Life Update: I Lost the House

Well, I didn't lose it, I still know where it is but it's just not going to be my house anymore. After my REALLY excited post where I was looking for office inspiration, things started to go south. In my naiveness, I thought house shopping was easy... clearly, I am mistaken. After a week of negotiations we finally found a spot that both the sellers and I could agree upon. Great (or so I thought). Once you agree upon a price and both parties sign the contract, the buyer (me) has 10 days to get an inspection done on the house. House inspections are not cheap by the way... we're talking $300-500 PER inspection. 

The sellers said that if there were any major issues with the house they would fix them... like big things. They told us this and I believed them. *mistake* 

The house inspection took two hours, which was good because it was very thurough, but I also had to take an afternoon off work which I really hadn't thought about when planning it. My inspector was great, he looked at everything, tooks photos of the house, and wrote a very detailed report on what needed to be fixed. It even came in a PDF report that speaks to me because I love a detailed report. 

His list was something like this: 

• **The roof is old and at the end of its life and should be replaced soon. 

                                  $$ CHA-CHING $$

• **The electrical breaker box in the house is out of code and you can't get the house insured with its current state. 

                                  $$ CHA-CHING $$

• **The HVAC unit needs to be cleaned out. 

                                  $$ CHA-CHING $$

• **The chimney needs to be cleaned to make sure no fires are possible. 

                  $$ CHA-CHING $$ $$ CHA-CHING $$ $$ CHA-CHING $$ 

And a few other smaller things that were very minor but still made your head hear 'cha-ching'. 

We (and by we I mean my realtor) sent the insepction to the other realtor and sellers. We didn't even ask for anything in the beginning - we asked that they let us know what they are willing to fix. *mistake* 

Their reply? We aren't going to fix any of those things. 

*mouth drop* 

You're telling me, that YOUR house that you have LIVED in for six years needs major repairs and improvements and you aren't willing to do ANYTHING? You haven't taken care of it for SIX years and now it's a prized pocession? We sent back a counter that said if you pay for half of the roof and more of the closing costs we can keep going, otherwise we need to terminte the contract. 

The house was already on the higher end of the market for the neighborhood so you can't put too much money into it you will lose it. This isn't going to be our forever home, but this isn't going to be a money pit either. It's good to have equity, but not at the cost of going upside down on a house.

After a generous offer for their house and a generous repair offer, they just proved too difficult and stubborn about their house, which is fine and their perogative. However, it's not my place to pay for their house problems that they haven't taken care of in SIX YEARS. I am bummed and clearly resentful. One blog reader told me not to get too emotionally invested and she was right because I really got invested in that house. After terminating the contract we went and found another house that was BETTER... put in an offer and it was rejected an hour later because there had been three offers in one day and someone offered full price. We looked up the previous owners of the house and it had been a nasty divorce (you can find these things out when your boyfriend is in law school and he's learned all the websites for research). Do I want to live in a house with a bad juju? Nope. 

So the search continues... I know, I know... 'The right house will come along at the right time.' Sure. It probably will, but today it sucks because I lost two houses in one weekend and now it's like starting all over. (I'm also out a few hundred bucks which could have been a really great new coat or pair of boots.) 

I've been SnapChatting all of this throughout the journey. If you want to follow along, add me: maeganclark. 


Positive vibes are needed - Please, everyone, tell me that I will find a BETTER house and it will be PERFECT and then I can paint an office my beauitful dark turquise.  

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Labels: buying a house , Life