I cant keep looking at houses anymore
As the title says, I can't and I'm highly reconsidering even becoming a homeowner. My husband and I have been looking for a house for TWO FREAKING YEARS. We put an offer in on a house and went through the inspections only to find out that house had termites that did extensive damage as well as potential leak in the HVAC system, cracking in the foundation, and the roof would of needed to be replaced. We decided to back out of that deal and that was 1.5 years ago. We have attempted to look at several other houses only to find out after reaching out that they went under contract already. We looked at a house yesterday, absolutely loved it. The seller has moved out of state and the house is sitting empty. It went under contract back in May but the financing fell through on that so it got listed for 17.5k less, plus the seller is funding the repairs for the septic, roof and mold remediation. Estimated total cost for that is 30k. She is not willing to do any additional repairs/negotiations etc..which is fine, I get it you are already putting 30k into an escrow for us to use to make these repairs. I reached out to my lender and this house wouldn't get approved for conventional loan because they don't do escrow holdings, but would qualify for a renovation loan, but the repairs would have to be completed within 6 months. I think this is why the previous contract fell through or got denied due to amount of repairs it would need. We looked at the inspection report that the seller had done in June and yes it does list the roof, septic and mold remediation as major items. It also listed, carpenter ants damage and the boiler release valve would need to be replaced as it's all rusty, but i do think the entire boiler will have to be replaced as it looked to be at the end of its lofe.At the advice of our attorney, we are deciding not put the offer in as I'm pre-approved for a conventional loan and used to handle the escrow accounts for renovation loans and those tend to get messy...and let's be real, the scope of the repairs usually ends up being more than what was originally quoted. She also said that she would never buy a house without a working septic system and I am in agreement with her. My issue is, the homeowner knows it needs to replaced, like why not just do the repairs and call it a day instead of escrowing those repairs. I'm sure it probably has to do with the fact that they also know that those repairs are going to be over the 30k. Like I just want a home that we can move into that at least has a working septic.
Please give me some words of encouragement because I'm really losing my mind. We don't have have many listings in our area for 300k. Most of the houses within our search area are going for 490k+ and the houses within our price range just always end up requiring a ton of work before we are able to move in. Like I can't afford to pay the mortgage, rent, bills, pet expenses, etc. while paying for all the major/problematic repairs at the same time. I just don't understand how previous owners buy houses, do zero upkeep, zero upgrades and then expect buyers to pay 300k for a house that is still stuck in the 1950s. Why is it that I have a feeling that some of these owners wait for major things to reach the end of their life and immediately put the house up for sale. I don't, I grew up with parents who made the repairs as they came up and did their upkeep and have had quick, easy, basically flawless sales. Most of their issues during sales came up for minor things that seller wanted fixed because the major repairs were handled.
I'm losing my mind and this process is not for the weak. It is brutal out here.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk/ vent session.