We first bid on our prospective house back in Mid August - almost a month ago. Our first low ball offer was rejected, as I had anticipated, but since the house was being offered for 10% above our budget, we had no choice but to walk away. Or so it seemed.
After our original offer was rejected we kept watching the house online. A couple of weeks had passed and the house was still on the market with no offers. I asked our realtor to go back to the sellers and see if they might change their mind about our original offer. They agreed to reduce the price by $20K. This was still too high for us, and I contemplated the idea of asking our realtor to try to set up a face to face meeting between me and the sellers, in which I would attempt to get them to see the light. This would have been a fairly unorthodox move, and I ultimately decided to do something less aggressive, but potentially more acceptable.
I decided to write a letter.
What prompted me to write this letter was a conversation with my dad. He pointed our the fact that the asking price was now a mere few percent above our budget, and he told me that in his opinion giving up on the right house for such a small deviation from the budget is ridiculous. He did not beat around the bush with his commentary. Finally, he offered to make up the difference between our budget and the final purchase price.
I agonized over this decision for about 24 hours. I hate accepting money gifts from others, but I realize that this is a stupid thing. My parents really want to help, and helping me gives them pleasure. In addition, they can afford to help. I am not taking food or luxury from them by accepting their gift. I decided to go for it.
Tomorrow, I will share the full letter I wrote to the sellers (minus identifying and sensitive details). The sellers had already taken the house off the market, but after receiving our letter, they agreed to reduce the price by an additional $20K and to do the deal. There is, however, a little twist to the story which I will share with you in a few days.
Later this week: inspections galore. House inspection, roof inspection, termite inspection. The whole 9 yards. Unfortunately, Alpaca will have to deal with these on her own as I will be traveling on business...
2 comments:
Yeah, same here to some extent. I wouldn't have gotten my apartment without a similar gift from my parents. Not proud of it, but it was something they wanted to do very badly, and they could easily afford it. Their gift made the difference between the co-op board accepting my finances and not.
Congratulations, my friend. Can't wait to see the letter.
Yay! I'm glad you got the place you really wanted, and I can't wait for the new suprises!
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