Wednesday, April 05, 2006

F is for ...

I lost the house. Here are the juicy details.
  • List price: $210K
  • Number of offers: 3
  • Winning offer: $210K
  • Zillow estimate: $219,482
  • My offer: $213K, special assessment (~6K) to be paid by owner
  • Number of hours between my offer and rejection: 5
  • Level of pain on scale of 10: 8.9
  • Offer I would give if it wasn't over: $220K
Lesson?
For buyer: Don't be fancy. Don't take it personally. Understand the risks involved in offering too low or too high. If you want it that badly, don't low-ball it. Not even a little. :-(

For seller: What's the lesson? Don't clam up and close out unless you have no choice. Maybe they had a deadline??? I would've paid an extra $10K (if only I had the chance) over what they got. Their loss. Too bad it is mine also.

Things to look forward to:
  • Looking for a similarly priced, similarly awesome place in Acton
  • Realizing that there is no such place
  • Really, I would have to go into 500, 600 and even 700K (these are really nice) townhouses to find this kind of loft (there are a few of those available though...hmmmm...)
  • Maybe another unit will become available?
  • Recognizing that I will live till tomorrow :-)
Summary of current thoughts: I wish I knew that they were in this much of a hurry. I thought I would have a chance to counter-offer. I also wish I knew how badly I wanted this place. I kept everything bottled up so that I wouldn't "overbid". It turns out that I forgot entirely about underbiding. In retrospect, I feel sad and that I did something wrong. But I didn't. I went with my gut, what I knew of the housing market in Acton, and what I knew of the situation. Too bad it wasn't enough. ARGH! Time to move on. I really need some magic here.

posted by Dave @ 11:49 PM   3 comments

3 Comments:

At 3:26 AM, Anonymous Jonathan said...

Too bad. Deals fall through all the time, maybe you should tell your broker that you were willing to pay more?

It's like eBay with big risks!

 
At 9:16 AM, Anonymous Jane Dough said...

Ouch! If it makes you feel any better I was outbid A LOT before I finally purchased my current house. While the overall market is slowing, the lowest priced home in "move-in" condition in any area will always be desirable. More people can afford at the bottom end than at the top.

But what I learned from losing out on so many properties was I have the ability to fall in love over and over and over again with properties. Don't worry, you may feel like this was the only good deal and you lost, but believe me others will come up. We are very early in the Spring season. I bet other townhouse owners of similar units were watching that sale and now that they see it sold and at list price, other units will come on the market.

 
At 12:41 PM, Anonymous Grant said...

Yeah, it's tough to lose a deal.

As much as you hate to miss out on a good deal, don't ever chase the deal. Stick to your game plan, and always remember, there are TONS of fish in the pond, not just one.

Chances are, a little ways down the road, you'll find something that will work out even better, and you'll laugh at the fact that you were bummed about missing this one...

Good luck!

-Grant
www.TheCornerOfficeBlog.com

 

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