The one that got away...

Sorry this took so long but I've been crazy busy. I'm just going to summarize the story for you. I found this house around the first week I seriously started looking but it was already in contract. It was really cute, 3/1, 1400+ square feet, and a very nice fenced in back yard on a quiet side street. French doors leading to a really cute deck, a remodeled kitchen & floors from what I coul see through the window. Best of all, only $70,400! I've been looking for almost 3 months now and I could tell right off the bat, this was an EXCELLENT deal.

I told Chad, if we had to live in town, this is how I'd want to do it.

I called about every two weeks to see if the contract had closed and the answer was always, "Soon!" So, last Monday morning I logged onto foreclosure.com and it was the newest listed home. I called a new agent immediately, recommended to me by my sister Louise, and we met for the first time at this house.

The first walk through was not disappointing - the entire house had been remodeled about 1.5 years ago, and Louise's agent, Cheree, had been the buyer's agent for it last February. She found out the couple divorced and neither could afford the payment, so it was listed $18,000 below it's appraisal - instant equity!

We already had Josh give us an estimate on enclosing the carpet to add on another bedroom, and we put in a bid. The max amount we can afford for a loan is $63,000, so we bid $70,400 and no closing costs, meaning that we could put our $8,000 down and get a loan for right at $62,000. My bank is the one that owns it and would be loaning us the money as well, so my agent recommended they eat their own paperwork costs ;) I liked her immediately!

On a side note, handing over $1,000 as earnest money on buying a home made me feel like such a Big Girl! You'd think birthing 4 kids would have done that, but, no, I still felt like such an adult when we did that :D

Second note: we ended up with a third agent - my sister's agent had to have surgery and a coworker took our case, but I actually REALLY her. After we lost the bid she told me that God has a house for us, we'll keep looking. She had me at "God" :) Plus, she lowered her commission by $40 or $50 because another agent had just lost a bid for her client because she didn't. Loved her even more!

So, anyway, we found out the next day around noon that our bid was not accepted. I should explain that this was a foreclosure on a HUD, so no offers, just bids. No negotiating. The winning bid was $72,000, plus payed closing costs.

But, I had peace when she told me. We did our best, we bid our top dollar, and then we prayed. Mom & Dad, my mother in law, all my friends and family, my Grandma, who - hello - the Holy Ghost lives at her house! We all were praying for God's will. It just so happens His answer was, "Not this house."

I was fine with that. I did have a mini meltdown when Demetra, our new agent, sent me all she had in our county for $80,000 and under, including 2 bedrooms, and only two of them were options. Today I saw both of those and now none of them are options. But, God is in control of this situation and He has a plan. I know it includes a house for my family. One day.

But, here are the pictures. It was plain on the outside, but clean & cute on the inside. Definite potential. And now we know what we are willing to make that monthly payment for:

Check out this green kitchen! It's a little different, but we all loved it:

Love the white trim against the green. They had some really nice extra touches, like the fan in every room was brushed silver, and the crown molding (sp).

So there you have it, guys. We saw, we bid, we lost. But I already got back up on that horse and saw two today, with a couple of FSBOs to look at this week. Keep me in your prayers, please! My agent reminded me today that we have a deadline of Nov. 30th to be eligible for that tax incentive. Like I forgot that somehow LOL.