The last eight months have been one hell of a rollercoaster…some great highs and lows.
I pulled my bootstraps and fixed up the house in 2 & 1/2 months so we could put it on the market – just in time for tax season. I got everything lined up for a mortgage, emptied the house to storage, and after a little over two months we had two competing offers on our home right at the busiest point of tax season. We accepted an offer, I worked into the waking hours of the night so that I could view homes during the day, and after a week or so we stumbled upon an excellent deal that was slightly above our price range. We offered what we could and actually got an accepted offer, which was amazing. I got the mortgage lined up, did everything I was supposed to, and had everything lined up for an amazing deal, tax credit, and a great interest rate. On top of that, it fit perfect with my my narrow mortgage window due to some circumstances with becoming a partner that would affect eligibility with the new strict rules. We had everything in place…
That was until a week before closing and when we found out that our buyer had some credit issues. A delay to fix the problem was only suppose to take two weeks; however, two weeks became four and the problem was finally fixed only to reveal a new problem – our buyer no longer qualified under the lender they had been set up for. Another three weeks pass and now a new problem with the buyer’s downpayment with only a week and a half until the federal credit becomes out of reach. It has been a never ending, colossal eff up on the part of our buyer and her inept mortgage broker.
It has been heartbreaking to get so close to moving and to have it ripped away from us last minute. The worse part is that we had everything in line, we did everything right, and we were responsible with our credit score. We were not stretching ourselves too thin financially and we had waited until a perfect time to buy; however, someone with marginal credit who had hired poor quality service professionals was screwing everything up for us and making us lose a great opportunity.
This horrible experience really challenged my beliefs on a number of fronts. I haven’t switched to the dark side, but I definitely think the whole “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” ideology is bunk. In this great, free society, you can work very hard, do everything right, and make the right moves to capitalize on opportunity. However, there will always be that factor of luck and chance that has nothing to do with how hard you work. Even worse, their will always be the chance that there will be interference by those that are not as responsible and/or do not work as hard. We are not islands – our opportunities can be ruined by those who do not have it together financially. It is a free market, which means stupid people are free to make choices that will not only affect them, but also those that are doing things right and do not deserve the consequences of other people poor decisions.
It sucks…and at worst, it has made me more cynical and I no longer trust people. However, I am moving on and re-listing. It was a learning experience and it only makes you stronger (supposedly). We have little control over the opportunities that come up in our lives, but it all about what we do with those opportunities, so right now I am going to dust myself off and get right back and try again.
The worst part about going through something like this is you get a lot of lame “churchy” answers from people. We had a whole range of cliche phrases about doors, windows, and even people who went as far as to tell us we just needed to be content with what we had. I have to laugh about it now, but it is very frustrating because I do not believe God has a “plan” for what house you are going to buy. If that were true – where does end…does he have a plan for what shirt you are going to buy, what type of food you eat, and what type of computer you should buy (well..if you really love Jesus, you already have a Mac…jk). Seriously, I do not buy into any form of “health & wealth” theologies or any similar ideologies that try to explain or add meaning to situations like this. Opportunities and luck come just as easy as misfortune and poor timing – things just happen and you have to to work with life gives you. Funny thing is, we often take pride in things that are the result luck, good timing, and circumstances and attribute it all to our hard work or blessings from on high. Now your hard work or blessings may have something to do with it, but luck and timing often have a big part, and if you place pride and meaning it that – eventually disappointment is going to shatter your ideology.
thanks for sharing. hard to argue. and you took a financial hit, too.
hopefully when you do successfully sell, things will work out for the better.
and you can find another house at a good price. your credit score remains solid.
but I hope you don’t miss the tax credit. there should be exceptions.
at least you know where to find the loop holes. good tax man!