The Beef On the House

The countdown begins.

After hearing nearly a month ago that we had "a verbal agreement" we still have not heard anything else about the status of the house. Our realtor only contacts us when we contact her first. If I was the realtor here, I'd be emailing or calling at least once a week to assure them that I was still interested in what was going on. If this deal doesn't go through, we're finding another realtor.

The loan guys sent out an appraiser before we approved them doing so and we found out that the square footage on the house is 120 sq. ft. smaller than what we had been told (2754 vs. 2873). The insurance people are also quoting us a rate on the larger sq. ft. amount and when we asked why, it turns out that the county thinks the house we are buying is a two story house with 2873 square feet. We went and measured the house ourselves and it is indeed 2754. So, we're not buying the house we thought we were buying. Also, the county appraiser thinks we can sell the house for $221,678, a far cry below the $245,000 that we are supposedly going to pay for it. And that's for a house that's listed as bigger than what the house actually is!

We feel we've been deceived every time we turn around. The square footage isn't right, every time we ask for a number from our realtor she tells us a low number and then it turns out MUCH higher than she said, she refuses to see our point of view on the "wrong house" issue and instead has only been trying to bully us into continuing with this contract (she wants paid, I guess).

We feel we offered to buy the house as a short sale, and instead we're going to pay a huge amount for a house that is continuing to depreciate in value. We've been waiting 8 weeks for an answer and in the mean time, the grass is dying in the yard and we'll have to spend loads replacing the sod, adding more to our costs. We feel that part of what we were paying for was resale value and now the resale value is less because the house was sold to us as bigger than it actually is, and we won't lie to the next buyers.

I'm sick of this house. Sure the back yard is nice, but at this point I think I'll hate and resent the house and that's bad.

On top of everything else, our mortgage rate lock was for 60 days and that ends next Wednesday. If we lose the lock then the contract is void. The rates have been going up and up and up and if we can't get a loan with less than 6% then we can't afford this house.

Del called a real estate attorney and he said that we're not obligated to buy the house and the most that we stand to lose is our $1000 down payment. We'd rather risk losing the $1000 than tens of thousands on a house that isn't worth what we're paying for.

So, the countdown is to the loss of the lock...6 days. Unless we both decide before then that we want out.