So where were we?
Right... So the price was still out of our range, but we kept our eyes peeled for another drop, just in case.
The drop never came.
We heard the bank was about to freeze the property. So we asked the real estate agent what that meant, he told us the bank would be taking it off the market for about a year and it would be unavailable for purchase. Seemed like an odd strategy for selling a house, its like a restaurant closing for a year and assuming that sales would continue to grow while it is closed.
Genius!
So we decided to throw our hat into the ring (is that the expression?) and start making moves towards putting a lower offer in, but since the house would be frozen in a week, we had to move fast.
We went to Wells Fargo to get pre-approved for the house, which went well. They said we could easily afford a 150k house payment but when we looked at the monthly mortgage it just didn't look like it was in the cards for us, especially considering how high Baltimore taxes are. We set out to spend at MOST 125k, which would put us at the same amount for renting an apartment in the area.
So the day before the house was scheduled to be frozen we put in a bid of 115k, and the bank countered by lowering their offer from 147k to 143k. They didn't want to budge much, and our real estate agent told us that was about as low as they would probably go. We sent back our counter offer of 118k that night around 8 o'clock and got a return email saying they would need to contact their supervisor, so we went to sleep not thinking there was a chance in hell of us actually getting the price lowered to our range.
The next morning, the last day the house was on the market, we received an email which said they would meet our asking price of 118k (they must have been desperate to get rid of that house). We got the house!
Oh wait.
We were told that since this house was owned by Bank of America we had to be pre-approved by them in order for the deal to go through.
Before the house was frozen.
We had until the end of the day.
So here I was at work on the construction site with no vehicle of my own and I needed my documents in order and to meet with a bank agent before the bank closed at 5. I was frantically calling everyone in the area trying to get my documents in order and getting a bank agent to see me when I got off work. Amazingly, we got off work at 4:00 PM, I raced over to my house, grabbed my documents, and ran to the Bank of America office where I met my girlfriend for our meeting. The agent kept giving me curious looks, being covered head to toe in dirt and mud, but by 5:00 we were pre-approved and the house was ours!
Epilogue: My girlfriend and I went out to dinner to celebrate our recent purchase, where I texted my college roommate with the exciting news. He texted me back, "That's Awesome! I just bought an engagement ring today, I am going to propose!" This text was a complete shock, and since I had been dating my girlfriend for over five years, I knew there would be big fallout if they got engaged and we had not, especially after buying a house.
Stay tuned for our next adventure in "And Now I'm Completely Broke"
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