Okay so here’s where I’m at with the house. This is probably all too hard to explain without figures, but I’m not particularly keen to splash around details of my economic position. For one thing, it would only take the curious real estate agent seconds to look up my name on Google, find my diary, and know exactly how much I can afford. So instead I’ll use X, Y and Z.
A while back I asked the bank if I could spend X. They said yes. Atthe auction, the bidding was faster and furiouser than I expected, and it went up over X. Oh dear. And it was passed-in. Negotiations began between the highest bidder and the vendor, but no agreement was reached, so it’s still for sale.
I realised that I had been a very silly Daniel, and had asked the bank to lend me X, which was the amount I thought the house would go for. This was a mistake. I should have asked the bank how much I could afford. So I asked them on Monday, and the bank lady came up with a figure which was a good deal higher: Z. But due to complicated bank red tape reasons, I couldn’t be given authorisation on the spot, it had to go to a special team of crack bank advisers to decide if I could really have Z.
On Wednesday they replied and said…. No, no you can’t have Z. You can still have X, but not Z. Argh. Okay. So I said to the bank lady if I could apply again, this time for an amount somewhere between X and Z, but still more than the previous highest bid on the house. How about Y? Okay she said, let you know on Friday.
Shortly afterwards, the agent rang me up to tell me she was showing someone else through the property. Was this true? I’m generally a trusting person, so it could be true, but Josh and others have told me that real estate agents are evil nasty people, so I suppose it’s possible it might have just been a ploy to get me to make another offer. Which I did – not because of her call, but because I was just going to anyway. I offered an amount higher than the other bids, between X and Y, but on condition of getting finance approved. Are you still following all of this? The agent said she’d pass it on, but that because I didn’t have finance approved, she wasn’t sure if it would be accepted. She implied that it stood more of a chance if I actually had finance, or (more likely) that a higher offer might be accepted. But I wasn’t going to bite and pledge more money.
Tonight (earlier than expected) the bank replied and said yes, you can have Y. Excellent, I’m very pleased.
So (and I wouldn’t blame you if your eyes have glazed over and you’ve skimmed down to this bit to skip the detail and get to the bloody point) the house game is not over yet, I still have a chance of getting it. I will ring the agent tomorrow and see what’s going on with it.
