The House Thing

So, the house thing. We were hoping to buy a house using Federal Home Assistance and get a lower down payment. We found a great place, but it has it's warts. We offered $110k initially. That was quickly revised down to $106k on initial negotiation. We waited, and then we hit a snag. The house is supposed to be a "short sale". This means the seller walks away with nothing, no profit, but no loss. The seller must prove financial hardship to make this work. They must be delinquent on payments. They payed the month after our initial offer. So we waited another month. Then we looked at the house again. Dad saw it, Pazi for the first time. Everyone seemed happy. The dishwasher was replaced since I last saw it, and the new unit didn't fit under the counter. A section of the counter was left on the side, a nasty hack-job. It was repairable, but I couldn't exactly blame the seller for not seeing the point. Then the house was appraised, and the point was made apparent. The appraiser said not $106k, but $76k. Great, right? Not so. The busted counter and the lousy appraisal meant that the banker did not want to pay 6% or even 3% of the closing costs. They only wanted to pay 1%. This means the down payment jumped from $3500, to $6500 -- exceeding what I have in savings. I called Dad. I explained the situation, but did not explicitly ask for help. He offered to make up the gap. I can see why, the payments each month would be low, and the price is an incredible steal. I promised I'd pay him back later. Now I'm worried. There's still *another* appraisal in the pipe, and who knows what that'll bring. It may kill the deal entirely, or make it easier once more. We don't know. The short term looks really, really nasty. All my savings will evaporate, and I will have a mortgage and an apartment payment to make for two months. Afterwards, things improve. I'll have a house with payments hopefully at or lower than my current rent. The longer term...looks better. With the car paid off and my recent raise, there should be more money available. One of my college loans is below $3k and is getting closer all the time to being paid off. The credit card balance goes up and down, like usual. It's not unmanageable yet, but I've leaned on it for my recent (poorly timed by sorely needed) vacation to Grand Marais, and will likely lean on it more in coming months. Right now, I don't know when or if any of this will happen. It could be today, tomorrow, a week, or two months from now. The opaqueness of this process is really upsetting.