More houses

So we've gone to see a few more houses since our first offer was rejected.

We saw a couple in San Dimas last week:

House #4: This house was ok. It's a small "3 bedroom" and 1.5 bath . It says 3, but I wouldn't call that a bedroom. It has no closet and they knocked out a doorway and a serving window to the kitchen. I can't figure out how that would be useful as a bedroom (especially since another wall has another door and another wall has a sliding glass door to the backyard). And the neighbor had an annoying dog. It's not crossed off our list, but it's not getting an offer from us just yet.

House #5: Yes, this one would definitely need a paint job. It was in a nice little neighborhood and the house (even though it was dark, didn't have electric on so we couldn't see anything) screamed (and smelled) old lady. It's small, 3 bedroom and 1.5 bath. To be fair, we would have to go back with daylight to give it a fair assessment, but we're unsure about how much work would need to go into the house and we're not sure we can see us living there. 

So, after seeing those houses, the other house's listing agent finally got back to our agent (with a text message...). So the basic low-down on the rejection was that he was concerned about FHA financing for a less than 90 day investor flip, seller doesn't want to pay closing costs, seller is concerned about having qualified buyers due to FHA financing (he wants a conventional 20% down offer), and he allegedly has other offers he's considering. First, the investor flip thing is not an issue. A quick google search will give the low-down on that. There's normally a restriction on FHA financing for a less than 90 day investor flip, but that restriction has been suspended and will last til the end of 2011. Second, if you don't want to pay closing costs, then make that part of the counter offer. Third, good luck finding someone to buy a "starter" home with 20% down nowadays. Fourth, house hasn't gone pending yet. 

Another house in south Glendora popped up on the market so we went and looked at that yesterday. 

House #6: Another house with number of bedroom identity issues and 1.75 baths. I would call it 3 bedrooms. One of the bedroom had a really awkward addition. The bathtub was full of standing water (gross!). The backyard was big. The oven was probably the original that was there when the house was built in the 50s. A lot of things about the house felt awkward and with all the updates and fixes the house needs, the house is probably out of our price range since it's listed at the top of our price range. 

So where we are now: We haven't found any not short sales in the area we want to put an offer on. We're pretty sure we can get a house somewhere in Glendora, but we may have to start looking at short sales. We put our offer in at the other house again to see if they'll even think about considering our offer with a counter offer after Tommy was able to sort-of talk to the listing agent. I'm not getting my hopes up. Or trying not to. We like the house, but we don't want to overpay for a small, 1 car garage, 1.5 (that they advertise as 2) bath, no fireplace (which their listing says they have) house. I'm not sure what the seller was expecting to get, but while the house is great, it's still missing a lot of features that people (including us) look for.