Buying a house Stinks!!!

Jen hang in there. I can totally sympahtize and feel your frustration. My husband and I have been looking for what seems like years. I feel like we've seen 100 houses now. Some good some terrible! And of course the ones we really like someone comes in and offers over asking in cash! Crazy!
Anyway I still have hope that my house is out there...hey it took me 27 years to finally meet the right guy...I'm sort of hoping the house thing takes less lol!

I can totally sympathize. I hated the bidding wars. I never wantd to get involved, but John knew the market was hot and you had to 'be in it to win it' type thing
He did get into a bidding war for one house. (and I told him 'stop at X amount' he can get over his head when it comes to 'gambling' lol.) So he did stop at a price that I was SOO happy that he did. because I would throw up if I paid that amount for that house. SOO not worth it!
we also lost out on a home, that someone else 'had' first and we were the first backup bid.

The home we now live in has MANY more plusses than both of those other homes, and the price we paid is about smack in the middle of the 2 we lost.
So it wasnt too bad. We would didnt even argue with the price on this one. we thought it was high, but we kinda knew that they owners wouldnt sell @ less than X amount, (someone else had been in contract before us, and her hubby refused because of the IGP (inground pool), so we were lucky enough to be there the next day, and we found tihs house in error. we were looking at a house down the block, and saw a SOLD sign on it, and went down the road to make a U-turn, and wanted to see this house. and sure enough.... =)

In the end you will be SOOOOO happy with the home that is meant for you.
everything happens for a reason. dont lose hope!

Aw, Jen...it's not THAT bad!! The market is nuts, but just keep in mind why you are in this war. At the end, you will find your home and begin living the happily ever after.

We, too, refused to get into any bidding wars. When we started house hunting, we worked up our numbers, met with some lenders and decided what we could comfortably afford.

We made a few offers that were beat. We didn't want to raise our bid and told the owners/realtors that we were stepping out.

Finally, we found the house that we are now in contract with. We made an offer to the sellers (it was FSBO) at an open house. They called to let us know they had a few higher bids, but we stuck to our number. We were preapproved, which other bidders weren't and we were very flexible re: closing date...which other bidders weren't. Even with a slightly lower price, we got the house.

Try to keep the emotion out of it, and stick purely to numbers. Find the price that you and DH can pay for a home and live by it!! The right house will come along...maybe not the home of your dreams, but one that you can build dreams in!!

Good luck!!

Jen,
Not sure how you guys are searching but when we bought our house we had our own realtor representing us as the buyer. So when we found the house we wanted we gave our offer to our realtor and she got in touch with the listing agent. We never once had to deal with the listing agent (seller's agent) or the owner. It is much easier that way. Plus the seller pays the commission to your realtor. There should be no cost to you. We found this a very helpful way to do our house hunting.