Heartbreaker Home

Well, the fingers crossed for us to love the house we saw this weekend worked.... unfortunately, it takes more than luck and good vibes to win a bidding war these days. #wompwomp

This house was absolutely NOTHING like what we envisioned for ourselves -- it was a single-story bungalow with only two bedrooms and one bathroom, and was approximately 250 sq. ft. larger than our current apartment. Typically, I would have skipped right over it on MLS, but when it popped up Friday, I got a fuzzy feeling and sent it off to Andrew to ask if he wanted to see it. Within seconds of walking inside, we both looked at each other and said, "this is it; we are offering and we're willing to be aggressive."

The really crazy part is that this house was below -- WELL below -- our current budget. Our realtor, who is a good friend, even said that she thought it was slightly overpriced for the size, but the area we are looking in is hot, hot, hot (good school systems, good commute to the city, good town infrastructure and community atmosphere), so we initially went in at $5k over asking knowing there would likely be multiple offers. We received the counter to come back with best and final around 10am yesterday, and learned that we were one of three offers still in the running. We increased the offer slightly, and raised our inspection threshold.... then sat on tenterhooks until we got the news at 2:30 that the seller went with another offer "with better terms."

Typically, when people bemoan the current state of something, I assume that there is a level of exaggeration involved. What is so aggravating about this whole home buying process is that the market really *is* as insane as everyone says it is -- this house came on the market Friday, had an Open House Saturday, with final offers due Monday by 10... and it had multiple bids over asking price with all kinds of waivers for stuff like the inspection, the appraisal and the mortgage contingency.

How are we supposed to compete with that?!

I know that if waiving and overpaying were the keys to this house, it wasn't the right house for us. I know that. It still doesn't make it any easier, knowing we've been looking for a year, with pre-approval and down payment in hand, and have only seen three properties that remotely match what we're looking for. I read articles with comments stating that we millennials want too much and how we think we're entitled to convenience, etc. -- and to a point, I agree. But I'm sorry, I don't think a house with 2-3 bedrooms, 1-2 bathrooms in a suburb 45 minutes-an hour outside of the city for under a small fortune should be too much to ask for. It has to be out there. At some point, this bubble is going to have to burst.

And so, we will continue looking. And waiting. And hoping.

Keep those fingers crossed for us, would ya?