My dream house is up for auction.

[TXMomof4]

There is a house down the street from us that I've been in love with since we moved here 3 years ago. It's been empty that whole time, and they just put the auction signs up last week. I love this house. It is beautiful. It's big. It's in the perfect neighborhood. There is NO way I could bid on it. Dh is gone and we will most likely be moving next year, but still....I just want to cry to think that I could actually have a chance of owning that home. Of course, the bidding will probably go out of my range pretty darn quick. The estimated value is over half a million (which I am nowhere near being able to afford - ever) but the starting bid is $1,000.

 

Someday.

[Tracey in TX]

I've heard of a $4,000,000 home being auctioned for only $400,000 (10% of it's value). Talk to DH. Maybe you can afford to make a bid, even ridiculously low. If you can afford a second mortgage temporarily, could you possibly make it happen? Just image if you could get your dream home for less than the cost of your current home...

[TXMomof4]

The big thing is he's deployed, and planning to go active duty full time when he returns. I want that too. But, if we were going to stay here I'd figure out a way to make it work.

 

We're renting right now just so we have the ability to pick up and move when we need to. The house needs a lot of work, I'm sure it hasn't really been updated since it was built. Besides, property taxes would eat us a live eventually.

 

I think it's just knowing someone else will have it means it's not *my* house anymore, even in my dreams? I know, it's kind of silly. Alright, a lot silly, but there you have it!

[Tracey in TX]

(((hugs)))

We actually put our house on the market to purchase our dream home. It sold 12 hours before we put in a bid. It still stings, but the home design is fresh in my mind...just in case we build someday. I understand how you feel. You're smart, though, to let it pass in case of a relocation.

[Carol in Cal.]

I had a little bit of money left for furniture.

 

And a large department store was selling out their entire Oriental rug inventory, never to stock it again.

 

There was this little handtied silk rug from Kashmir--just beautiful, but very impractical. Small--only about 3 X 5 feet. Light in color. Fragile--silk should really be on the wall, the sales guy said. I could not justify it, but I kept visiting it. It cost $3650. I think it was on sale for $2200 or something like that.

 

I decided not to buy it, but I kept visiting it. One night it was not there anymore. Someone had bought it, so it was gone. The same night I heard that everything was going on final sale for half price, and that at the end of the week there would be an auction of all of the rugs that were still left after the sale for whatever people would pay for them. So I thought I would go to the auction and see if I could get a bargain on something attractive but more practical.

 

When I got to the auction, the silk rug was back! It had been returned! So they put in into the auction. Someone bid $500, I bid $750, and I got it! I was so happy, and I still have it, 24 years later.

 

Moral: You just never know. So take a shot--what do you have to lose? Make a low offer, and know how high you might possibly go, and stay stubborn about that limit. Good luck!

[mcconnellboys]

Wow, a house in my neighborhood just went up for absolute auction, too. It had been on the market two years. You might be surprised how low these things go with the market the way it is..... Scary, though. Wonder how often we'll be seeing such auctions in the next year or so?