Paleck.com

So recently I wrote about my impressions of realestate as a first time home buyer. Now that this has been going on for a while I have a few stories to tell.

Shortly after that post I found a place and put in an offer. The seller dragged their feet and dragged their feet and then finally responded that they had accepted another offer, but the story doesn’t end there. I continued looking at other places and a week later the seller called back with a counter-offer to my original offer. It turns out that the other buyer had pulled out and they were desperate for another buyer. Little did I know I was about to get punished because the other buyer pulled out. We countered each other 3 or 4 times, which is an ordeal in and of itself. Anytime I submitted an counter-offer it was submitted/sent to the seller within a few hours. Unfortunately. it generally took 2-3 days before they would send anything back. Kind of odd behavior from a seller that claims they want to sell quickly. Finally we had agreed on everything except for the amount of earnest money. Out of the blue they countered wanting twice as much earnest money ($1000 vs $500 that was initally proposed). I could afford the $500 not the $1000, they apparently wanted this because the previous buyer had pulled out and thought that I might somehow do the same thing. I then countered with a slight increase and once again they dragged their feet for 3 days and guess what…….they accepted another offer. They wasted about 3 weeks with all of the delays only to go to someone else, but I’m not bitter….REALLY.

Last week I tried to look at another place that seemed like it would be perfect, if only I could have actually seen the inside of it. I attempted to go see it with my agent after rearranging my schedule a bit. Everything went great (once we got the lockbox open), we got into the complex, found the condo, unlocked the deadbolt and then were defeated. Apparently the selling realtor doesn’t have a key to the door knob itself, who knows why. She had warned my agent to bring a screw driver since it is generally habit to lock both the knob and the deadbolt after showing a place. Two screwdrivers and a pocket knife later we still could not get that door open. My agent called the other agent and arranged for her to get that door opened and I rearranged my schedule again to go and see the place. We got there and ALL of the lock boxes were missing, the previous day there were 4. That can’t be a good thing that some random thief has stolen and now has keys to 4 condos in that building. We gave up on that one and I might be getting a little bitter…..just a little.

Wish me luck I just submitted an offer on another property yesterday, hopefully I get this one. Otherwise the title above may become true!!!