House Hunting continued...

So, I thought I would post a little more about the process of purchasing a home.  I hope one day I can look back at this and laugh, because right now I am just frusterated.

You see...in Chino Hills (where we live), we are faced with homes in short sale situations.  There are virtually NO standard sales in Chino Hills. Well, at least not in our price range.  This makes finding a home, a LONG and stressful process.  I often fantasize of "the normal way" people buy homes.  They find one, then put an offer on it and 30 days later they get the keys.

Unfortunately, with short sales, the process can be drawn out to months.  So, we are stuck making offers on short sales if we want to stay in Chino Hills. 

So far, I believe we have offers on about 20 different houses.  Seems like a lot, right?!  IT IS!  In fact, we have made so many offers that we just signed a blank contract so that realtors can just send them in for each home we think we like.  We are even making offers on homes we haven't seen.

We have to make offers ASAP because some homes will have 25+ offers submitted within the first day or two of being on the market.  So, there is no room for error.

We recently had an offer accepted-which was a HUGE accomplishment.  THEN, the bank countered our offer $20k more.  While we wanted to get into a home, we didn't think it was worth it, so we walked away.  It was a HARD decision since we have been looking for what seems like FOREVER! 

However, currently, we made an offer on another home and we went to the bank on this one too.  The reason it is such a big deal is because with 25+ people competing for one home, you have to be hand picked.  Basically we beat out others, so that was exciting!  So-currently our offer is at the bank.  IF the bank accepts our offer, we still have a long process ahead of us.  The bank would STILL have to send it to the investor and the investor would have to approve it too.  Then they would have to appraise it, etc.  If all went well we would be looking at getting in sometime in late May.  So, we are crossing our fingers, but not holding our breath, cuz we've been through this before...

House Hunting

David and I decided in October that it was time to find ourselves a home.  What an exciting time in a couples lives...or so we thought!  I have come to despise the house hunting process.  What once seemed to be an exciting adventure, has now turned into a stressful limbo between extreme highs and lows. 

Now...I suppose I should be somewhat thankful for the opportunity we have to purchase a home, because, let's be honest...without the downfall-correction-PLUMMET-of the economy, there would be no way we could have afforded a shack here in good ole' $outhern California. :)

So, I just felt the need to share.  I have been really irritated with looking lately and not finding anything.