Tim Samoff // Weblog (old)

May 13, 2004

The offer...

I had mentioned that Julianna and I were officially looking for a house to buy. But, I hadn’t updated you with what was actually happening.

On Saturday, after about two weeks and somewhere around thirty-five houses (no that wasn’t easy), we finally found something that looked like it would suit us perfectly. The house had only been on the market for two days at the time we saw it. By Sunday evening, our realtor informed us that it was already under contract.

Bummer…

Here’s the deal, though. The potential buyers are using something called the AmeriDream Downpayment Gift Program. In a nutshell, this program supplies the buyers with downpayment assistance of up to 10% of the value of the home. But, guess where this 10% comes from… The sellers! And, the sellers’ portion of the cost is actyually considered a “donation” to the buyers. Kind of weird. Anyway, in using this method of mortgage, the sellers must bump-up the price of the home by 10% in order to make any money. To do this legally, the home must be actually be appraised for the bumped-up price.

Meaning, though the chances are iffy, there is a chance that that this will still work for the current buyers.

All this being said, we were informed by the sellers’ realtor and the sellers themselves (by happenstance, I met them on Monday night) told us to keep trying, because they were pretty unsure that the current offer would go through.

So, last night, our realtor, along with my wife and I, took an hour, or so, to go through a few hundred pages of various contracts to write up our offer.

Today we find out if the original offer will go through.

Here’s a picture of the house.

Posted at 07:56 am

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