Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying

Yesterday I looked at a house that I would love to move into. It is the same layout as the first house I ever made an offer on. The price is right, the layout is right, the cul-de-sac is right, so what is the right offer? Part of me wants to throw down as much money as I have but another part is a little scared that the house won't appraise. I ran into this on another home. I ended up not getting accepted (an all cash offer got it) but the selling agent told my agent that he was a little worried that the house wouldn't appraise for what I offered. I was stunned. Here I was being out bid, now I was told that I was offering too much. I felt like I couldn't win for loosing.

My agent is doing some research to see what a good offer would be so we can put one together. In the meantime, I'm crossing my fingers and toes. Could this be my first home? Can I landscape the cute little yard just so? Will it be as warm and inviting a home as I know I can make it be? We'll see.

Get a Permit!

Just to update the two people following my blog, I'm not going to be the lovely neighbor of a sex offender, well, at least not this time - that house went to someone else. Secondly, I went to check out a house this weekend. Huge yard, relatively clean, nice bathrooms, three rooms, good sized kitchen. The carpet needed to be fixed, fence replaced and it was next to an empty lot, but these were all workable things. Just when I was getting my hopes up my agent unlocks the garage.

I literally moaned. It was another unpermited garage conversion. This has been the bane of my home buying existence, right up there with investment buyers, and banks hating FHA. Frustrated I started to do some research on unpermited garage conversion and FHA. Turns out it is mostly up to the inspector. FHA says it isn't their job to enforce local ordinances. On the other hand, most unpermited work has flaws that an appraiser can say make the home uninhabitable. Sure, I might never use the poorly installed toilet in the garage, but it still was improperly installed. I'm sure that there are plenty of good reasons people didn't get permits. Avoiding higher property taxes, ambitious do-it your-selfers, homeowners who didn't want to deal with city bureaucrats are just a few reasons homeowners might have done a conversion without the proper paper work. No matter how good the reason for the unpermited addition it is still a head-ache that can be avoided.

Moral of the story? If you're going to do a conversion or an addition - get a permit.

Call Me!

Sorry for being MIA for so long. I had a couple of final papers and a conference at work. During that time not much has happened on the home front. I haven't heard back on the last house I made an offer on, which I think means that I didn't get it, but it is hard to say.

It is my understanding that the agent only got 3 offers on this house, so it shouldn't be too difficult to give a courtesy call to those who didn't get the house, but when it comes to bidding on banked own homes it seems like common courtesy isn't too common. This is frustrating to me and my hard-working agent. My agent is the one who is calling several times a week to hear from many of the agent's who represent the banks. When I think of all the work my agent has done, on top of a commission that she would probably have laughed at 2 years ago I feel bad.

The control freak inside me wants to call the agent who hasn't returned my agent calls, but for the most part t his is a home-buying faux paus. When an individual is represented by an agent, that individual is suppose to let the agent make the contacts and do the phone calls. I actually did call one agent once out of frustration. it was a short sale, and of course things took longer than they were suppose to. My agent had been calling the other agent for weeks trying to get an answer. Out of frustration I called the agent. I go through I think because they thought I was a potential client. If I had said I was trying to follow up on an offer I think I would have been sent to the voicemail oblivion.

It is so easy to return a call or send an email, or even a text saying, "Sorry, home went to someone else. Thanks for your interest," that I'm not sure why listing agents don't return calls. It takes more time to keep listening to endless messages from parties waiting on the other line. Is it just hard for listing agents to say, "Sorry, we gave the house to an investor who offered 3/4 of asking price but gave all cash. Please tell your client that FHA is the equivalent to having leprosy."

The Monsters Beside Me

Just the other day I placed an offer on a home where a sex offender lives next door. It appears this sex offender abused kids which for me is not quite as big as a problem because I don't have kids and I don't plan on having one in the immediate future.

This sex offender, according to his Megan's Law profile he is in his seventies. When I looked up the property and the county assessor's office it isn't listed under this individuals name which leads me to believe he is renting. 70 something-year-old renting sex offender probably won't be living in the house in ten years when I'm ready to sell. I'm not as put out about living next to a sex offender as I would have been 4 months ago when I started looking. If there was a sex offender anywhere on the street I was wary, now I just look at the potential risk. If the sex offender targets a population that I'm not a part of I figure it is better for me to live next door than people with kids.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not excited to live next to a sex offender. I'd probably never invite him over to barbecue or ask him to house sit while I was away. I'd much rather not live next to any sort of criminal but choosing neighbors is next to impossible. I figure Megan's Law at least gives me a heads up. I know this is a person I don't want to befriend and don't want to involve in my life. I can't say that about the neighbors on the other side of the house. They may be good people, they may not be. It will be trial and error to try to find it out.

Antioch, California has been in the news of late because of the high number of sex offenders who live in the area. No one wants to live next door to a sex offender but someone has to. In Antioch there are large expanses of rural areas away from schools and parks. Sex offenders found a community to live in that met the legal requirements, to the chagrin of the neighbors. So where are sex offenders suppose to go if not next door to you are me?

I've thought about this and I think the formation of towns in rural areas, like deserts and in the Midwest where sex offenders could live independently but the town was populated only by sex offenders and parole officers. It would be illegal to have children in the town. Is this ghettoizing a population? You bet it is. Is that fair? To the sex offenders, of course it isn't fair, but I don't know how to protect the rest of society without incarcerating these folks for life.

So, house available next to a sex offender may be a boon for me and other childless home buyers but it is definitely something that the community could do without.

Dear Mr. Senator...

I wrote this to my State Senator when I had just started the home buying process. I never heard back (and I really wasn't expecting to hear back) but thought I would share it here. I blanked out some of the personal informaiton because I really don't trust you. Yes, even you.

June 15, 2009

xxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxx, xxx x
xxxxxx, xx xxxxx

Senator Joseph Simitian
701 Ocean Street
Room 318A
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Dear Senator Joseph Simitian,

I’m writing you to inform you of a problem I am currently having. I am currently fortunate enough to be able to begin looking for my first home. So many Californians have unfortunately lost their homes because they have been unable to make their mortgage payment, which as you know, puts people like me with good credit and steady employment in a lucky position. I feel badly for those who have lost their homes but I was hoping that I might actually have a chance at home ownership in the state of my birth – something I was never sure I’d be able to accomplish before I was in my 40s!

I currently live in beautiful xxxxxx, located in the xxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx. I love xxxxxx and would be glad to continue living their, unfortunately, even with a large dip in housing prices I am not able to find a home that meets the FHA standards and my budget. With this knowledge I’ve decided to expand my search and decided upon Gilroy (I know, it’s outside the 11th District, but buying a home takes sacrifice!). I am still looking at homes that are near the least expensive in the area. I’ve been able to make offers on 2 homes but on both homes I lost out to buyers who were able to buy the homes out-right with cash for investment purposes. There are few houses for me to even look at in my price range, let alone make an offer on. I am discouraged and think that perhaps my opportunity to buy a home won’t come to fruition because I can’t compete with investment buyers. My agent tells me that my experience of not being able to compete with investment buyers is very common right now. I understand that California needs all the home buyers it can get right now, but I thought it was important to let you know that people like me may very well loose out on one of our few opportunities to buy a home in California.

I currently work in the social service field as a xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx in xxx senior housing. I am lucky to make enough money to support myself but I know I will never become wealthy from this line of work. I also go to school at night where I am working on getting my Masters in Counseling Psychology. My earning potential may increase with my degree but on average most Marriage and Family Therapist only earn about $60,000 a year which only goes so far in California. One day after saving I’d probably be able to buy a home, but that probably wouldn’t be until I was into my 40s and I’d have missed out on being able to raise a family in a home of my own.

I don’t know exactly what, if anything can be done about this problem. My family has been in California since my great grandfather and grandmother moved here in the early 1920s and I hope to be able to raise a family of my own here as well – I just need a chance at buying a place to do it.

Sincerely,


First Time Home Buyer