So... the better half managed to get interviews with AT&T Wireless and Microsoft on Wednesday. Like... she got the Zipcar, drove out to Bothell for the AT&T interview, then did a phone interview with MS while sitting in their parking lot afterwards. Really, both of these are for outsource software dev companies on contract with AT&T and Microsoft. IWP (for AT&T) made her an offer that evening. WiPro (for MS) also approved her, but had to then get her talking to Microsoft proper. That happened on Thursday, while IWP is really REALLY pushing her to sign paperwork and take a drug test. WiPro says they'll give her an answer on Monday. So, she's told IWP to chill until then. IWP is making noises about finding other candidates now, so... you can imagine that she's kind of stressed.
Anyway, since it's pretty certain she has a job, we decided to make an offer on the house we've been eyeing all month. They just dropped the price by $10k, as well. So, we met up with our realtor on Friday and filled out the paperwork. A couple hours later, the seller's agent lets us know that he's gotten two other offers on the place. So, instead of the price dropping, we're now in a bidding war.
http://www.bellingham-realestate.net/idx/properties/29168337/details.html
My sneaky plan is to bid pretty high, and then the lender will refuse to loan that much since it's more than the place is worth. By then, the other buyers will be out of the picture, and it's just us and the seller. Then we can negotiate down to what the market value is. 'Cause really, any lender will cap the sale at around that same amount, so there's no reason for them to try to find another buyer.
Interestingly, a ploy like this wouldn't work back in the housing boom... the lenders would just approve anything... now they won't let you go over what they house would sell for later, since they have a much higher chance of having to foreclose on it.
Guess that's my silver lining.
So, the deadline was 12min ago. The seller and her agent will be deciding in the next hour or so, and then we'll find out.
Anyway, since it's pretty certain she has a job, we decided to make an offer on the house we've been eyeing all month. They just dropped the price by $10k, as well. So, we met up with our realtor on Friday and filled out the paperwork. A couple hours later, the seller's agent lets us know that he's gotten two other offers on the place. So, instead of the price dropping, we're now in a bidding war.
http://www.bellingham-realestate.net/idx/properties/29168337/details.html
My sneaky plan is to bid pretty high, and then the lender will refuse to loan that much since it's more than the place is worth. By then, the other buyers will be out of the picture, and it's just us and the seller. Then we can negotiate down to what the market value is. 'Cause really, any lender will cap the sale at around that same amount, so there's no reason for them to try to find another buyer.
Interestingly, a ploy like this wouldn't work back in the housing boom... the lenders would just approve anything... now they won't let you go over what they house would sell for later, since they have a much higher chance of having to foreclose on it.
Guess that's my silver lining.
So, the deadline was 12min ago. The seller and her agent will be deciding in the next hour or so, and then we'll find out.
I think what sucks the most is that we got rid of a bunch of our stuff when we moved out here from NC. I had this super-awesome desk that got busted by the movers. But it was big. Huge big. So big that we didn't have anywhere to put it, and I didn't want to have this stack of busted desk filling up my living room for the months it would take to get the movers to pay us for it.
So now we're going to have to repopulate the house with stuff.