The bank declined our offer and did not give the opportunity to negotiate. There is one remote option we want to talk with the bank about. If we were to get the house, the non-profit organization that we train and provide the dogs through would use the land for training and housing the service dogs. We hope to propose to the bank (the owner of the property) that they could sell our family the house, for the price we bid on and they could donate the remaining land to the non-profit organization, Second Chance Canine League. The bank could give the land at full value and use it as a tax deduction, we think. We haven’t dealt with a donation of this type, before. Anyhow, it looks like a definite “NO”, but we’ll see.
I have been waiting for news about the house to write this update. I was sure each of the past however many days would be the day that the bank would contact us about the house. I was expecting them to say that the bid was not accepted, but hoping that they would accept our offer. However, I was not expecting to look at the auction’s website to find out that the house that we purchased (subject to confirmation) was being sold again. Concerned that we had been scammed, I started calling all of the contact numbers I had to find out what was happening. The closing company said that they had not received confirmation from the bank and would get bank to me. Never heard from them again. Next, I tried the auction company. They had no record of our contract. I emailed confirmation and waited for a reply. None came, no surprise there. I called back and left word with a supervisor. Guess what, no reply, again. Today, the property we bid on was sold to someone else (subject to confirmation). This sounded highly unethical to us, but the auction company said the seller has every right to market the property until they have accepted on offer on it. Technically, the bank (aka the seller) has until this coming Tuesday to accept our bid. There is no logical way they would accept it since the new winning bid was $14,000 higher than our bid. I spoke with a wonderful representative from the auction company today. As she, Sara, was explaining what was happening with the property (she said that she has never seen a situation like this before), she confessed to me that she wanted to say “maybe this is not the house God intends for you”, but she didn’t want to offend me. That sparked a whole new conversation that ended with her asking me to call tomorrow and she would put me in touch with a person that negotiates between the winning bidders and the sellers. Sara said it wouldn’t hurt to see it through to the end. I am now fully prepared for what I thought was “my house” to belong to someone else. If this house is for us, God has to intervene in a big way. Big to me, not to Him, of course. Please pray. I will update the blog after I talk to the auction company. They are on Pacific Standard Time, so the earliest I will know anything would be after 11am (EST).
I have been on edge all day, trying not to get too excited, yet looking forward to the possibilities of a new home. I had never been to an auction. Once the bidding started, my heart started beating as fast as the auctioneer was talking. “Our house” was #54 on the list. The bidding for it started so quickly we almost bid more than we wanted. In a whirlwind of about a minute and a half, we won our bid. We won it for the amount we both agreed we would not go over. The down side of the bid is that it did not meet the reserve price the bank had set. For all of you aution newbies, this means that the bank that owns the house will review the bid and decide if they will accept it. If they accept it, the house is ours. If they do not accept it, they might give us the chance to increase our offer or they might just say no thanks. We don’t want to increase our offer, so we pray that they will accept it if the house is to be ours. They have fifteen days to accept or reject the bid. All of the events today end with the same feeling as yesterday, hesitantly excited.
The following video and song has nothing to do with the house we bid on, but the auction experience reminded me of this song.
