A followup on my earlier post

[quakerboy]

the "should I buy it" one.

It was a condo.

And apparently the answer was once again no. We have been searching since last February. We've toured literally hundreds of places. We've put in offers on dozens. And its always something. Despite being in a dead market, despite Realtor after Realtor saying "nothings moving", virtually every time we put in an offer, someone else does within 24 hours, and ends up stealing it out from under us. Ive been told by my Realtor(and friend from long before I knew he was a part time Realtor for fun) that this has not happened to anyone else he has helped in the last year. My parents old Realtor friend says she has not had a second offer on any house she has worked on since 2008. the Realtor helping my grandpa sell his place said the same.

Out of literally dozens(multiple dozens) of offers, the only places that have not had that happen turned out to be short sales or bank owned, where the bank never bothered to respond to us. With one exception, which ended up going through crazy convolutions, until it turned out the bank that was selling the place didn't even happen to own it.

Too many frustrations, combined with 2 major expenses and the attendant lack of money, took us out of the market for a while. For the past couple months, we took a break from looking. In the mean time, Ive had 4 different friends Start looking, make an offer, be accepted, and move in. In all four cases, the whole thing from starting looking to moving in took less than 3 months. And we finally back on our financial feet, able to contemplate things, so last week I got online to see if anything new popped up.

It did. A new condo in a complex we had looked at before had dropped into our price range a month ago, when I wasn't looking. A little run down, but nothing some elbow grease couldn't make livable. And at a price where, if we could scrape together the down, would end up having total payments, HOA and taxes lower than our current rent. Awesome.

Except that after having sat for 9+ months, through several price drops, with not even a hint of interest, within 4 hours of submitting an offer, someone else did the same. With a better offer than the asking price.

What the hell. Maybe this is the universe confirming that we should hold what little cash we have and prepare for a move to my wife's home country. Or maybe its just the worlds way of confirming that I should truly be a cynic, a stoic, and a prematurely grumpy old man. With apologies to those invested in the continuing success of our country/world/etc, for the evening, I will be contemplating my desire that the markets should have a second crash, resulting in anyone with a spare hundred being able to purchase a home outright, and that all these speculators/investors buying these homes to make rent or cosmetically improve and sell to make a buck should loose everything plus some. And, given that the ownership and sales records are available online, I know for a FACT that is what has happened with the majority of the places we didn't get.

GAAAA. I just want a place to live, affordable, with no rent increase or landlord hanging over my head. If possible one with a few feet of outdoor space, enough to sit in the sun, and maybe even grow a few veggies. But apparently that is too much to ask of existence.

Thanks for listening. Or reading. Or feeling, if you happen to have a machine that converts the net to Braille.