[Lyrical]

This is a pic of the last house we entered into a contract. We built a contingency into the purchase contract that said that the house would need to appraise for market value or higher. The bank appraised the house lower than the purchase price, and the people refused to sell for any lower. Given all of the foreclosure activity and rapidly falling house values, we decided to sit out of the market for awhile until we get closer to the bottom. So we backed out of the contract (per the contingency). The house was pretty sweet. While it was listed at 3K square feet, it actually looked pretty huge on the interior. It had four bedrooms, a basement, an office, a workroom, and tons of storage and closet space.

I suggest that everyone add this contingency on their contracts. In this case, if we didn't have the clause, we would have had to either pay the difference out of pocket, or get sued for breach of contract.

As the rate of foreclosures keep rising in Atlanta, I figure we'll be able to get a great deal here in a few months. My godparents live in a posh community around here, and they just had a foreclosed house in their neighborhood sell for 240K. In their neighborhood, the homes are 4K+ square feet and all brick. We live in an apartment that doesn't hold us to the lease (we can break the contract at any time and just pay one month's rent). So when it is time to pounce, we'll move fast. Prices are dropping so hard that our dream home is within sight.