What would you do?

[jpg7n16]

haha she really wanted to sell at the price you offered You must have been the high bidder.

How could you be making a mistake??? Weren't you happy the day before without owning the house? You'll be fine today too. She's the one stuck with the house! Think about it - that was her last minute effort to guilt you into buying the house! If it was really a mistake to walk away from that deal, then it's a mistake to sell it in the 1st place.

If it wasn't right for you, then walk away. Or OMG you'll never find a house again!!!

Have no fear. You're good. (ps - I've heard that some homes even come with a good roof on them)


But I think I only keep my normal EF - not necessarily 6 mos. I keep about 3-4 mos. The rest is in investments. You should always save the down payment on top of what is normal for your EF.

My point is, if you were happy with $8500 (which is likely too low) then you'd be okay with $12-15k-ish in cash EF.

[cypher1]

I'm totally bummed, because I did love the house, but one horrible thing about my realtor... she actually stated "I think your making a mistake". Ummmmm NO, I'm making the right decision for me. That really irritated me, but I will give her this, she was very willing to invest a lot of time talking me through all of it.

If my realtor tried to pull the guilt trip on me, I'd probably walk away. IMO they're just another sales person, and I told mine to have patience for the sale. It may not be right away, but they'd still sell me one...eventually. You're making one of the biggest financial purchase/investment of your life, so you should not feel guilty about "wasting" their time, since its their job to show you these houses in the first place. As others have said, there will always be other houses available, and it sounds like time is on your side to further save and do research. Best of luck!

[disneysteve]

Good for you for walking away. And stay away from that realtor. Any realtor that tries to guilt you or pressure you into making a purchase should be reported to the real estate board or whatever the organization is that oversees them.

[snafu]

I presume you convinced your realtor that she had found you a home that meet all your stated requirements because you 'loved' the home. Should you wish to make an offer on a house in the future, it would be helpful to have a structure to any offer you make. Ask your next realtor to prepare a print-out of the 'solds' in the district, with price per sf, and valuation for the features like garage valued $ XX., newish roof valued $ XX., new, SS appliances x 5 valued $ XX, updated decor valued $ XX and so forth. House prices are very fluid, whatever and willing seller and buyer agree is acceptable.

I presume the 20% downpayment is important as that level allows you to skip mortgage insurance. Today the American confidence in the economy was reported lower [dismal] with 9.5% unemployment reported only those eligible to collect benefits. This could lead to yet another tranche of forclosures to lower house values.

[wincrasher]

We are in a period where the best deals are available that you will see in your lifetime!

Don't settle for something that is a "fair" market value.

There are plenty of homes that are 25-50% below appraisal or even build cost. Find a deal or wait for one. Time is on your side..

Good Luck!

[dfeucht]

Just as an update, I did end up asking for all of the concessions I wanted and the seller said they were not going to budge, and that they had 3 other other offers. I did the wise thing, and walked away from the deal. The plan for now is to save up 20% with a $20k emergency fund. Depending on things go (including with my accident settlement) this could take between 1-3 years.

I will however still keep my eye open for a property but my ideal at this moment is to buy a house in 2 years. I'm totally bummed, because I did love the house, but one horrible thing about my realtor... she actually stated "I think your making a mistake". Ummmmm NO, I'm making the right decision for me. That really irritated me, but I will give her this, she was very willing to invest a lot of time talking me through all of it.

Congratulations on making the decision for you... many have difficulty doing that. There will be many other houses and deals when you are completely ready! Good Luck!