A Bump In the Road

I can't say we didn't really expect it but we have hit our first bump in the road in our home purchase. And no, I am not talking about all of the ridiculously obnoxious waiting. First, let me explain a little bit about how the process has gone so far.

It began with an offer on the house. Because this is a short sale home, our offer not only had to be submitted and accepted by the seller (it was) but it also has to be submitted and accepted by the bank/investors. In the meantime the house is actually set to foreclose. The first foreclosure date was extended until March 25th but has again been postponed until sometime in May. With that pesky foreclosure date out of the way, the bank ordered a BPO so they could evaluate our offer. A BPO is a Broker Price Opinion. Basically this is a lazy appraisal where someone drives by the house (or not) and determines it's value based on appearance and comparable homes. Once the bank received the BPO they were able to decide if our offer was fair. The BPO came back valuing the house at around 145-155K. Keep in mind they have no idea that the basement in this house is unfinished and that there is a completely unfinished bathroom upstairs.

So that brings you to where we are now with our little "bump." Our negotiator has been working with the bank's negotiator trying to close this deal, and in doing so our negotiator was able to find out that the bank did not like our offer, but they would accept something at or above 145K. Don't get me wrong, the house is great and all, but it is not worth that much money...yet. We are not willing to go that high. We spoke with our Realtor and he is adamant that our offer is fair. He advised us to stick to our guns and not budge on our offer. Because we are choosing t0 leave our offer as-is, we have to basically come up with our own BPO that disproves what the bank's BPO says and shows why our offer is fair. Our realtor and the seller's realtor worked together to create a list of comparable properties and they sent that off to the bank. We were able to view that list and it looks very solid. The average price of the homes they put together is 105K.

Needless to say, our confidence has been a bit shaken by all of this but our Realtor seems extremely confident. We just have to trust that he knows what he is doing, after all he is the expert! He hasn't led us wrong yet and has been completely honest with us from day one. Anyway, that is where we are now. At this point we just keep waiting and hopefully the bank will realize that we aren't low-balling them and will accept our offer.

Love to all!