Keep looking. If you didn't stop looking at other houses after the 1st viewing , then that's not the one. You can feel it when you're at a house it meant to be yours, you'd lost interest on looking at other houses. Just like you were looking for a husband, there were so many guys could be.......but there was only one meant to be yours. Move on, keep looking, find the one that meant to be yours. :-)

Just a tip - don't get emotionally invested. Keep it business.

Agree with NCrealestate-when a home stands out to you, it probably will to others. If you feel that strongly talk to your agent pronto about putting in an offer the seller would like and get a contract signed ASAP. Many offers fall apart for various reasons. Good luck.

Rule one: Do not get emotionally invested. This is a business transaction. Keep emotion out of it. Never fall in love with a property.

There will always be a better option around the corner. Right now we seem to be in a seller's market. That means that you shouldn't waste a lot of time thinking about a property. If you like it and it works for you, make an offer. Don't try to make something work that is not right for you, either.

This is what I would advise. Talk to your realtor. Tell them that you really liked the property. Ask their advice. That's why you have a buyer's agent in the first place, to advise you on the details. They may advise you to make up a backup offer. They may advise you to move along. Every situation is different.

It is easy for us to tell a home buyer, especially a first time home buyer to keep emotions out of it. But no one purchases a home unless it does something for them emotionally.

Your home is your haven, where you sleep, raise a family, host holidays, make memories.

Some people never get attached. You People should love their home. I think most know when they walk in and feel it, they just KNOW. Wishing the OP good luck with whatever they choose.

jetset-

Consider this a learning experience whatever the outcome. The real estate market is first come, first served. Unless you are prepared to act immediately -- i.e., put in an offer -- when you see something you like, there is nothing preventing someone else from beating you to the punch. You mentioned that you were even going to look at more houses before deciding, and now are disappointed that someone else acted while you were continuing your search. House purchases are a big deal and it's important to be sure about what you are doing before you do it. But it's not realistic to assume that any house you look at will be available later when you get to a decision point. I'm not trying to be critical; I'm just giving you some realistic advice so that you won't get your hopes dashed in the future.

My son and daughter-in-law have been trying to buy their first house. They have been outbid numerous times. They finally found a home and put an offer in at full price right away. The owner had 8 offers in one day, 4 higher than my son's but because they said they would fix what needed fixing (owners had an inspection done) they got the house. In this market you have to move quickly, especially if you are looking at smaller first time buyer homes, at least that is how it is on the east coast.

That is the emotional side of it that I was referring to. Normal, expected and healthy to have in a primary residence transaction.

Sounds like a nice place, Summersrhythm.

Just want to say that I understand your feelings. We have now been looking for our empty-nesters back-to-the-city home for 8 or so months now, and have learned a lot in the process. We have now placed two offers; the first we didn't care about so much, but this last one hurt to lose, and we didn't even get the chance to make a counteroffer.

Even if you try to not love a potential home, it's hard not to do so if you like it enough to put an offer down, or consider placing an offer. When we first started looking, I was amazed when our broker told us that in this market, if you like something, be prepared to place an offer quickly. But after all these months, I understand that, and that's what we did on each of the offers we placed. Once you figure out what you're looking for, you'll be more comfortable about placing an offer quickly once you see someplace that fits for you.

Good luck on your search!

Yes, you have to move fast when you find the home and offer your best, not just the asking price. One of my friends got the ranch she loved, she put in $30,000 more than the asking price to compete with other buyers. Good luck to both of you!

Put in a back up offer. But be wary why the first offer fell through. It could just be the buyer had financial problem or it could be a bad home inspection. If it falls ask to see the home inspection. You will find the right house for you. We looked for 9 months and put a bid in on two other houses before we got this one. I am glad we didn't get the other homes, I like this one much better. Everything happens for a reason.

Agree Function, I think everything happens for a reason as well and she will find the right house for her.

Everything happens for a reason. I don't put much stock in that maxim, at least with the meaning most often assigned to it. In this case though, the reason would be to learn a lesson about acting quickly when a market favors the seller.

functionthenlook wrote: If it falls ask to see the home inspection.

This is not always possible. The other buyer owns the home inspection report since they paid for it. The sellers might have to disclose anything that was told to them--but they aren't the owners of the report and unless the whole thing was given to them, they won't have it to show it.

Beth, Maybe it differs state to state. A copy of a home inspection goes to the real estate agent. If requested you can see it.

We have to get the buyer's permission to pass on the buyer's home inspection... after all, they own it, not us agents.

Both Beth and ncrealestateguy are right. The report belongs to the buyer, not the agent. The inspector doesn't even send the report over to the agent for the buyer without the buyer's specific permission and the agent isn't authorized to release it to anyone without permission from the buyer.

Denita when we sold our home in Florida our agent received it not us.

My agent said he didn't want to see the report--because anything he knew about had to be disclosed if that transaction didn't go through.

I'm in Florida and each and every time the inspector requests permission from the buyer to send the report to me (too). The reports are sent to both of us at the same time, but the inspectors have prior permission. It is typical for the seller to not be present at the time of the inspection when permission is granted.

"My agent said he didn't want to see the report--because anything he knew
about had to be disclosed if that transaction didn't go through."

Why would that be a concern to an ethical agent.? Anything "wrong" that the would-be seller became aware of would have to be disclosed anyway in any future attempt to sell.

I had a very experienced agent with good ethics advise us as sellers to not be present at inspection and to not receive a copy of the inspection. He would not be present, either. He told the buyer's agent to send to us in writing any issues that they would like to address and nothing more. As he explained it to us, it was a legal way to protect us in the case the buyer wanted to sue us later. And, if the deal fell through, we would only have to disclose items that we had been notified of in writing.

Inspection reports are full of errors and omissions. The quality of home inspectors is widely variable. While we wish everyone in life was highly ethical and honest, the truth is many are not. It is necessary to protect yourself.

Of course

The seller is not entitled to a copy of the inspection, nor is the buyer's bank.

jetset, I am not a realtor, nor am I a "pro" here, but I do have experience buying and selling homes recently. After retirement I was looking to relocate to a new community about 20 months ago. I had no idea how competitive the market was! After looking at several houses, and deciding to think about each, they all were snatched out from under me. Then, I acted on one that presented very well - until I had the home inspection (during a very rainy spell), and found several very expensive water issues. I ended up walking away from that contract because the seller would not agree to the repairs recommended by the home inspector. The next house I found, which has been a wonderful experience, was one that I made a full-price offer on. I ended up getting the house and have been happy, until recently.

Long story short, my husband and I both have suffered from some pretty difficult physical issues since we bought our house (a 1970's tri-level) and recently decided we needed to find a one level house for our forever home. Since our search area is very limited (because we know we want to be a bike ride to downtown), we knew we needed to act if a property was available. Lo and behold, a one level house, which we both loved and had been on the market for a much higher price, was lowered one week ago - we looked at it, went back for a second look the next day, and then immediately made an offer. Pending the home inspection tomorrow (which we expect to go just fine), we will be buying this house.

I am telling you all this to say that, in a seller's market, if the house speaks to you, don't hesitate. Make an offer! Best of luck and I can't wait to see what you purchase.

A few years ago I had an offer accepted for a home I loved. It was a midcentury modern home in a very expensive neighborhood on beautiful land. I was so excited at the prospect of living there. Long story short, the title company backed out saying they were not comfortable with the deal. There was something going on with the seller, who was selling the home through a third party. I was heartbroken. I had looked at so many homes and was sure this was the one. I found another home on a mountainside, with amazing views. It was a foreclosure. I put in a strong offer, above asking. I lost to cash buyer. I later heard I had the highest offer, but the bank preferred the cash offer. Again, I was so disappointed! Finally, I got my current home. It was a fight and a long process, but I can tell you of all of the homes, this is the best one.

You might think the home you saw is the perfect home for you, but an even better one may be around the corner.

Even though I don't post here often, I have been reading the replies since I posted this topic. thank you for the replies and i've moved on since then, and still in the process of looking.

Update

I'm still searching for my first home. I went with my realtor to look for a house. I found another home that I like on the other side of town, about 25 minutes away. It's a 1 story house built in the early 1990s. I'm ready to make an offer. But before I left the house, I saw a significant water puddle on the tile flooring inside the house floor where the baseboards and wall meets. I've never seen anything like that. the tile floors are pretty new, maybe placed there within the year. The water sprinklers were on outside when I walked out of the house. I dont think the water sprinklers were on when I walked in to see the house. And I saw that water was just pooling up with nowhere to go when I walked out.

i don't know much about homes and stuff like that, but would't you guys say that's a major issue? why would it seep into the floor like that causing a small water puddle about 8 feet in length along the inside of the house. I'm thinking 1) is that something new, or has it been going on a for a while? 2) if that's been going on for a while, what kind of structural damage has it already cause to the foundation on that part of the house? there's probably cracks or small holes already. 3) molds could be an issue as well.

fixing it would be so expensive if there's already structural foundational damage.

anyways, i'm posting here because I don't want to make an offer because of that. But I also want opinions to help guide me to the right decision.

I would interpret that as a sign to keep looking. Unless you LOOOOOOOOOVE the place (full disclosure: been looking to buy a house for over a year... I'm too picky and our current place is small but nice on the inside and doesn't have any weird issues so it's easy to hold out).

What did your agent say about the water?

Jet, was the water there when you first came in or did it just suddenly appear after the sprinklers came on? What did your realtor say - its his/her job to be intermediary with seller to find out things for you. Who knows maybe the seller was in a hurry to leave before you came and spilled dog's water dish or something.

Your thought process seems to contain a lot of "ifs" and "could be's" - the more you have factual info to make a decision the better. And he/she should advise you re home inspection contingencies and what kind of inspector would be needed to determine if there are mold or foundation issues. However if you just dont love the house enough to want to do the due diligence or feel you want something more risk-free then that's certainly valid too.

I don’t know if the water was already there. It’s a vacant property. My realtor called the property’s real estate agent to inform of the water. I’ll follow up today. Wow melle, I feel better, I’m only less than 2 months in the home search process with my realtor, feels like forever. I’m picky like you too, lol.

you’re right, I’ll try to get more factual information. But do you guys think that’s a major problem. That’s like a red flag isn’t?

If the tile is "new" maybe water damaged the old floor and they quick patched up the floor but didn't do anything about the cause.

Bad sign!

Remember, if you love the place, get it under contract and worry about the water spot in a few days. In your market, a buyer has no time to go home, think about it, call the property manager, wait for a call back and then go view the place one more time...

i was busy today at work, i called my realtor late this afternoon when I had a break. she'll try to find out tomorrow. I expressed to her my concerns. told her i like the house, but concerned about the water puddle and what it's doing there.

so there's still a lot of unanswered question of course. as ncrealestateguy has written, right now houses are going fast, especially good ones. my realtor said if i like it i should make an offer and get it under contract, and we can work towards the home inspection.

is that normal process to have a home inspection after making an offer? lets say I do make an offer, and the home inspection is not to my liking because there's severe damage to the walls, structure, foundation as a result of water seeping inside the house up the floor creating the puddle and possibly molds. is there a back out clause?

i'm trying to decide if i should make an offer. gonna sleep on it tonite. my dad told me to pass on it, he said there's gonna be more properties that will pop up in the future. he doesn't like the water puddle inside the dining area. and it's got me thinking because of that.

i'll find out more from my realtor tomorrow, now just gonna go read a a good book to relieve some stress before bed and sleep on it tonite, lol

In my area most of the contracts are AS IS with right to inspect. The inspection period is for X days (whatever is negotiated in the contract - 7 or 10 or 15 days is common). That is the period that the buyer does all their due diligence with heavy emphasis on the inspections. If the buyer isn't satisfied, then we either renegotiate the price, negotiate repairs or cancel the contract. Your area should be similar - but ask your agent to find out details. If you cancel the contract you get your deposit back but not your inspection funds.

Having said that, a puddle in the dining area is not a good thing. If pets are running loose, it's a fixable problem :) If it simply came out of nowhere, I would be cautious.

Drifting off topic a bit but back to inspection reports and who owns it and disclosure....I listed a home earlier this year (Missouri) and had it under contract and inspections revealed water in the crawl space and Buyer backed out of the contract. My Sellers did not want to disclose the existence of water in the crawl and I informed them that the water issue needs to be disclosed...Sellers were not happy with me and I ended up speaking with a Missouri Real Estate Attorney and it was confirmed that I must disclose. The attorney's email below touches on who owns the inspection report and disclosure....ended up selling the home for more money than the first offer a few weeks after the first deal fell apart and everyone was happy.:

Essentially, Buyer has agreed contractually to provide Seller a copy of these inspection report(s). As a pure legal matter, this would constitute at least partial consideration for entering into the Contract. The rationale of the forms in this regard is understood to be (at least in part) to provide Seller with assurance that Buyer actually performed basic inspections.

In any event, the contract does not specify who “owns” the inspection report(s) or what can be done with them after Buyer has provided them to Seller. Of course, if the reports were provided, any future buyers will be unable to rely on these reports to the same extent that Buyer could (e.g., because Buyer and Inspector had a contractual relationship, Buyer could have recourse against Inspector for faults/errors in the report(s)), but these reports may nonetheless be useful to these prospective buyers in other ways, as well as help listing brokers avoid liability for non-disclosure.

The parties presumably could have deleted this requirement or inserted non-disclosure language perhaps, but this would need to be done before the contract was entered into, and the drafting of such language would be best left to private counsel to insure that the intent of the parties was carried out. Further, real estate brokers have a general statutory obligation to disclose the existence of adverse material facts (and possibly the report(s) which discovered some) to future buyers. The parties should seek the advice of private counsel for more information in this regard.

OP, Around here, making offer contingent on inspection is very much the norm unless a house specifically is listed "as is." Or you might choose not to put in that contingency, if it might give you an advantage if they are getting more than one offer.

You can hire any inspector you want and even if you dont put an offer in now, its not too early to call around and start talking to them to see which ones you like and trust and want to hire when the time comes - get recommendations from people you know and talk to them on the phone - ie ask them about the puddle and see what they say - what could it be and how would they go about determining what it was?. They are not all equally talented or thorough, IMHO

You ask fundamental questions that your agent should be answering to your complete satisfaction. I mean its certainly ok to come here and ask the same questions... just to get various points of view and see if theres any other things to consider (I do that all the time - thats the beauty of the internet). I justI hope your agent is up to snuff and providing all you need to know about the process.

That said, theres a lot to be said for gut feelings too - if it all adds up to something you just dont want to act on - then dad is right, theres more houses out there.

That Missouri Attorney's opinion is at variance with settled law in many jurisdictions.

His premise is predicated on, "Buyer has agreed contractually to provide Seller a copy of these inspection report(s)."

Not a fact in any contract I've seen.

Agree with SaltiDawg. It's not in any of our P&S contracts (the standard forms provided by FAR & the Florida Bar). The only time the inspection reports are provided is with buyer approval and if the buyer is looking for either a repair or purchase price reduction for the repair.

Of course, the Missouri contract may have different language in it that supports the attorney's opinion - but we don't know without seeing the language.

I’d move on. It seems like you should have had an answer from the realtor by now if it were something simple. I just wouldnt want to deal with it if it’s a major issue.

I stated in my post above that the home was "under contract and inspections revealed water in the crawl space and Buyer backed out of the contract".

In accordance with our Missouri Association of Realtors state and attorney approved sales contracts (RES-2000) the Buyer must provide the Seller with a copy of the inspection report if asking for repairs or cancelling the contract over inspection issues....verbiage in our MAR and attorney approved state contract reads " Buyer shall furnish Seller a complete copy of the written inspection report(s) and/or additional property data to Seller with a written list of any unacceptable items. As I stated above...Buyer cancelled contract over inspections and more specifically over water in the crawl space.

and Salti...yes Buyer has contractually agreed to provide Seller with a copy of the inspection reports

I never said the Buyer was not so obligated. I said, "That Missouri Attorney's opinion is at variance with settled law in many jurisdictions."

Why the snotty retort?

Both Denita's post and my post are absolutely correct, BTW.

Hey folks, just writing to give an update. I'm still searching for a home, the whole process has me feeling down. It's so hard to find a home that's just affordable for me, in a good location that I want to live at in this town. I don't really want to spend more than the upper price range I set for myself. I know what I want in a house, but the choices are so limited.

Finally after 1 month of waiting with no new houses being listed that I want to see during that time, I just saw a home listed 2 days ago. It looks like really nice house base on pictures, I still have to see it in person. but i think this is the one and i'm gonna pull the trigger after I see it. and the location is just perfect. In fact, it's a better home and a comparable location to the house on my very first post. Price is about the same too.

Showing starts this weekend starting Saturday, but I'm working friday and all weekend, 12 hour shifts, so there's no way I can go see the house coz i get home at from work 8 pm. But my agent has already already contacted the seller's agent and made an appointment to see it on monday.

I'm so anxious and nervous having to wait until monday to see it. I just have a gut feeling an offer will be made before I get the chance. houses this nice base on what i saw on zillow from Listed for sale date and listing remove, on average the difference is 1 week. I'm not sure how accurate that is from zillow, but i believe it.

There was a house that was listed 2 months ago, and offers were made in just 2 days. It was a nice house, interior and backyard were in great condition, and the price was in the sweet spot for buyers in the area. It was a smaller house, but with a big backyard and pool. It was priced at $50,000 less than the upper limit of the price range that I'm looking at. I'm not surprised it sold fast.

I hope this is your place!

It may or may not be this way in your area but some houses here never make it to the listings. If you are living any where near the area that you would like to live and the area allows realtor signs driving around that area may be to your advantage. A realtor may put up a sign immediately if a property is signed that day but the property may not show up on a listing until a day or so later.

EEK its stressing me out just reading this! Cant you go really early am or after work? Spoze youve already asked about that.... if you really want it start with an offer over the asking amount and if possible remove any contingencies that you feel comfortable removing. If your agent has communicated your strong interest, they prob wont accept an offer til after youve seen it, but the sellers agent will be communicating that to all the other people looking which lwill get them all excited and wanting it too and thats how a bidding war starts.

Sorry, I dont know if I have anything useful to contribute except - good luck!

Made an offer above asking price. But the seller went with the cash offer which also was the above asking price. I had no chance at all. On to the next listing, hopefully something pops up

^Don't write it off. I have had clients of mine that were in the first backup position behind a cash buyer and my buyers' ended up with the house. On the last one, my buyer was an FHA buyer BTW! Cash buyers still have inspection periods and sometimes they just change their mind during the inspection period. I have seen it multiple times.

Agree... put in that back up offer if possible. And again, next time, don't wait for even one day to get an offer in. Even if it means taking a sick day off from your employment or whatever. Don't let that second offer a chance to be seen by the sellers.

Sadly I think this is a lesson that one sometimes just has to learn the hard way that once you find a house you really like, put in an offer immediately. If you don't, someone else may. As others suggested, you can try to put in a backup offer (if the seller can/will accept them) or at least have your agent reach out to the seller's agent and let them know that you are very interested if the original contract falls through.

Make sure you have all of your own ducks in a row (bank ready to give you a pre-qualification letter, earnest money ready, etc) because things move fast in realestate and you want to make sure your offer is ready and appealing. That way whether this property comes available again or you find another property you like, you're ready to go.

Keep looking and don't give up hope! There will be a house out there for you.