Update on house saga

[mccallister84]

Well they officially declined today for three reasons:

1. Price was not acceptable
2. Only thing showing we could afford the house was a "third party letter" saying we qualified for The price we proposed.
3. Failure to submit financial information sheet proving we could afford it.

Honearly #1 alone would have killed the deal on our end but 2 and 3 kind of piss me off. According to both our realtor and the mortgage dude it is common to submit a letter listing only the buyer's proposed offer - so that the sellers don't have the upper hand when countering. And I still don't understand how #3 would have provided any more security to the sellers than our pre approval letter did. We could have listed any income/assets:liabilities on there - we didn't have to submit pay stubs with it or anything like that. Meanwhile to get the pre approval letter we did need to submit a ton of proof.

Oh well. Onward to other houses.

[msmerymac]

Yeah, the vast majority of people buy homes when the "only" way they can prove they can afford it is through a pre-approval letter. At BEST. I also assume that you would have a financing condition on the offer. Also, the sellers would know fairly quickly if you wouldn't qualify for financing and be able to re-list the house. That happened to the house I bought. They got an offer after 1-2 weeks on the market, but they were back on a week or so after an offer. The guy who made the offer didn't even get the chance to do an inspection because he couldn't get financing.

I hope they end up selling it 8 months from now for less than what you offered. Good luck in your search.

[melmel48]

They are on their high horse, aren't they?  I would not have provided the financial information sheet either. I have a feeling if they require this from all potential buyers they are going to have a lot of people refuse. I remember it being quite an event to get my preapproval letter, so you are correct that it holds more value than the financial information sheet. 

They most likely would have been asses to deal with throughout the whole purchase anyway, so I am sure you dodged a bullet!

[rubytue]

We bought a house from someone who "required" we submit our financial info. I kindly told them to pound sand and I had a job, a sold house, and a letter saying I could get a loan. They sold to us anyway. I think is so presumptuous to think that someone will give a strange third party all their info. WTF?!

There are other houses with rational sellers!

[konapoppy]

Ugh I am sorry. In my market (part of the bay area), providing proof of funds really helps make your offer stronger. I was hesitant to do it for obvious reasons, but we did and it worked out. We only had to show assets for the down payment, so any accounts beyond that didn't need to be shared.

[Pom]

Your perfect house is out there waiting for you to find it. Ditto everyone else. Those sellers sound like potential ass clowns anyway, better you didn't have to deal with them.

GL.

[cjeanette]

Eff them.

How long has this house been on the market?

I get that if your financing fell through and they had to re-list it looks bad but come on.

[IrishBelle]

Very strange. This can only mean that there is a better house out there waiting for you. Good luck in your search!

[scout8]

They sound crazy!

[mccallister84]

Apr 24, 2015 16:54:41 GMT -5 cjeanette said:

Eff them.

How long has this house been on the market?

I get that if your financing fell through and they had to re-list it looks bad but come on.

80 something days. I do wonder if a previous buyer had financing fall through which is why they were so conservative this time. But we were putting 20% down and didn't ask for closing costs - obviously we have some money!

[cjeanette]

Apr 24, 2015 17:15:51 GMT -5 mccallister84 said:

Apr 24, 2015 16:54:41 GMT -5 cjeanette said:

Eff them.

How long has this house been on the market?

I get that if your financing fell through and they had to re-list it looks bad but come on.

80 something days. I do wonder if a previous buyer had financing fall through which is why they were so conservative this time. But we were putting 20% down and didn't ask for closing costs - obviously we have some money!

80 days in unheard of right now in my market. I am going to guess you aren't the first offer they have declined.

[Balki.Bartokomous]

I'm sorry.

I think you should buy that other house on their street & then go dangle you keys in front of these people's faces on the day you move in.

[polarbearfans]

Ugh, that stinks. Hopefully you find your perfect house soon from reasonable sellers. They are crazy if they think they get to see any financial info other than your bank letter.

[EmilieMadison]

I think you dodged a bullet. They sound like a nightmare to deal with, and you'll find a house that is perfect for you!

[mccallister84]

Apr 24, 2015 19:13:18 GMT -5 @bluesky said:

We've always had to give financial proof in our area where there is tough competition or we'd be ruled out right away.

Sorry you didn't get it, but I believe everything happens for a reason and you'll end up in your dream home.

And I can understand that - but there's not tough competition. The house has been on the market for almost 3 months. We went in way under list, if it was competitive they would have just totally ignored our offer.

[livinitup]

We made an offer on a house - our FIRST offer, on our first house. Owner was SO MAD that we offered less than listing that he refused to negotiate/talk. TBH, were a little relieved and happy to move on.

A month later, we bought THE BEST HOUSE EVER. And yes, when DH checked - that housed sold at our asking price A YEAR LATER.

[VillainV]

I can understand why the seller might be nervous about the buyers' financing falling through, but a financial information sheet is no better than a pre-approval letter. I'm guessing people probably backed out because they lost a job, had an unforeseen medical expense, or other major change in their financial picture between their offer and closing. Sometimes this happens. I mean, what's next, asking people to get their boss to sign a "I promise I won't fire you" letter?

[mccallister84]

Our agent was able to find out that they have never gone under contract on the house. He doesn't know if there have been other offers.

It just doesn't seem like they really want to sell - no price reductions in 85 days. They are the original owners and bought the house 20 years ago for about 150 so it's definitely not a matter of needing x to pay off the mortgage.

[M]

You weren't really excited about that house anyways so it wasn't meant to be. So I think it happened for a reason. Your perfect home is waiting for you to find it!

Also, unless things have changed from my mortgage days, a pre-approval doesn't mean much. Yes they ask for a lot of docs but the underwriters hardly look at it and if things look ok on the surface then they'll give you a pre-approval amount. It's when you go in for the loan that they start digging for the skeletons and that's why it takes so long for an actual approval vs a pre-approval. Pre-approvals can still fall through.

But this is no excuse for why the sellers need a financial statement when they have no other offers. They should have set a contingency for whatever their issue is. A pre-approval letter should have been enough to say that you can afford your offer.

[lilac05]

Oh well, a better house is waiting for you.

It sounds like they're not in a rush to sell. Maybe they just want to downsize and are waiting for the right buyer to move on to their next property (and are planning on that money for retirement or who knows what). That happens a lot here. People list their homes, but they're not really in a rush to get out of them.

For our home, we had to actually get pre-approval through the bank that THEY chose. It was a pain. It was a foreclosure, though, so that is a different situation.

[rubytue]

Apr 25, 2015 6:29:15 GMT -5 mccallister84 said:

Our agent was able to find out that they have never gone under contract on the house. He doesn't know if there have been other offers.

It just doesn't seem like they really want to sell - no price reductions in 85 days. They are the original owners and bought the house 20 years ago for about 150 so it's definitely not a matter of needing x to pay off the mortgage.

Well, it's very possible they did cash out refinances. Might have a HELOC for college expenses. Things like that. original purchase price is not nessecsrily indicative of the mortgage. Unless you live in a state that give you access to deed records and you can actually see mortgages...

[orangeblossom]

Good luck finding the perfect house. Sounds like they would have been a challenge to work with if the offer did go through.

DH and I wanted to look at a rental, and when I talked to him this morning, he was refusing to show it unless we showed some type of financial information up front, at least proof of income, and preferably credit score. He did mention that he had somebody ready sign, their credit score was too low, so maybe he was hesitant about that.

After I got off of the phone, I thought about it some more. He had a NY accent, and I know looking for a place up there is different in a lot of ways, so I wonder if that's the norm there.

Anyway, we passed. I'm not giving you any information until after we see the house.

[curbsideprophet]

Good luck find the right house, sorry this one did not work out.