Lost the house we were buying

I don't have any advice to avoid the costs of inspections or appraisals. Unfortunately it kind of goes with the territory and the financial burden is on the buyer so they know what they're getting into. The appraisal is for the lender, of course, but still the buyer's responsibility.

I'm so sorry this happened! That's so disappointing, especially right near closing! I hope you're in a buyer's market with lots of inventory so you can find something else that'll suit your family! Good luck!

The housing market in my area is so wildly insane that this situation was basically my life for MONTHS while we house shopped.

My advice is to know what you want and stick to your guns. Starting over with a new Realtor helped us out a lot.

The first one we worked with took one look at the neighborhood I was interested in and said "Oh, you don't want to live there, that's little Mexico!" Unspeakably rude, and 100% ignoring our desires. We bid on five houses in this neighborhood and I'm loving it here, SO glad we got rid of that woman!

We put in 8 offers over a year before we got one. Some of them went further into the process than others and some were simply offers not accepted.

We lost one we loved because it turned out the fence line was wrong and the fence was over the property line onto city owned property so it couldn't be sold until that was sorted out. That one cost us and made us sad.

We kept looking and moved into our new house in July. Hang in there!

This happened to us. We ultimately pulled out of our commitment with the original mortgagee lender. We started the process with another lender (wells fargo) and paid for a second appraiser, and this appraisal came back at the contract price. We got our money back from the first lender for their appraiser because i found a lot of inconsistencies and then the lender screwed up by authorizing information being used that I never authorized. I don't recommend this route (getting the lender to reimburse for their botched appraisal) as it probably is 1 and a million chance. You can try to appeal the appraiser and do a reconsideration of fact, but that is also very challenging.

I don't have any advice because previous to this house we used a seasoned realtor that almost let us purchase a house that a complete wreck, the inspection went awful. We fired her and since my husband and I knew what we wanted, we went with a junior realtor and really just didnt the process our self. It's really stressful, and i'm sorry you're in this situation. Things happen for a reason, i'm a firm believer of this.

Ugh unfortunately this goes with the territory of buying a house. The same thing happened to my brother and a friend of mine. The upside is both of them ended up getting a house they loved even more. Losing the money sucks, but in the long run, it's just a small investment to insure that you are making a sound purchase. Try not to let it get you down, and just keep moving forward.

Thanks everyone so far! It's good to hear this isn't something that tends to happen too many times in a row, though it's still very disappointing. What did you look for in a realtor that we should look for in our next? Did you research prices for your offers or just trust the Realtors suggestions?

I'm sorry, that sucks. No advice, since I haven't been through the home-buying process yet, but I sympathize.

You would be amazed at what people manage to forget. I've worked for several attorneys and have discovered a few 2nd mortgages clients forgot about and more than one who has forgotten they're married.

I thought the comps and appraisals would be done before you pay earnest money or for inspections?

I'm sorry but don't lose hope. And definitely get owners title insurance when you do get your dream home.

@windowschick, I'm an attorney at a title company and you'd be SHOCKED at how common it is that sellers forget they have a second mortgage.

Appraisals are often done by the city and are lower so the property owner can pay lower taxes. My house city appraised for much less than the local bank appraised it for. Everyone situation is different though.

No here the earnest money is put in with your offer then the inspections are done, THEN the appraisal, though it would be nice to have the apprasial first to know before money is spent in inspections. Comps can be given first to determine an offer, but what he gave us was apparently at least somewhat inaccurate. The banks appraisal is what came up short, so the lender will not lend above the appraisal and the seller won't drop their price.

Yep, sometimes this type of thing just comes with the house-buying territory. I live in a super-competitive housing market where houses often have multiple offers (like more than 10 offers). If you want a house inspection, you have it done before offer day because there is no way that you will "win" the bidding war with that condition in your offer. A few times, we paid for house inspections but lost out on buying the homes to other buyers in the bidding wars. So, hundreds/thousands down the drain on inspections for houses for which we were not under contract. It sucked but you move on and keep looking!

I'm so sorry! That would make me lose trust in the realtor (or maybe the lender if multiple realtors thought the appraisal was unusual). Can you get another opinion and try to find out whose assessment was off? Not that you should "fight the previous battle" but you may want to consider switching lenders or realtors if they're acting weird.

Our realtor warned us that the appraisal might not match our offer - it did, but that way we were prepared with how much extra we were willing to pay beyond appraised value.