The Real Estate Ride Is Over

After three long months of being in the real estate market, we're finally out of it. When we started this whole process, someone told me that buying a new house was about as much stress as a death in the family. At the time I thought he was grossly exaggerating, now I'm not so sure.

If everything would have gone smoothly, we would have gotten away with a moderate amount of anxiety. Instead, the day before we were supposed to close both the sale of our condo and the purchase of our new house we found out that our buyer was having difficulty with their lender because our condo's home owners association was suing the complex's builder. The original basis of the litigation was mold that was discovered in a few other units and had nothing to do with our condo, but that didn't matter to the bank.

Soon the whole deal fell apart. Our buyers were still interested so we extended both the sale and purchase for a couple of weeks while they found another lender. Fortunately the people we were buying from were very patient and understanding. Then we found out that the buyer had a rocky credit history, and their mortgage broker (who was also our mortgage broker) had to fight an uphill battle to find a bank that would approve a loan on a unit involved in litigation and with a sub-par borrower.

Things were looking bad, so Becky and I had to decide whether or not we'd allow ourselves to loose the house if our sale didn't work out. We calculated that if we were to carry both properties while the condo was for sale, our cash flow would go negative by over $2,000 a month. We could handle this for a while, but obviously it wouldn't be sustainable.

Becky is generally more conservative when it comes to our finances, and didn't think the house was worth the risk. I was sure that we had gotten a good deal on the house, and by this time my heart was set on it and I had a hard time letting it go. It was a great house in a wonderful neighborhood and there weren't any others we liked nearly as much. After several heated conversations and a bit of soul-searching, we decided to take the risk.

Finally when the broker was able to get the loan approved, our buyers decided that they had had enough and cancelled the whole deal. This was a real blow to us, but we bought the house as planned and moved in thinking that this would bring us the closure we were looking for. Unfortunately I couldn't really let go of the fact that we still needed to sell the condo. I had trouble sleeping at night as I worried that my enthusiasm had put my young family on the road to bankruptcy.

After three weeks, we got two offers on the condo, and we accepted one. I was on pins and needles wondering if the lawsuit was going to burn us again, but apparently it wasn't an obstacle for a buyer with decent credit.

Now here I am, after a quarter of a year of riding the real estate roller coaster, I can finally enjoy my new home knowing that I haven't failed my family. I am starting to believe that because this endeavor was such a struggle, in the long run I am better off for having experienced it, but I sure as hell hope I never go through it again.