Remember those 3 houses I wrote about earlier in the week? Mr. W and I were in disagreement over the houses so we thought we’d put offers on all 3 and let fate dictate our future residence. I spoke to our realtor yesterday after he spoke to the 3 selling agents and here’s the skinny.

1) Mr. W’s #1 pick, a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, upgraded 1962 single-story house in Huntington Beach: This is a short sale, and the bank is in an advanced stage of negotiation with a few offers already. They’ve already gone through counteroffers. The seller’s agent said if we really want, we can submit an offer, but our offer’s just gonna sit on the back burner and would only be looked at among the other backup offers if the current offers submitted to the bank are all rejected or all fall through.
3) Mr. W’s #2 pick and my #3 pick, a 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 1985 Cape Cod house in Mission Viejo with a remodeled floorplan: This is also a short sale, with 8 (!) offers already submitted. The bank is working closely with the top 2, and awaiting a second appraisal to come through before the bank decides whether it wants to accept either of the top 2. If we submit an offer now, we’d again just be among the mass of “backup offers.” Plus, who knows how long the bank is gonna drag this on, seems like they’re debating the value of the house. The oldest offer was submitted 5 months ago.
2) My #1 pick, a 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 1986 upgraded 2-story house in Mission Viejo with a beautifully landscaped back yard perfect for co-ed wedding shower barbecue parties overlooking a hilly drop-off into the city: Contrary to what we’d thought, this is NOT a short sale (so no waiting game at the mercy of the bank), they have currently NO offers, so the price is negotiable.
*running around the room cheering*

Mr. W is pissed off about his Huntington Beach house but after some time spent ranting and refusing to let go of the HB house while trying to kick mine off the table, he eventually conceded to our original deal. Fate is pointing. With giant neon signs. While covering up all other options with heavy curtains. It was scary for awhile there as I watched him and thought I saw Hillary Clinton’s image superimposed over him, but it’s all good now.

So today after work, we went to my realtor’s office and signed the offer. We lowballed it by $30K, but we expect a counter. Tomorrow evening we’ll take a peek at one of this house’s neighbors, another short sale that appears to be in excellent condition with similar size/price, just to make a comparison study.