as pending in the MLS system until today so we looked at it (and went back twice to look again) for no reason. If the deal falls through we might step up and make an offer but other than that we are about done.

We pulled a couple more listings out to look at tomorrow (5 actually), but all are a little above our max price and we would have to get the sellers to come down to get the house...

The good news is we have 4 months to find a house since we started so early. I forgot how much I hate house hunting.

[rammstein]

Go ahead and lowball the ones that are over your range- nothing to lose! Your realtor will hate it, but that's the name of the game.

[Nathans_Dad]

Yeah, that's how I feel. The good news is that some of them have been on the market for a while. One in particular has been on and off the market for 18 months so maybe the sellers are ready to get out of it. Of course the other side is maybe they won't come off their price so that is why it isn't selling...

At this point I am pretty much planning on just waiting another month and coming up again in late March for another trip so I have no qualms about lowballing someone and if they don't take it, no skin off my nose.

[MRM]

When you make a lowball offer, make it so low that you are afraid you are insulting the seller. The second worst thing you can do is offend them. The worst thing you can do is pay them more than they would take for the property.

Different situations call for different negotiations tactics. When the market is good and you're buying, you don't want to offend the seller and you bid aggressively into a rising market, knowing that what seems high now is simply the market taking time to adjust to the true value.

On the down side you do the opposite. You bid so low people think you lost your mind. Except the market just hasnt corrected quickly enough to reflect the real fair market value of the property. Which is why it's been on the market for 18 months.

You think today's stock market did anything to increase property values? I think you're in the catbird's seat and you should make a list of dream properties you think you can't afford, but which you would buy if they came down to ___. One of them will take your offer and be glad to have it.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I agree wholeheartedly. I could care less if someone gets offended. I don't owe them crap.

Back on topic, have you checked "forsalebyowner.com"? Pretty good stuff on there, at least in this area from time to time.

BTW what's the rule with purchasing a foreclosure? Don't you have to have cash-in-hand in order to do that?

[Nathans_Dad]

Yeah, I checked on forsalebyowner and only found one property (which is now listed with a realtor, ha!).

Foreclosures do not have to have cash, they will accept a mortgage, although most will require you to be prequalified and ask for your prequalification letter with your offer. The bank doesn't want to screw around with someone who can't get financing.

[dennis in se pa]

And give them the specific needs and wants you have, let them do the work. I never had to look for a house "in a rush". You can always rent until you find what you like. Which is probably the right way to go. That way you can take your time and wait till you find something that really works for you.

[Nathans_Dad]

Well, here is the update. Went out again today, looked at about 6 more houses. Two of them were definite possibilities, but they were both out of our price range. The one we liked the most had a pool in the back (which is a negative for us) and almost no other back yard for the kids. The inside was gorgeous, it had hand scraped hardwoods throughout the entire first floor and travertine tile in the bathrooms. Upstairs were 3 bedrooms, a media room and game room. The kitchen had granite countertops with detailed tile backsplases, jennair appliances, the works. My wife was drooling. It all came down to that pool (and the fact it was a little more money than we wanted to spend). The good news is that it is owned by some company who bought it during a relocation of the owner, it has been on the market for about a year off and on. There is another house (which is exactly the same house and floorplan) about two streets over which is also for sale and has also been on the market for a long time (18 months). We are thinking that maybe they will end up competing with each other and get into a little price war. Anyhow, I was ready to make a lowball offer and see if it flew, but my wife and the realtor talked about the house and decided that since it is so early in our house hunting time (we aren't moving for 4-5 more months) we had time to wait and see what else comes up. I feel pretty confident that one of the two houses will still be available in a month or two since they haven't sold in over a year. Plus maybe they will drop their price some too.

So, we decided to schedule another trip in a month. Our realtor now knows exactly what we want and where we want to live. If something comes up in the next month she said she would preview the house and see if it would fit, then we can make a trip up if needed. Plus, this really fits our schedule better, we are putting our house on the market in about 3 weeks and don't really want to close on our new house until late April or May to avoid double mortgage payments. This trip was a little frustrating, but I feel like we are doing the right thing by waiting.

Thanks for the help and listening to me rant...