house bid

finally!! FINALLY i can let it all hang out. i have been avoiding this blog for fear that i would blurt it out. in the middle of a blog on baking, i'd spew out: "WE BID 138K ON THE HOUSE". or maybe i'd be telling you abt my deodorant and how i forgot to epilady that morning, and my oral diarrhea would erupt: "138K, THAT'S OUR BID!!!" and then woudlnt' be able to retrieve it as our personal information hit the cyber highway. can you imagine???
yes, we have been living, the 7 of us, in a small manufactured home. please don't shed any tears for us. it's not a one-room shanty, nor is it anything i'd pretend isn't mine if the stake president wanted to come for dinner. it's just that it's a wee small for as much testosterone as we are trying to contain. when the boys wrestle, (or even the DOGS for that matter) it is often over the top of some innocent bystander's toes. so yea, our dream home would have a family room big enough to let them brawl and separate enough to be able to carry on a conversation in a different room. kapish? soooo...we've been watching this house for several months. it's become a pet project. we "discovered" it on a dog walk. then dad mooney pointed out over dinner one day that he thought no one was living there. long story short, we went to fillmore and did a title search through county records. we tracked down the original owner and made some dear friends. we have checked 3 websites at least twice a day EVERY day. we went to the county seat for a "fake" auction. (aka: hud induced auction...i'll cover THAT devilish scheme in another blog). we have talked to countless agents, attorneys, loan agents, realtors, even title insurance companies to prepare for the moment that we could place a bid. so here's how it works..... HUD (fed govt dept of housing and urban development) "owns" this house. they appraised it to be valued at 135k. which is below what it's actually worth, but they won't consider the basement since it's unfinished. (but it IS framed and partly insulated). they "open" the bid to anyone willing to make an offer, and the bid "closes" on monday. after that we just wait. so we have run the gamut on what to bid. first, we want to offer low. see what we can get it for. you know, everyone loves a good bargain. and we'd love to have a little money to actually improve the property if we get it. then we discover that there is so much competition for this house, that we decide to offer full price. we were originally told that timing is everything and that HUD will accept the first full price offer. so , discovering that the house was open for bidding on new year's eve day, we thought we had the advantage. most people were partying and doing other things. so we submitted our bid to our realtor, who submitted to her broker, who sat on it bcs he was partying. thankfully we discovered that timing is NOT everything, but that the price is critical. so we decide to bid 138k. that extra 3k would go towards commissions and fees. but then we remember the game "price is right". remember at the last part...where they see the huge prizes?? i can't remember what it's called. anyway, one person calculates meticulously what they think the car/house/vacation/boat are worth. they come up w/a thoughtful number. 43,500. the next person jumps in and wins bidding 43,501. really? so we decide we better add a dollar. but if OTHER people are thinking the same thing? so we up it to 25$. that should protect us, right?? but then we hear of MORE people wanting this house.... and we start to get stressed. here's our deal. we are on a tight budget. we have a lot of expenses. in fact, w/a broken transmission and pending legal fees for a forced court appearance... yea...you get the picture. so we decide we will offer our top dollar. plus 200$ just to make it a little more. and then we wait. wait. wait and wait some more.
"if it's right for us, we will get it". i must have said that 1000 times in the past 5 months. :)  and now? the bids are in and closed. i can reveal my bid. and you can wait WITH me. :)