Escalation Clause Anxiety
Amy Collins is another first-time spring buyer suffering from remorse. She and her husband bought a townhouse in Alexandria in April after bidding on four other places.
This time, they were determined to win the bidding, so their contract included an escalation clause that said they would pay up to $45,000 more than list price. The townhouse was on the market for just three days, which didn't leave a lot of time for contemplation. They submitted their contract 15 minutes before the deadline. There were seven other bids.
Shelley and Severin Sorensen stand with thier family in front of their house they bought in Potomac, Md. from left, Hayden, 11, Britton and Bryce, both 10, front, Skylar, 4, and an exchange student from China, Sabrina Liu. At first Shelley was convinced they had made a mistake buying a house half the size of their previous one, but now she is getting used to it.
(Cathy Kapulka - The Washington Post)
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"We escalated like crazy," Collins said, "but we felt we had to, to get it."
She felt lucky: She won with a bid only $30,000 over list price.
However, the townhouse didn't appraise for the purchase price. That meant Collins and her husband had to come up with additional down payment cash out of their savings, rather getting as large a mortgage as they had wanted.
As if that wasn't enough to trigger buyer's remorse, a few months later, a similar townhouse in their development sold for $20,000 less than they had paid. Other similar townhouses are now on the market for less, too.
"I just feel taken advantage of," Collins said. "I don't even know by whom. By the market, I guess. We had to pay more than it's worth to get it, which is disconcerting."
However, she said, she enjoys her home and the remorse is lessening with time.
"It's not like I lay awake nights worrying about it," Collins said. "But it does strike a chord."
Because sellers have ruled the market here for the last few years, buyers have been the most susceptible to remorse, said agent Jane Fairweather of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Bethesda.
"It's not surprising, in a market where they've had to give up all their rights and just pay and pay and pay," she said.
Richard Oder, an agent with Long & Foster Real Estate Inc. in the District, said first-time buyers are more likely to feel remorse than are more experienced buyers.
"They're scared, which is understandable," Oder said. "They're really nervous about whether they did the right thing. It's all psychology."
Concern Over Compromises
Alex Gross has a more subtle kind of first-time buyer's remorse. It's not so much about money. It's more about becoming comfortable with the compromises he made and responsibilities he took on.
Gross and his wife, Sofia, moved to Washington recently from New York City, where they rented an apartment for 10 years. But now they had a child and Sofia's mother was going to live with them, so they wanted a house.
Still, they like city life so they looked in Glover Park, Dupont Circle and Georgetown with a budget up to the low $600,000s.
