The not so merry merry-go-round of real estate.

I was chatting with a would-be buyer for about the 200th time about the "why" or the "how come" of this or that, mostly having to do with the inordinate delays we've experienced with a "standard" home purchase. You see, his brother told him he could buy a house relatively simply two years after he declared bankruptcy, but of course, he didn't tell him all the hoops he'd have to jump through to get the right financing.

Well, as luck might have it, this last discussion lead to his throwing up his arms and saying, enough is enough. "I want to cancel the deal!" And so it went, another eight months worth of showing, driving up and down the area, making at least 25 bids on as many houses and working with several lenders to make this happen. In the end, what did I have to show for it? Absolutely nothing!

The most frustrating part, if we're looking at the financial side, is that it wound up costing quite a bit when you factor time and gas, and tolls and all the other sundry things that go into making the typical real estate deal happen these days.

Regrets, if any, are the challenges that we have to overcome on your average transaction these days. You see, the last escrow I had with these folks, and there were a total of four all together over that period of time, was going as well as might be expected with a "short sale", but when the FHA appraiser came to do their appraisal, they wound up doing a home inspection on top of that! When did appraisers become inspectors, I asked, and the curt answer was, that FHA required them to note anything that the house exhibited that was a health and safety issue. Of course, that makes perfect sense, but tell it to a buyer who now blames you for the five month delay, the extra fees it cost him for the appraisal, the loss of time off work to go and come, and on, and on...

You can see what I mean when I say, the not so merry merry-go-round of real estate. Oh, there's another call, "... you say you want to buy a house? and that you're a first time buyer? and that you have little or not money? and that you want the best..." Oh well, until we figure out how to sell without the real people, don't expect that you get paid for anything other than solving peoples housing problems -- right?

Go out and make it a great day, oh, and remember to smile!