We have been working for some time on buying the last house that I mentioned. It is a fixer upper, right on a very busy road. The pros: lovely flat 1 acre backyard, easy access to things and people that we would like to be close to, possibly historic and charming house built in the 1760s that is plenty big. The cons: right on busy road (I mean RIGHT on and BUSY - actually, FAST might be a better word - think fast moving tractor trailers), the neighbors are very close and their houses are also fixer uppers - except they aren't being fixed up. The house basicly needs to be gutted on the inside. Now this last one was in our minds a pro and a con because we could get it for cheap and make it just the way we want it.

So Steve went to look at the house one afternoon with our landlord and bid on it - but he didn't bid the price that we had talked about, he bid the FULL price. The house was about to go into foreclosure, so the deal needed to happen very quickly, so we immediately started to set up inspections. We went to the seller's bank to see if we could assume their mortgage or negotiate with the bank if it did go into foreclosure. We started renovating it and landscaping it in our minds. (And building a tall fence around that 1 acre back yard.)

We've done all of this before.

Several times.

A few days later, Steve called the seller's realtor to set up an inspection. The realtor said that he thought the inspection was premature. This seemed strange to us since we had offered the ASKING price. Why wouldn't our offer be accepted? It turns out that he had someone else bid higher than us. Higher than the asking price. And he wasn't going to tell anyone because he would get a higher commission if he sold it himself. A ridiculous bidding war ensued that lasted a week. We finally won at $7,000 higher than our original offer. We hate the seller's realtor.

So then we finally set up the inspections this past Monday. We knew that the house had some serious problems. We counted on re-finishing the ENTIRE interior as well as possibly every single window and door. We knew that the stone foundation was going to need some work, but we figured that it had been standing since the 1760s, it must not be too bad. We hadn't counted on the rafters needing to be replaced (not just the roofing, but the actual rafters) or the beams (round tree trunks) that hold up the entire first floor to be so rotted you could punch a screw driver right through them. We thought that the heating system was sound, but it turns out it needs a $1000 part. Steve came home very upset, and we decided this week to not buy the house.