Negotiations!

Well, we put in our offer last week and heard back from the listing agent yesterday afternoon. The sellers are not willing to pay any closing costs but they are willing to come down $2500 on the listing price. We can't really understand why they won't pay closing costs but I had a feeling they weren't going to want to negotiate too much b/c the house has only been on the market for 2 weeks - they probably think they can get more for it. Little does he know that houses and condos are sitting on the market for weeks. We didn't want to go back and forth with the sellers so we just told Anne we wouldn't accept their offer. At this point we had also discussed not buying a house just yet - you know how we go back and forth on things - that maybe we should pay off the private student loan and look again at the end of the year. We told Anne this as well and within minutes she had called the listing agent and we were working on a new deal.

On Monday, the 18th, I got notified of another condo in the same place that's for sale for 20k less b/c it's a foreclosure. We debated on this one for a couple days as well but for only 10k difference in the cost of the loan (b/c foreclosures won't pay any of your closing costs) we decided not to put an offer in on the foreclosure. It was going to cost much more than 10k to bring it up to the place the other one is at. Though, that kind of enticed us, but the more we learned about the foreclosure and the situation the seller was in, the less we wanted to get ourselves involved. Not as first time home buyers - maybe later in life. So, we put in a counteroffer for 360 and $7500 in closing costs.

It all worked out, b/c today around noon we were notified that the sellers accepted our counter offer and escrow is officially opened. We gave them a 60 day escrow or sooner b/c they were just starting to look for a house. And as month to month renters we have some flexibility.

So, now, the inspection is this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed!