Complications...

Limbo.

That's where I find myself at the moment. Although it doesn't sound like a good place to be, it's an improvement over my former status of worrying about whether or not I would make it to limbo. Now I'll try to outline the most complicated part about buying my house.

The house was listed on the MLS like a normal real estate listing. The only thing unusual about the listing was that in the description it read 'short sell - sellers lender must approve offer'. I didn't think much of it until I talked to my agent about what it meant. My agent did some digging and found that it was indeed a short sale - which means that they were asking less than what the borrower owed on the house. Also, he talked to the sellers agent about the process that they used for short sales.

This was the most convoluted process I'd ever heard of.

According to the sellers agent, they first had to submit their application to the bank to get the short sell approved - which takes 4-6 weeks. Only then would they start accumulating bids. After they arbitrarily decided it was time to stop taking bids, they would just pick the best one and proceed with the sale. These steps would've added an unknown amount of time to the process.

I was very discouraged after hearing about this and continued to look at other houses. However, the more houses I looked at, the more I wanted my gem house. I expressed to my agent that I really wanted this house. He explained to me that his broker handles short sales much differently. First they entertain legitimate offers and then accept one contingent on bank approval of short sale. Then they submit the accepted offer with the short sale application to the bank for approval. This cuts out an unknown amount of waiting time on the back end of the process and gets me a yes or no answer much sooner. I asked my agent to do what we needed to do to get the house.

He suggested that we offer $3000 more than the asking price and ask them to put that towards closing - so they'd end up with their full asking price. Also, my agent said he'd put pressure on the sellers agent to do the process our way so I wasn't left hanging in an even worse limbo - not even knowing if my offer was going to be accepted. I went with it.

The sellers agent did end up seeing the light. They agreed to our process and accepted our offer contingent on bank approval of short sale. So, I now have a contract on the house contingent on bank approval. My financials have been run, but we haven't yet submitted for final underwriting because we don't yet have bank approval. Once we get approval we can set a closing date, lock in a rate and submit every little detail about my financial situation to my lender for final underwriting. My agent is confident that I'll get the house.

The main thing that I don't understand is how the house could even be listed if they were using the sellers process. In their method, the house wasn't even on the market until the bank approved the short sale because they weren't even entertaining offers until that point. I'm pretty sure that the sellers agent is a rookie.

I'm very excited! I can't wait to move! I'll definitely let everybody know when I get the final decision and then the remaining schedule before the big housewarming party!

Bailout

Where's my bailout? When is the all-knowing government going to step in and give me an unbelievable amount of money for free?

They're not?!?

Why?

Is it because I've made responsible financial decisions? Is it because I have chosen not to get in over my head when it comes to debt? Is it because I have managed my finances prudently?

Does this seem silly? I'm being absurd to demonstrate absurdity. Of course the fed is not going to write a check to me. They're only interested in writing enormous checks to companies who have made poor decisions, are too far in debt to be solvent, and have not prudently managed their finances; or to folks who have made poor decisions regarding their own lives or property.

This is endemic of the way our society operates. We no longer celebrate achievement because it may make somebody 'feel bad'. We would rather blame somebody else for our shortcomings, cry racism/sexism/whatever kind of 'ism' you want to throw out, reward bad behavior and not set standards for decency and prudence. This Katrina mentality of relying on the federal government to bail you out of whatever situation you have put yourself in is extremely detrimental to the fabric of our culture. Personal responsibility is required from people who choose to live in a 'democratic' form of government - it's the price you have to pay to have Freedom and Liberty. Without sacrificing anything for those timeless values and pillars of our society they become valueless and therefore easily discarded; or worse - legislated out of existence.

The idea that 'the economy will fail' if the fed doesn't hand out $700,000,000,000.00 to companies that have made very poor decisions is ludicrous. Every time you hear the word 'economy' in the news, replace it with 'spending'; and when you hear 'federal government', replace it with 'American taxpayer'. Consumer spending is a larger percentage of the economy than water is a percentage of the earth's surface. Is your spending down? Do you see your spending decreasing in the future? The whole 'bad economy' idea is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If all you hear on the news is that the economy is bad, you might think twice about making that extra purchase - which leads to less economic activity, which leads to fewer purchases... Also, when the fed prints money and hands it out like that, it devalues ALL money. So, thanks to congress your dollar buys a little less of everything now.

What is the real purpose of this boondoggle if not to nationalize more of our resources and production? Our GDP is still up. Our economy hasn't had two quarters of decreased activity (the definition of recession) in 7 years. We are at full employment (5% unemployment is considered full employment). People are working more, producing more and making more money. Why is this needed? Could it be because the leftists are making a play to take over a large portion of the banking market claiming that it's 'needed' it's an 'emergency' and that there 'should be no debate'? Sounds a lot like their fallacious man-made global warming arguments to me. Oh, and take a look at the pork in the 'bailout' bill.

The real solution for this 'crisis' is to let these companies fail! They're the ones who made the bad decisions, not the American taxpayer. Why is it all of a sudden our responsibility to make sure these corporate execs get every bit of the golden parachute they were dreaming of? Just because one bank or one insurance company fails doesn't mean that the free market economy is a house of cards. Like all companies that have failed in the past, other firms will step in and buy up the vacated resources and provide for the displaced market share. These are basic principles of business. Basic principles that have apparently been lost.

What have we learned from this? Make all the bad decisions you want. You can even do it on a grand scale. What about paying the piper? Eh... we'll let the American taxpayer take care of that bill.