We bid on 4 houses before landing ours this spring. Take heart, it will work out for the best!

OP - where are you looking?

You need to over bid and be willing to cover the difference in cash over the appraisal. I would craft my offer letter with those two explanations.

OP I am sorry! We have been looking for quite awhile ourselves. Very little inventory -- and so many of the homes have insolvable problems -- like on a busy street -- a no go for us. It just sucks.

Did you lose both houses for the same reason? I.e., offer too low, too many contingencies, not enough EMD?

We lost out on our first bid, too, though this was 7 years ago. I am SO GLAD now. We ended up in a better house in a better neighborhood for less money. Of course, this isn't guaranteed. But I bet if you ask most people who didn't get their first house(s), they'd say they are glad they ended up where they did.

I know this is frustrating but I want to give you some hope. We looked for houses during two overheated market periods. We lost more than a few. There were times when we would say that maybe we were being unrealistic and stubborn refusing to bid higher than we thought houses were worth. Both times, we ended up with places we loved. As importantly, we got them at prices we could comfortably afford, have never been close to upside down in our mortgages, and were able to build equity from the start. This while we watched many friends feel stuck in their homes because they 'stretched' to garuntee their bid was accepted at the time of purchase. I don't say this as a knock to them or to be smug but as encouragement to you that there are houses and housing scenarios well worth waiting for. Good luck.

It seems the national trends still don't apply to the dc area yet, We've seen homes in our Silver Spring neighborhood go under contract before any public listing. Heard the same from friends in Arlington and Bethesda. It's nuts out there.

I'm so sorry OP. No matter how much you convince yourself it's not emotional, and you don't get your hopes up, you simply think you're going to get a house you bid on and it hurts when you don't.

We looked, actively, for a year (online, open houses, weekends and some weeknigts with our real estate agent.) In that time we bid on 4 houses - this was in the spring when it was insane - one house had 9 offers and one had TWELVE - houses were escalating 8-10% over list price. The market may not be quite as crazy but there is still low inventory which keeps competition alive even for those properties that aren't "gems."

As others have said, your time and your house WILL come. Now I am not a huge believer in the "dream house" bit, I think it's unrealistic. Still there is a great house for you out there. Our 4th bid was on a house that I wouldn't have necessarily jumped on, but we took a closer look and saw the potential and have now truly grown to love it and made it our own.

If nothing else, losing out on houses grants you more experience and knowledge to make the right moves on the house you will actually get. Good luck and I hope you get there soon.

OP---consider it a warm up for the house you are meant to buy but haven't come across yet. We lost one bid and walked out on another (bad inspection) and after finally finding our house, so glad that is how it worked out. Hang in there.

sorry, I know how you feel. We lost 3 offers over a 9 month period - it's depressing. It seems like everything available either requires a major compromise or if it's pretty good, you only have a very short window to decide to put an offer on it before it is under contract by someone else. I hate having this pressure with such a major decision.

Hang in there. It took us over 2 years. You will find your home, it just takes time.

where are you looking?

I'm sorry, OP.
There is very little inventory and it transforms individual sales into a frenzied riot for the right buyers.

We bought the house of our dreams after 2 rejected bids on other houses. I'm so glad we lost out on those!

feeling pretty discouraged after losing another house this week. this is the second offer we've made (aggressively looking for almost 8 months) and not gotten the house. there aren't a lot of properties for sale in our desired area, and even fewer in our price range. this house wasn't a gem, but it had almost everything we wanted and we're really disappointed.

just wanted to vent.