I have clients that made the typical 1st Time Home Buyer mistake of walking up to the Listing Agent at an Open House and having him help them with their offer to purchase the house. Not only did he represent the owner, but was a long time friend to boot. They paid too much for the house to begin with and then the Agent sent them to a lender he works with to get a bad loan. It had an adjustable rate, even though they could have qualified for a fixed rate and it has gone steadily higher at each renewal period.
The wife became pregnant with their 2nd child and they called the lender when she was 4-1/2 months along to let them know that she would soon be unemployed and to find out if there was anything they could do to renegotiate their loan terms. They notified her that they can do nothing until they are actually behind. Hhhmm, what's wrong with this picture?
They try to do the right thing and they get the cold shoulder from the bank. The last thing they want is to have the house foreclosed on and get buried in the REO graveyard. Finally, she has to stop working 2 months sooner than they had planned and the finances begin to go sour. Of course, once the baby is born, money is going out at an even faster rate with the additional expenses the bundle of joy brings. Inevitably they fall one month, then two behind and there is no sight of the surface of the financial quicksand into which they have sunk.
The list price was under market value, so people would be enticed to view the property amongst all its competition. We had an offer early on, which was a great blessing, despite how low it was, as it got the process rolling for the Appraisal and Broker's Price Opinion. The lender countered the offer, but the Buyer was unable to qualify for the amount requested. This seems to be an anomaly amongst today's horror stories of lenders that take months to respond. We are already past the hardest hurdle of getting the bank to work through to the point where they have an idea of what they can accept for the property. Now we just need to get another offer. The house gets a decent number of showings, the potential Buyers give good feedback, but for one reason or another it doesn't meet their needs. Even the Agents are saying that it is a nice house, but they are not in a position to buy it.
I hope for this couple's sake that we can find a Buyer for their cozy duplex in the Hamilton area of Baltimore, MD. 
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