Lessons Learned When the Deal Falls Through
The deal on the duplex fell through.
Apparently, we weren’t the only offer that was accepted. Even though we rushed to sign the offer contract and hand over our good faith money, the seller kept us on the back burner just long enough to go through attorney review with another buyer. We were finally notified about a week after we signed the offer contract.
I was pissed.
This isn’t illegal since the seller never signed their end of the offer contract, but it is poor business and very deflating as a first time home buyer.
While this isn’t how I wished the deal would go, I did take away some solid learning experience and hard lessons.
Treat everything as a learning experience
Before this process, I didn’t even know of an inspection company and now I have a list of several as well as a list of contractors, lenders, and insurance agents. This past week or so wasn’t a waste, it was a solid run through for the real deal. I gained actual experience and learned lessons that only taking action can teach you. And now I’m confident that my gut won’t do as many back flips when the next offer gets accepted. Hopefully.
Be prepared
Before making this offer, we had nothing lined up. We weren’t even pre-approved!
While we were able to obtain everything in time to move forward, it was very stressful. And I hate being stressed.
I actually had crazy stress induced headaches for three days.
To alleviate some of that pressure, have a team in place before looking. I will say, I’ve heard this piece of advice many times before and I always thought, what am I supposed to do? Call a contractor and say, “Hey! I think I may possibly have a rehab project at some point in the future.” The lack of credibility scared me so I never reached out. Fortunately for us, we were able to get great contacts from our friends and realtor in a short time. But I wouldn’t recommend that.
It’s not that scary
Okay, at the time, it was.
Like I said, when our first offer was accepted, my emotions switched back and forth from pure excitement to curling in a ball and sobbing. But because I was able to experience it, making offers isn’t as scary anymore.
I’m a big believer that some things just aren’t meant to happen. So we’ll take these lessons and move onto the next one.
