Why is it so darn difficult to buy a house?!?!

[Mrs. Martin]

Sorry if this is long, but I'm beyond pissed off right now and I have to vent to you ladies!!

 

DH and I started saving about 2 years ago for the day we were going to buy our first house together. About a year ago, DH started looking for a house and we decided to keep the one DH already had (the one we are now living in) and rent it out. So, we looked and put an offer on a shortsale (which was totally new to us, we had no clue what was involved) exactly one year ago. Apparently the house wasn't approved yet and it took almost 4 months for us to be told this, so we moved on. We looked for homes, but not too much because the wedding was getting closer. (Let me add that this same house never got approved and is now pending to get approved as a foreclosure, that's how crazy the market is out here)

 

After the wedding we started looking again and found another house we liked. And at this time (end of November), home prices really started to fall so we were able to get much more for our $$ and we were so excited about this- not only are we going to pay less, but we have much more saved up than we did in the beginning of the year, so this makes everything perfect! Well, we put an offer on this house we liked, a shortsale again, but this time we hear back from the bank in two weeks and our offer was accepted. Everything was going great and after the house was appraised, we were going to start escrow and then we get some bad news. The owners of the home (on a shortsale the owners are still living there) filed for bankruptcy and now the house is frozen along with all their other assets. So, the bank goes to court to remove the house from owner's name and long story short, 2 1/2 months later it's done. But, now the house has to get reprocessed as a short sale (which is still not completed) and in the mean time, the previous owners decided to throw a party and trash the house, removed all the light fixtures, and removed all the shelves in the bedroom closets and pantry. So, now we still haven't heard anything, so we told the bank we are going to remove our offer by April 1st if we see nothing moving forward with this home. In the mean time, DH and I have been looking for houses, but 99% of the inventory out here seem to be short sales and most of them not approved which means it could take months again for our offer to get accepted! We tried looking at foreclosures, but the ones we liked already had multiple offers, so we just passed on them.

 

So here's the issue- I'm 5 months pregnant and would like to move in to a house ASAP. We haven't started buying anything for the baby yet (furniture, bedding, etc) because we're hoping to get everything ready once we move. I don't want to move a few weeks before my due date, I'm going to be miserable if we have to move during this time. Plus, my DH's cousin is renting our house and his lease is up in July. We already agreed that he can move in during this time because DH and I thought we would be moved for sure by then. I'm just super annoyed at the fact that we have the $$ to buy a house, have well paying jobs, and we both have great credit and we can't buy a damn house. Yet, a few years ago almost anyone was given a home loan to buy a house even though they couldn't afford it and look at what that did to the housing situation!!! I'm just so stressed that we are not going to find anything in time! I just can't believe how crazy the housing market is out here in CA.

 

Thanks for listening to me vent.....

[Soon To Be Mrs. Gomez]

Oh I hate to hear that because I've heard during pregnancy , women are extra sensitive and you don't need the added stress. I hope things work out. I'm hoping things get better because I'm a cali girl too and I know houses are hard to buy and me and my FI are not homeowners yet and I'm dreading looking for homes becuase we have had a hard time saving. i think you should be okay considering you have the money saved. I think you just have had bad luck, but try not to worry too much.

[sita]

Let me just say I can TOTALLY relate to your situation. My fiancee and I live in SoCal as well and started looking for a house about a year ago...We have an offer in on a short sale that went on the market six months ago. Long story short, they accepted somebody else's offer, who apparently can't prove their funds. (you'd think they'd have known in six months they would be needing to do this...!!) Like you, my fiancee and I have good paying jobs, good credit, and a decent down-payment but are having a hard time finding something as well. All I can say, is thank god we didn't get the houses we put offers in on last year, because now money goes a lot further, and I love this new house so much more. The right house will come along for you and your growing family, just hang in there!! (I am!!!)

[Mrs. Martin]

Thanks girls!

 

Soon To Be Mrs. Gomez- Yeah, I'm trying not to stress out for the baby's sake, but it's so hard not to when I feel like we are running out of time! I'll let the hubby do most of the worrying for us both!

 

sita- Yeah, we're glad we didn't get the house last year either because everything has dropped so much! The house we originally put an offer on a year ago was selling for 500k and now that it's being foreclosed, we're expecting to be listed at around 350k-380k, crazy huh?! Good luck with your house hunting too!

 

I forgot to mention one other thing- I currently have a two-seater car and I need to purchase a larger vehicle before the baby comes. But, we can't finance anything until we get a house because banks want to see zero balances on your credit right now! It's wait until we get a house and hopefully have some time in between to look for a new car or pay the vehicle cash, but risk taking out too much from our savings where our lender may not approve our loan anymore. We were told to have as much as possible in our savings as we can since we are keeping our current property, the bank wants to see that we have enough to pay for 2 mortgages for at least 3 or 4 months worth incase anything happens to our income. Booo, one more thing to add to the plate!

[RaydensMama]

Wow Im so sorry you are going through this. I know how stressful buying a new house is and especially moving when you are pregnant! We just moved into our home last month and it wasnt fun being so far along and moving. I really hope that you are able to find something good soon. IVe heard the market is really bad in the U.S.

Its not great here, but its deffinately nothing like your economy. That being said, I know we had a tougher time buying our new home this year than we would have had last year. Try to keep positive about everything and Im sure it will work out for you!

[TammyWright]

we were also looking when i was pregnant and it was so stressful...we didnt find anything in time so we stayed in our loft for a few months and started looking again and finally found something when my baby was like 8 months....then we started remodelling and i found out i was pregnant AGAIN...talk about stressful...we are finally in the house, everything is working but i am holding off on decorating, painting, finishes because i am too darn tired and cranky with a toddler and being pregnant.

[TAHOEJENI]

Remember it could ALWAYS be worse. Congrats on the baby. I remember this time last year when we went to house after house after house for months trying to find something we liked. Everyone that has a "good" house isn't selling and the only thing we could find was crap, short sales, and foreclosures. The house we're in now (closed last April) was the third house we put a bid on BUT YOU KNOW WHAT - we absolutely love this house so we would do it all over again.

 

Besides, I read the title too fast and thought you were complaining that it was "So darn difficult to buy a HORSE!"