Sad but True

Short Sale.

These words have become the bane of my existence.

We started looking for a home over six months ago. Initially, we found a nice house in north Ogden that was for sale in a short sale situation. We got on-board, and we waded through a mountain of paper work with the bank to close on the house. The day of our close day came, and the bank had no papers for us to sign. Apparently, the branch of the bank that deals in short sales had not been communicating with the branch of the bank that deals in foreclosure.

The bank decided to push the house through to foreclosure, even though we had a contract to buy the house. We were out of luck. Nothing we could do. It was the little guy against the huge corporate bank.

Attempt two of house hunting led us to this fantastic house. It wasn't a short sale, it was a traditional, clean-cut, for sale house. Or so we thought. We were supposed to close on this house this week. Instead, the owner requested a private meeting. Turns out, he hadn't been exactly honest about his financial situation when he listed the house. He hadn't been paying his mortgage since last October. Therefore, there is a lien on the house that no-one knew about except for him, until this week.

Again, we find ourselves in a short sale situation.
I don't know if I can do this again. A house starts with all this possibility. You think, because your offer is accepted, and you have a legal contract, that it will all work out. That's not always true. Especially for us.

The seller now has two and a half weeks to get his financial ducks in a row, and sell this house to us.

February 17, 2010.

Pray for us that this works out. My family is exhausted. We love this house, and don't want to lose another one.