buying a REO home in todays market

Buying a home in todays market is not easy. There are many hurdles you have to over come before the home becomes yours. First we start with the bid. This can be your first hurdle. In todays market numerous people can be bidding on the same property and this can drive up the cost of the home. So your bids accepted! Congrats! NOT SO FAST. Next hurdle is the home inspection. I lost the house of my dreams to this hurdle. Hidden issues such as foundation problems and numerous other problems can be a deal killer. If you do get a clear inspection then comes the appraisal! No problem right? WRONG! In todays market home appraisals are comming in lower than asking price leaving you with two options come up with the cash to make up the difference or ask the seller to come down in cost. This also happened to me in my adventure of buying a home. We found a house it was first listed at 159,000. The seller (the bank) dropped the price to 149,900. A wonder price. Its a wonderful home in a great negibhorhood! We thought the price was fair so we bid the full price of 149,900. Our bid was accepted. Then came the appraisal! It came in at 141,000 so it would be up to us to make up the difference in cash. We don't have that kind of cash so our ONLY hope was the bank comming down to meet the asking price. Banks are already at rock bottom with their pricing and are not so willing to drop prices. By Gods grace and with a lot of prayer the bank DID decide to come down to appraisal price! HOWEVER they required another 1,500 from us for closing costs making it 5,100 for closing. Thank God we were able to do this or the deal would have been killed AGAIN! We were able to continue the transaction and get the home. We were very fortunate because now banks are excepting the buyer to make up the difference in CASH and if they can not the deals are dying. I've been reading of people that have had to appraise different propertys only to have the same results on different propertys. Low appraisals and banks not budging. This can get expensive at 500 dollars or more on each appraisal and walking away with nothing. This is extremely frusterating! It is a new trend for the appraisals to come in low. This is killing sales across the country making it almost impossiable to buy a home unless you have a large supply of cash avaiable. I feel very fortunate we were able to work out a deal! This has been a long haul in trying to buy a home. Many things that used to be easy are now large obstacles in the process of home buying. Its been scarey and I'm very glad its over! So remember one the bid is accepted that's only the first step in a very long process with deal killing hurdles stagering all along the way! I've learned a lot in this process, mostly times have changed and its a challenge all along the way of the home buying process! I do know I don't want to go through this again any time soon! The home appraisal is now the new deal killer! It is much more difficult than I ever imagined to buy a home in todays market.