house shopping

Good morning.
We've just returned from a very short quick trip to Las Vegas.
We left Saturday morning, flying out of Detroit on Spirit Airlines, returning yesterday afternoon.
We continue to hear horror stories about Spirit, but we've now flown them 4 times, and all 4 flights left and arrived on time.  The seats are a little close together, but they don't recline, so you don't have to worry about someone in your lap. And I had my tablet to pass the time, so we were good.
We stayed 3 nights at New York New York, for free, thanks to comps from  the Facebook game, My Vegas Slots.   :-)
Of course, the purpose of the trip was to look at some possible homes to buy.
We had previously lined up a Realtor, who met us early Sunday morning, and showed us 11 homes. I must say, nearly everyone we looked at was in far worst shape than the pics portrayed. The pics also were way off when showing the size of rooms. But then this was exactly why we wanted to physically walk through a bunch of homes to get a better feel for the layout and space.
There were a few possibilities that Craig and I wanted to discuss so we went back to our hotel, made a couple of drinks, and hashed out our differences. He liked a free standing home in Summerlin, and I liked a fixer upper attached 'villa' in Summerlin. We also both liked a free standing home in Aliante.The fixer upper really needed a lot of work. New kitchen, 2 new baths, a ceiling leak that needed to be addressed and also a patio door leak that had rotted trim.
We finally agreed it would be logistically hard to fix up a home long distance.
The house in Summerlin I thought had too small of a living room, and Craig agreed after re-looking at pics I took. We were also surprised at how poorly kept the homes were in Summerlin, considering they were built in the early 90's. We decided to take another look at the one in Aliante on Monday. These homes were built between 2005 and 2008. Much newer although much closer together than the ones in Summerlin. We completely passed on looking at homes in Las Prados, after our Realtor clarified the hoa's were $260 per month. Way more that we wanted to pay. Also, those home were built in the mid 80's.
So Monday morning, we met the Realtor again, and she had one more home in Aliante to show us. A little higher priced, but the same floor plan we liked in the other home we were going to re-look at.
I was glad we did, because that home had furniture where as the one we looked at the day before was empty. That gave us a good idea how big the place would look occupied. It did look nice, but when we re-looked at the place we saw the day before, we were sold. It had tiled floors throughout, a walled private back yard, and cost less.
So........ we headed back to the office to write up the offer.
Now this purchase, if it even happens could take some time.
This home is listed as a short sale, which means the owner owes more than the home is currently worth. So that means, even thought the seller is willing to accept less, the bank makes the final decision whether to accept the price or not. And apparently, the banks are never in any hurry. Now according to records, this home has been for sale since last July. The bank has since then rejected 2 other similar offers. It was most recently re-listed last October, and the price has been dropped 3 times. Our Realtor seems to believe the bank will now take this offer, or counter offer. Considering how much time it took her to prepare all the papers for the offer, I hope she knows what she's taking about. Also, there's also a chance the property could be foreclosed on, since the owned stopped making payments last July and a different arm of the bank deals with that part. So technically speaking, the bank could foreclose on the property and sell it at auction for less than we offered. Crazy right?
So now we wait. Our realtor said it could take 3-4 months to close if all works out. Fortunately, that would be good, since we won't be moving any time soon anyway.
Also, we could keep looking, and if we found something we like better during that time before it's accepted, we could cancel the offer. So, right now, were in kind of a good spot. The seller can't accept any other offers until ours is approved or declined, and we still have flexibility to keep looking.
I'll post some pics, if and when we actually own the house.
Now time to go.