Putting Our Toe in the Pool

I get an email from the MLS database about another house, just a block away that has come on the market. I know this house - walked through it when it first went on the market over a year ago and was staged beautifully and priced at $510K. They reduced the price twice, and still it sat, the staging lamps lit at night, burning sadly in the window. They finally took away the staging and the real estate sign after six months, and it has sat empty ever since. About 900 square feet, and a 5000 square foot lawn. MLS is listing the price as $371K.

I call F. the next day. She finds out that it is bank-owned, and they want offers by 1:00PM Friday. Today is Wednesday. This is insanity! The Husband walks the dogs past it, peers in windows, peeks into the backyard. We meet F. there on Friday morning, she does a walkthrough with us. The fence is falling down, teeming with termites. One wall of the master bedroom has been converted in a mishmosh of a storage unit, cupboards and drawers of assorted sizes. But we see potential. We decide to give it a shot. We give F. a check to include as a good faith deposit.

F. emails the contract, we sign, scan, and email back (how did they do this before technology?). We offer the asking price. The agent for the bank tells F. that there are seven other offers.

The good news of bank-owned properties is that they make a decision very quickly. We get our sorry, no by late afternoon. We are not close with our offer - others have offered much more, and can put down very large deposits. We shake it off, tell ourselves that we're just starting to learn the process.