The Offer

So we've been to the first time home buyers class. We've been to the bank. And finally we decided on the house... Now we just got to get it. We were a little worried when we found out that the one house in the area that we were even interested in had a "LOW" ball offer already in on it. So we offered a fair price. We understood that it might take a while to hear back about our offer seeing that the bank is involved because its a "short-sale". (Realestate speak for: Just about in foreclosure, so the bank and seller are working together to sell it at a price they can both be happy with -- As quick as humanly possible.) We were prepared to wait a week or two to hear from the seller and their bank, because banks are SLOW, but hours after placing the offer we were already countered by the bank! Which was great because the counter offer wasn't too bad, so we accepted it. Then the sellers accepted the counter and it was all up to the bank accepting our acceptance of the counter, but when it got to the bank - they decided to counter again!? Apparently the loan officer who made the counter thought it was good enough but when the bank got it they decided they need $1,400 more. Really, at $1,400 you think it wouldn't be worth their trouble to counter, but I guess it was. So we accepted and now we are waiting to find out if they will accept this acceptance, but our realtor (and friend) says they will since it was the BANK who made the last counter, and not a loan officer.

Moral of the story: When working with bank owned properties, or in our case nearly bank owned properties, don't be surprised if there are a few bumps in the road. It happens.

And don't worry, even with the counters we are still basically stealing this home.