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.

FHA, No Way! Or 9 for 9

The houses I mentioned in my rant about being carless post both were no-gos. It was a good thing that I canceled seeing the one place with my agent, as we later found out that the bank wouldn't even consider FHA for this short sale. The other house that I had an offer out on just gave me a no-go today. My offer was very similar to the offer accepted but the bank said no to me because I was FHA and a deal had fell through before on this while pending FHA approval.

Why am I doing FHA then? Well, I started out doing FHA because I only had 3.5% put away and I would need at least 5% for a conventional loan. Now I have more but I was recently informed by my loan agent that I am a few numbers lower than the minimum for PMI. I'll go into the whole I thought I could get a conventional-loan-but-I-guess-I-can't thing later.

Anyway, FHA does rather thorough home inspections before they'll give folks a loan. This makes sense when you consider why would the federal government give a loan for a house that is basically a slum and is about to fall over BUT it doesn't make sense when you look at how crazy they look at some of the homes. If a home has a small unpermitted addition it is out. If a home has any termite damage it is out. If the home does not have flooring (like carpet, wood, or linoleum) it is out and a million of other things.

When you think about this it is obvious that a bank would rather sell to someone with a conventional loan when compared with an FHA loan.

I think some compromise needs to be struck. I wish that FHA would review their guidelines as to not make things so difficult for buyers. The program should be about opening doors, not making them only open to the elite.