Via Del Monte

This particular home has been a roller coaster ride for us.

We first spotted this one probably over a year ago; it was way out of our price range. At that point, the house was in “short sell” status. And once a while since then we would see it show up at one point or another during our online database search. We didn’t give much thoughts to it.

Early in November, we accidentally drove by it again. But this time, it was open house. We were already on our way home, figured oh may as well just stopped in to see what it looks like inside since we never had a chance before. We knew at that point the house was still out of our price range.

We were surprised to see that the house was empty. The selling agent told us that this one is now a REO (bank owned). And it fell out of escrow recently from a full price purchase agreement. He even told us that the bank attempted to go back to the second offer but it was too late (they bought another home). That piece of information gave us hope, as there is a big 20% difference between the first and the second offer.

The following weekend, Tom and I went back with our agent. The original second offer was an all cash buyer. We are not. Of course, this place has been on the market for a while now. After a second look, we decided that it wouldn’t hurt to place an offer at the same price as the original second offer. By now, it was the week before Thanksgiving. And the bank was in no hurry for any kind of response. After another week of non response, we were told the bank decided to change the seller agent. So our agent has to start all over with the new seller’s agent. Then somehow the previous seller agent wouldn’t release the MLS listing so the new seller agent couldn’t relist again.

After a few more days, the new seller agent told us that they had to wait at least 5 days over a weekend before they can present our offer to the bank. Now we were in early Dec. By the time the 5 days wait is over, we had two other competitors’ offers. This meant bidding back and forth. What else is new??? As soon as we showed interested, someone else wanted it too!!! It has been like this with our last two attempts!

At the end of bidding, we were the highest offer on the table now. The bank was not happy with our offer, as it was 15% below their asking price. So they pulled a price reduction on us. Of course, their attempt was to generate new interests, which they did.

That following Monday, we were told there was another strong offer on the table and it was higher than ours. Then in couple days, we saw the status changed to “backup offer”, we knew we lost it again! On Dec 16, I wrote to our agent and told her that “I hope they fall out of escrow in a few weeks!!!”

Oh I believe in the power of suggestion, sending my message out loud to the universe!!!

And over the weekend, Tom and I were in Vegas celebrating his birthday. So I jokingly asked him what his birthday wish is. He said for the buyer to fall out of escrow.

On Dec 21st, we got the call from our agent. The buyer backed out of the deal and the seller agent wanted to know if we were still interested in the property at the final price we offered.

Well, as of today, we have an email confirmation of accepting our offer even though we still do not have a signed contract. Working with the bank on a REO has been a painfully slow process. Now we are “waiting” for the official signature from the VP. We already got the approval from the asset manager. We continue to feel a bit surreal and keep our fingers crossed to see this deal finally go through.



This house was built in 1978. As you can see from the pictures above, most of it is still in the “original” condition, which isn’t a good thing, meaning a bunch of upgrades ahead of us. There are 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, about 3400+ sqft of living space. It has a bit of everything we want such as partial view of the ocean from the living and dining room, a decent size and flat backyard, plenty of living space for our hobbies. Tom wants a jam room; I want my craft room back, exercise area, plus a spare room for guests. This one definitely has all of these. And it is in one of the most beautiful area in the south bay.

What it does have on the negative side: the kitchen and the 3 bathrooms are totally outdated, short driveway so we will have issues with parking 3 cars. But the floor plan is opened and plenty of space that we figured we just have to work this in ourselves.