We had made our offer subject to financing, which is a condition that is included in almost every offer I am sure.  Remember, we had been pre-approved by the bank for $350,000.  The offer that was accepted was for $299,000.  We were well within our budget.

Unfortunately, things don’t always work out easily. 

And for me, where finances are concerned it can be even more tricky to understand.  Understanding financial matters is not my strong suit.

The mortgage specialist who eagerly answered our questions at the beginning of our home search was no longer very helpful.  It turns out, he didn’t really tell us everything we needed to know about our financing and mortgage insurance requirements.

I felt blindsided.  I am not normally a super optimistic person.  Quite the opposite actually.  In most cases, I expect that things won’t work out.  In this case, we felt things were working out just great.  Based on the information we were provided by the original mortgage specialist, I was 100% convinced we would be buying this house.  I was wrong.

At the suggestion of our Realtor, we contacted a new mortgage broker, Charmaine Scherck.  She spent two days tirelessly searching to get the best mortgage with the best rate for us.  She had a few options she presented to us, and as awesome as they were, they just weren’t going to work for our situation.

We decided that rather than trying to force this to work and possibly regretting the decision, we would take a step back, reevaluate our goals and priorities, and continue our hard work to make home ownership a possibility for us in the upcoming months.

We knew it would mean passing up the house that we felt was just perfect for us.  That was a hard thing to do.  But, we also knew that we’d find another house later, when the time was right, that would be equally as perfect for us – maybe even more so.

Looking back on this whole experience I did feel like maybe we rushed into things a bit.  I know I am not the only one who has had a real estate deal fall through, but I really took this personally.  I felt miserable and embarassed.

The fact that I started writing about our experiences on this blog, then chose to continue posting this series even though the outcome wasn’t looking very promising was difficult for me and to be perfectly honest, kind of humiliating.  However, I feel like in a way it has been a bit therapeutic and a great lesson.  It does show that not every transaction is all perfect, happy sunshine and rainbows.  This is real life. 

Throughout this experience I have learned some important things that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

I’ve also developed some amazing relationships with the people who have helped us along the way.  For example, Chris Holm, is our Realtor for life.  Eventhough he didn’t make a single dime off of this whole “fiasco”, he still treats us like gold and is waiting in the wings until we are ready to start this whole process over again.

And our great mortgage broker, Charmaine, who I am confident will be able to help us again when the time is right and make sure that we know every detail that we need to know to make this a success.

The house is sold now.  I drove past the other day.  Now that the snow has melted I was curious to see what the front yard actually looked like.  I thought it would be painful to drive by and think of what could have been, but I was surprised to find myself feeling somewhat neutral.

I guess getting a dog will have to wait a little while longer.

Thanks for reading folks!  Maybe I’ll do this again the next time around – hopefully with a happier ending.