The house I fell in love with, sadly, will never be mine. Part of the problematic road to my first time home ownership was through the valley of the shady Realtors.
During summer and fall of 2009, I placed offers on 16 homes. I only wanted to purchase a single home, but Realtors in the area had other plans for those seasons. A scam was going on in the business with single family starter homes to drive the market back up. The scam was that a Realtor would list a client's or bank owned home for an asking price below market value, reflecting the change in the economy. The price listed would not simply be a couple thousand dollars under market value, I put offers on three and four bedroom homes in the Chino, Pomona, Claremont, Walnut areas with asking prices between 160,000 and 180,000.
We were naive. The homes seemed too good to be true, and they were. The Realtors were countering our offers by jacking up prices by 60,000 to 100,000 in some cases. The scam was to start a bidding war. The Realtors were trying to fake an increase in the market. I can't blame someone for trying to make ends meet, but for a middle class American like myself, this was very disheartening.
I found home after home I could see myself living in. Every time we put an offer in to a place, I had my heart on the line. Eventually, after nearly the sixth home we put an offer on, I gave up. I stopped going with my parents and our Realtor on the searches. I didn’t even want to look for a place anymore, I was content to wait for the market to start going up again and save our down payment until then.
Thank goodness my parents are more patient than I. Our Realtor was tenacious and hard working: she swore we would find a place very soon. They kept putting offers on properties, with my blessing, even though I didn’t attend the showings with the team anymore.
In September, my family took a vacation to the Colorado River, one of our favorite places to be together. While on the trip, we visited a Chinese restaurant and had a meal together to celebrate the last night at the river. Chinese restaurants are known for ending the meal with a small cookie with an inspirational message, and this restaurant was like any other in doing so. My fortune was one that to this day, I will never forget.
The fortune read, “By the end of the year, you will live in a beautiful new home.”
I couldn’t believe it. My faith was restored. I had a new attitude about the process, and I believed the fortune wholeheartedly. I have always been a believer in the power of positive thinking, and I am a semi-follower of “the secret,” which is a lifestyle program that preaches that if you believe something hard enough, you can make the thought a reality.
The next day, we were packing for home and received a call from our Realtor. One of the offers my parents had placed on a home had been accepted.
More next week. ☺
Sorry about all the hassle you had to go through. This market is crazy (as you know first hand!) I'm grateful that this ended on a note of hope. Here are some small errors you need to pick up on.
ReplyDelete"...homes in the Chino, Pomona, Claremont, AND Walnut areas."
"than I" ? Are you sure?
"...hard working: she swore..." That should be a semicolon. You're starting a new sentence, not making a list.
Well done. This is a very solid, if brief, blog post.