Maybe this, maybe that, blah dee blah blah blah! All I know is what the OP told us in 2 sentences and, unless this Facebook freak is going to get on here and explain some more, then I guess we'll never know the circumstances. What I do know is this: 1. Don't share social networking pages with your boss and his/her family. Next weeks drunken rampage and "sick" day are a ticket to the unemployment office. 2. Get a pre-approval from a mortgage lender if you are buying a house if you aren't a lottery winner who plans on paying cash. I mean, hell, if I go with your line of thinking why don't we just say god is punishing her for being a closet lesbian. What's that you say, she didn't say she was a closet lesbian? Well, I'm basing that supposition on the same level of information you are with the real estate tutorial above.

You might want to be quiet, as you *clearly* have no idea. You are a perfect example of the current credit crisis. You ought to have *all* of those questions answered well before you even start looking. One of the very first things you do is decide a price range you can afford. You go to the bank, and get pre-approved for that amount. In most cases, you actually get pre-approved for much more than what you want. Doing that, you know what the maximum price you can afford is. You also know exactly how much the maximum closing costs will be, as well as what your exact monthly payment is. You also get an amortization schedule, as required by federal law, telling you exactly how much equity you own after each payment. If the property taxes are out of whack, that is *automatically* fixed on the acceptance of the offer. Taxes are assigned based on either the latest assessed value *OR* the latest sale value of a property. It is obviously only worth $x if that is what it sold for -- with the exception of $1 sales, and the like. The real estate market is still moving faster than most people realize, it is only the crappy houses with crappy prices that are lingering around in any price range. Anything worth around the asking price is snapped up in short order -- sometimes as fast as a few hours after hitting the market. To go play at 'buying house' without understanding the process, or not knowing their price range, or being indecisive is a huge YDI. It is likely one of the 3 most expensive purchases you ever make -- followed by the next 2 home purchases you make in your life.

Good for you and damned right! There is no window shopping in real estate. Damned every one of you people out there who casually looked for homes and found one without securing funding first! But, seriously, grow up!! I take issue with this crybaby complaining about "her" house being stolen without exercising due diligence - but I don't think that house hunting on weekends is the cause of the credit crisis! Again, lots of extrapolation from 2 sentences!

The cause of the credit crisis is people buying houses they cannot afford the payments on. This is cause by people finding a house they like first, and trying to make the payment for that house fit, and not finding a payment that fits, and buying a house in that price range. When you start looking, you should already know exactly what your max affordable payment is, and exactly how large a loan that will get you.

You go Rainndrop! @ozymandias - Really, can't we all put our differences aside and agree that the bosses daughter is a ****? If we can all meet on that common ground, maybe we can unite on the other topics? And then, I will lead us all in a chorus of "Kumbaya", followed by "We Are the World" (shout out to that dead freakish drug addled child molesting plastic surgery addict Michael Jackson - we miss you!!!)

@Ozy... Absolutely. When we bought our house, we put down an offer 30 minutes after seeing it, in the knowledge that we had all the bases covered regarding finance etc. If you haven't sorted all that in advance, you'll lose out. Tough way to learn the lesson, but hopefully the OP only needs to learn it once.

No. The boss's daughter did nothing wrong. The OP was not serious about buying the house, so why should she have to wait?