Still on the market

We listed our house for sale 7 months ago. We had several showings in a row, then nothing for a few months, then several in the few days before our listing was set to expire, and then nothing again. I've taken new photos of some of the rooms because my real estate agent is not a great photographer and once we get them online we plan to lower our price and hopefully get some new eyes on the photos.

We were under contract for a home across town that we loved and I had big plans for the renovations I was going to do but our contract was contingent on our home selling and expired while we sat with no interest. At the time it felt like we were going to lose the perfect house and I'm still sad to lose some of the things it offered but that house, which we called The Pink House, is still on the market but our feelings towards it have cooled. Mostly the husband was concerned about the fact that the house had had structural piering done about 12 years ago. The owners had only done the absolute minimum amount of piers when there were many more recommended. We would have had the home inspected by a structural engineer before completing the purchase but even that is no guarantee that there wouldn't be further shifting in a year or five. So we moved on.

Last month we saw a listing for a HUD owned property and couldn't believe how nice it looked. My husband was more excited about the pictures of this house than any property we had looked at or driven past or talked about in all of our house hunting throughout the years. We went to look at it with our realtor on a rainy evening with a camping lantern and a garage light because there was no electricity in the house and it was pitch dark out. We couldn't reschedule because time was running out on the listing and we needed to get our butts in gear to even think about making a bid.

In short, we both loved this house. It was move in ready enough for M to not be afraid of it and has enough needs for me to feel like I can make it our home. If you've never gone through the HUD home buying process it all feels very 'hurry up and wait' and there are so many hoops to jump through that I'm exhausted just thinking about it. We did put in a bid on this house and I'll tell you more about the process but I want to take it one step at a time. Next time I'll explain the bidding process and how it went for us.

Have you ever purchased a HUD or REO property? Would you do it again? What was the hardest part of the process in your experience?