House, House, Bo-Bouse

So, we heard back from the bank today. They came back with an offer that was very close to what we offered, with the only stickler being that they will only pay for $4800 of the $7500 to close. That means we have to come up with about $2500 in closing costs. Which wouldn't be impossible, but would literally leave us with absolutely no savings, which is not something I'm comfortable with in this economy.

The other option is having a relative "gift" us the money. It's a very screwy situation in which the person "gifting" the money has to sign a letter that it's a "gift" and not a "loan." However, our loan officer was very specific in telling us that if we'd like to "re-gift" that money BACK to the giver at a later date, there's really nothing the bank could do about it, hint hint. Anyway, we've identified a relative that may be willing to gift us part of the closing costs, but has to talk to his wife about it all.

It's very sticky because the bank extended the counter-offer to more than one person. Whoever signs on the dotted line first gets the house. So, it could already be owned by someone else. Who knows. Not only that, but here's the situation:

1. If the house is appraised at more than our offer price, they can roll a portion of closing costs into the mortgage. However, with this economy, things aren't appraising very highly, so that's a gamble. Plus, we don't want to do an appraisal unless our offer is accepted.

2. If we use the going rate instead of a special below-market-first-time-buyer program, our interest rate would be 1/8th a point higher, but closing costs would be $1000 less. However, they can't lock us in until there's a signed offer, so we don't want to count on that if rates suddenly were to skyrocket...as unlikely as that may be.

So, we're closer than ever, but things are also more up in the air than ever before. And with the day I've been having, I sort of just want to go home and cry. Looking at the numbers, we could make this all work, but it just feels really overwhelming right now. I feel like there are going to be 1001 things that will go wrong and all subsequently cost more money.