The sellers didn't accept our offer. A couple of the things we want were based on the wrong info so it's not too surprising. See, we didn't have a copy of their Seller's Disclosure (this is the form where they say how old everything is and what is included in the house purchase) when we made our offer. House Lady had an unofficial one that Mister Seller had whipped up really quickly but there were errors on it. The biggest error was for the HVAC system. The unofficial Seller's Disclosure said that the HVAC was 17 years old and the water heater was 7. Part of our offer included a replacement HVAC. Turns out the HVAC is 7 and the water heater is 17. No need for a new HVAC.
So, we're now waiting for their counter-offer with the HVAC replacement part removed, hopefully a water heater replacement added, and assorted other niggling changes. Hopefully we'll get it today and hopefully it'll come complete with a genuine Seller's Disclosure. Then we'll put together a counter-counter offer!
Have I told y'all about House Lady yet? No, I don't think I have. She's...motivated. She talks too fast, too. Like somebody from Maryland. On crack. We've been in Georgia for over three years - we can't listen that fast any more. But like I said, she's motivated. That first evening that she came over for house surfing said a lot. She went through the realtor listings with us. The actual realtor listings with all of the super secret house information that lowly buyers aren't supposed to have access to. She also left with her Realty/Company accoung logged in. Not that it mattered since she didn't really hide her password (slightly easier to remember than '1-2-3-4').
We've spent a bit of time cruising around the Realty/Company database, by the way. We can't help it. I'm naturally curious and Lovely Wife is female. No way we could leave that alone. I'll just say that they could definitely use some new programmers, at least one of whom understands the concepts of crafting a user interface.
So to summarize, waiting on a counter offer, probably will lead to a corrected offer. Still working the same (very cool) house. Continue to cross fingers, please.
UPDATE
Just found out that they're supposed to be getting together with their agent this evening to craft the counterproposal. They're not happy with our earnest money. For those of you who haven't purchased a house before, earnest money is sort of like a deposit. It's the money you'll be out if you change your mind at the last minute and stick it to the seller. We don't have a whole lot of earnest money - we're credit rich and cash poor as they say. Apparently the buyers are concerned that we might not be serious about buying the house because we've put in about as much earnest money as a speculator might.
I'm getting the feeling that brokers and agents just get in the way and that if we could sit down with those folks face to face we'd have this whole thing wrapped up in a half hour or so.
Fingers crossed for ya. Good luck!
I don't like real estate agents. They rank up there with used car salesmen and high school band directors in my book. (Bad experience, heh.)
But, anywho--as long as you know as much or more than the agent about the house, you can't make a mistake.
I'll keep my fingers crossed, too. I know it's stressful as hell.
Am so crossing my fingers for you, too. Am also ready to go on the M&M strike if you need it.
Earnest money is usually 1%. Our seller wanted 2%. I think he just wanted extra assurance that we were in on the deal. Whatever. Anyway, 2% was a little less than closing costs anyway so basically our money is already on the table. And, as our lawyer pointed out, the earnest money is held by YOUR lawyer. If the deal falls through, your lawyer can simply give you your earnest money back. The seller could file suit, but they'll have a hard time claiming any actual damages as they will likely sell their house to someone else anyway. So basically, earnest mony is a crock of crap.
counter the Counter offer asking for seller assistance...
Forgot this: I'm getting the feeling that brokers and agents just get in the way and that if we could sit down with those folks face to face we'd have this whole thing wrapped up in a half hour or so.
I've never experienced it the "other" way so I probably can't say for sure, but there wasn't a broker or realtor with 100 feet of our deal. Just us and the seller. And it was pretty fricking easy.
Tiffany and Tiffani - Thanks for the fingers. I appreciate them.
Helen - I hadn't thought of M&M mojo. We'd better save that in case of emergency though. The fingers seem to be working pretty well so far.
Clancy - That's pretty much what I got out of earnest money. It's a load of hooey. If I had some more dough lying around I wouldn't have a problem with putting more of it down right now. It has nothing to do with how serious I am about buying the house.
We had that same problem with the earnest money. One seller actually asked their agent Are they kidding?" when we offered them a certain amount.
They had the house on the market for six months and hadn't accepted a single offer and they had the nerve to ask that!
They finally sold it, I think. We drove by there a couple of weeks ago and saw that whoever lives there now has a washing machine and deepfreezer out in the car port.
...For once in my life, I can say that it was a good thing they rejected our offer (and our earnest money).
The neighborhood we ended up in is higher-end, and for about the same price we got a bigger house. I gripe about all the damn improvements we have to make, but I like this situation more in the end...
*hands you another two cents*
if we could sit down with those folks face to face we'd have this whole thing wrapped up in a half hour or so.
Probably. That's a complaint I've heard only from every person who's ever tried to buy a house. On the other hand, if you're the seller . . . .