Refusing to buy a nice house...

[emperor_black]

Allright, I did not get the house...

it was listed for $628,000. We offered $634,000, but still lost. 'cause the other buyer who got the house...wait for it...put down 50%! That's over $300,000 and he also gave a $50,000 non-refundable deposit. I mean, even in this credit-frozen market, there are people who are willing to give up so much of their money! I havent been able to sleep well for a past month or so unsure if even buying a house is good decision or not in this market.

the last time I lost sleep over something was my yellow bengal SL2HT

[phill_up]

isn't the price of homes still on the decline? maybe you will get a better one!

[Norton]

Allright, I did not get the house...

it was listed for $628,000. We offered $634,000, but still lost. 'cause the other buyer who got the house...wait for it...put down 50%! That's over $300,000 and he also gave a $50,000 non-refundable deposit. I mean, even in this credit-frozen market, there are people who are willing to give up so much of their money! I havent been able to sleep well for a past month or so unsure if even buying a house is good decision or not in this market.

the last time I lost sleep over something was my yellow bengal SL2HT

I think, it has ended in the greatest way that it could. you wanted the house , your wife didn't want it and you couldn't buy it anyway so it's not like you had to sacrifice for your wife. You'll find a better house, I think.

[Spivonious]

Holy crap! 50% down??? Who has that kind of cash floating around? Although if he was willing to potentially throw away $50k, I guess $300k is pocket change.

As far as how much to spend, I feel that 30% of your income before taxes is a good number. It leaves you with some extra to pay the bills and make any car payments or whatever else comes up.

My wife and I make about $65,000 a year; our mortgage payment (including taxes, insurance) is $1500/month, that's 27%. We own our cars, so no payments there, and after all bills and going out to eat and all of that, we still have over $700 a month going into savings.

Of course, no kids either, but the increased gas prices and food prices haven't hurt us at all.

[emperor_black]

As far as how much to spend, I feel that 30% of your income before taxes is a good number. It leaves you with some extra to pay the bills and make any car payments or whatever else comes up.

I've heard that number somewhere. but after you put it so well, I'm estimating that our payments are gonna be around the same percentage. thanks man!

[missionguitars1]

Allright, I did not get the house...

it was listed for $628,000. We offered $634,000, but still lost. 'cause the other buyer who got the house...wait for it...put down 50%!

50% down doesn't shock me...the price does though! I thought you'd be able to wiggle it away from him/her for under $600K easy. Man, hate to see the crazy crack-smokers are coming back to the real estate market...

As the saying goes, there will be another up for sale soon. And once the election is over and the politicians take the heat off loans servicers to hold-up on foreclosing, you'll see a LOT more supply and lower prices hitting market at year-end...

[emperor_black]

I cannot believe, I never shared the happy ending...

September 10th, a couple of weeks before I opened this thread, we had seen a house. Let me call it the "glen duff house". It was a dream come true. It had everything we needed and more! Cul-de-sac, 4/2.5, less than 700K, excellent elem school...09/11 (yikes!) we submit an offer, after 3 days seller comes back saying he's agreed to sell it to someone who's putting down 300K! We lost! After that, we saw almost 20 houses, including the one this thread is about and none could come even close to the glen duff house. My wife and I could not believe we lost the house!

My wife kept hoping the buyer shouldn't be able to pay the 300K. I was teasing her, telling her that in this case, she should be praying to the devil instead of god. Well, she prayed and prayed, the stock market crashed (remember the week when the stock market had the worst week in decades?)...the buyer had all his money in stocks waiting until the last moment to sell...supposedly...could not keep up his promise...seller contacted us...I had all my money in savings, october 2nd, we closed the deal! We got the house! The seller agreed to stay in the house for 2 more months and we got a HUGE rent-back which we're using the pay off the lease in the old apartment. We've been living in the house for almost 2 months now and we couldn't ask for more! Thanks for reading and your comments.

--Sam

[triplehold]

Way to go brother, I just read the whole thread and I am glad your family and you were able to get the place you wanted. It might sound corny, but when a wife prays a lot, good things happen.

[guitarsjb]

That's great news!!

[Ben...]

That's a good ending to a rather interesting story.

[MikeStrat]

Congrats man! The real estate market is a biotch. Glad it worked out for you.

[missionguitars1]

Right on, glad to hear everything worked out ok in the end!

[thunderhead]

and the neighbours lawn ??

[texasfury]

He was told get off it.

[Vass]

Man, that's great news- Congrats.

Crazy what people will do with their assets. Parking the HOUSE PAYMENT in the stock market??? Geez. Bad idea even in good times.

Vass