Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update 6/22

I could use some LIF prayers and house dust today. We put an offer on a house that we absolutely love on Friday. It was a strong offer (both terms and monetary value) but the seller didn't want to respond until after the weekend because he had several other people walking through and wanted to wait to see if those showings produced any other offers (he recently reduced his price which has stirred up a lot of interest). We then went back to him and bumped up our offer by $8,000 just to show we are serious and willing to negotiate. He hasn't countered yet and we're SO nervous!! I'm terrified we wont even get a chance to counter if he gets another higher offer. We've lost 3 houses already throughout this process and I don't know if I can go through losing another one. I spent last night crying because of how draining this whole process has been. This house is the first one in 9 months that DH and both love and aren't compromising on. I'm just so afraid of how long it could take to find another one if we lose this one.

Please please send good vibes and prayers our way this week!!


FINAL UPDATE 6/19: The seller accepted our offer last night!!!! We're trying to get a home inspection done ASAP so we can get into contract and lock everything down, although I doubt we'll be able to do one over the weekend, so it'll probably have to wait until Monday. We're honestly in shock and it's not totally sinking in that he finally accepted (and we're nervous that it could still fall through). But we're very excited!

Update 6/22: Our reservations were confirmed. On Friday afternoon we scheduled an inspection for Saturday at 4:30. On Friday night (maybe 4 hours later) we received a call from our realtor that the seller had apparently received a higher offer and was "jumping on it" and wanted our best and final. We told him our best and final was the number we agreed upon earlier. We cant go any higher and we wont. He said he'd let us know when he heard back as to whether or not they were accepting the other offer. It's now Monday and we still have no word.
I have half a mind to think that the seller is screwing with us YET AGAIN to try and get more money out of us. What better way than to accept out offer and get us emotionally attached and then pull it out from under us? But I also know he really could have another offer and we could have really lost it. I'm sure this happens all the time, but I really have to say, its so disheartening to see how little empathy sellers have towards buyers feelings. My DH's Father's Day went from very exciting (picking out a ride on lawn mower for his new backyard) to very depressing while moving out of our townhouse and now nothing to look forward to

Message edited 6/22/2015 10:06:56 AM.

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please!

Good luck. I hope this is the one that works out for you!

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please!

Good luck! I know how you feel. When we were looking for houses we were in the same situation with getting outbidded, its so frustrating! I hope it works out!

Need some house dust and prayers please!

Good luck

Message edited 6/15/2015 10:46:12 AM.

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please!

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please!

Fingers crossed X
Sending positive thoughts.

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please!

Good luck!

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please!

Good Luck.

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update

Updated in original post.

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update

Given your interest level bumping up your offer without even getting a counter it would be ridiculous for them not to come to you and try to negotiate if they got another offer.
The process is completely draining. I feel it as an agent. Are you working with a buyers agent? I would have your agent follow up and see if you can figure out what is going on.

You just have to really believe that everything happens for a reason and ride the waves.....

Good Luck!

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update

idk if I would put an expiration on your offer. I have done that in the past & we lost out. I would just wait it out while still following up with your/their agent.

I also want to add, being the seller is stressful too. We always took a few days to think about it & respond to buyers. Depending if they are older, they may need more time.

Message edited 6/16/2015 9:48:50 AM.

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update

You have already upped your offer once. I would not do it again without at least a counter from them. IMO you're giving them incentive to wait you out even longer and see how high you'll go. But I wouldn't put an expiration date on it either.

The waiting sucks. It's horrible. I hope it ends soon for you!

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update

I also wouldn't put an expiration date on the offer. I don't see any reason to draw a line in the sand. What do you have to lose by waiting it out? You can still look at other homes, out in other offers, etc. If you put the expiration date on it, it may force a response, but you have to be prepared for them to call your bluff, and then you will either lose credibility or lose the house.

Also, I always advise my clients to keep the big picture in mind. If you love the house, and will be happy in the long run, don't risk losing the house over petty differences with the seller, or because you don't like the seller or their behavior. My dh and I had to a if difficulties with the sellers while buying our home in my pre real estate days, but I'm glad we stuck it out because it was the right house for us.

Usually if the seller has multiple offers, they go back and ask for best and highest offers, which is to their advantage (to try to get top dollar).

But I will say it's a sellers market in many areas of LI now. Sometimes, if it's a hot house, I advise my clients to go in with their strongest offers initially. You don't always get another shot. Buyers are coming in with full price or above asking offers if the house is priced to sell and a good deal. So 5 percent below maybe is too low for market. If a house is priced at $500K and is a good deal for that area or an in demand style house, $475K is not a strong offer. If the house is overpriced, that's a different story. You have a buyers' agent, so I assume you looked at comps and were advised off offer strategy, but just throwing it out there!

Message edited 6/16/2015 12:24:11 PM.

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update

Good luck! Sending you house dust!!

Try to remain positive. I've been in your situation. My DH and I were looking for over 2 years before we found something.
We put in about 8 offers and 5 were over asking price. Depending on the location it's a very tight market out there.

Where are you looking? Once we switched agents we had such a better turn out. Let me know if you want his contact info.

Best of luck!!

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update #2

Update #2 in original post. Hopefully we're making the right moves

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update #2

I don know. If this was the first house you can agree upon in nine months, I would have put a best and final offer out there from the start. Why risk the headache?

If they say no or counter, be prepared to go all in.

ETA: I did the same exact thing when I was looking for my vacation home in FL. I looked for seven months. Put low offers out there (or offers I knew wouldnt get accepted) only to get laughed at. I finally found a house that we both didn't really compromise on. I put best and final offer right from the start and got the house. Seller wanted a quick sale so they didn't bother looking around. Could I have saved an extra 5-10k? Maybe. But in a hot market, it wasn't worth the risk.

Message edited 6/17/2015 2:07:45 PM.

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update #2

Where are you looking?

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update #2

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update #2

If you are not comfortable with going back w/ your max price then just leave it. The house we ended up buying, we put in our max offer because we liked the house, looked for over a year and a half, and were tired of being outbidded, and they accepted- well or so we thought, they still had an open house after that! I guess they wanted to see if they could get higher offers!! We were pissed about that... but no one ended up offering higher than us. So we ended up getting the house after all.

We also looked at another house where we put in a good counter offer considering the house needed a lot of work, and the sellers (children selling their parents house) got greedy and said no... well the house ended up sitting on the market for months after that and ended up selling for less than our offer!

I hope it works out for you!

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update #2

It sounds like the seller isn't really all that motivated and/or is being given good advice by the listing agent.

If in fact there are multiple offers on the table, it is best to just counter those willing and ready buyers, or better yet, just go back and ask for everyone's "best and highest" offer and then choose among them.

If there's one serious offer on the table, then it's best to negotiate with that person.

I always tell my seller clients the old adage that "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." If they forego good offers today for the hopes of better hypothetical future offers, then they risk winding up with nothing.

But if a seller has true motivation to sell, whether it's the need to relocate, downsize, upsize, etc., they don't usually play games like this. It's a bad strategy, imo, to ever raise the list price. If a house is priced for the market, or even a little under, the market self-corrects, and you get multiple offers, and it goes for over asking. So it's not like the list price limits or drives the selling price as much as the market does.

My best advice to YOU as a buyer would be to come forward with your best and highest offer, and then if the seller isn't willing to accept, move on. Sometimes I've had agents call me back weeks later to say "if your buyer still wants the house, the seller is now ready to accept." So while I wouldn't wait on that house or forego other opportunities, it may still work out in the end. And if you do get the chance to get the house, I wouldn't turn it down because of the seller acting like a jerk. As I said - I had a similar situation buying my own home, and I think giving up something major you want like a house to spite a seller or avoid a seller is like winning a battle but losing the war. It's easy to get caught up in the back and forth of negotiating, but keep the big picture in mind always.

If it doesn't work out with this house, but you came forward with your best offer and terms, at least you have no regrets. You can only control what you do as a buyer; you have no control over the seller.

Hope it works out!

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Update #2

Keep looking in the meantime. Hopefully they come around and you get it. So frustrating for you guys.

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Final Update!

Final update in original post

Re: Need some house dust and prayers please! -- Final Update!

Congratulations! These things have a way of working themselves out. Definitely get the home inspection done ASAP. Good luck with everything.