grumblegrumble

(Beware, boring details may be ahead.)

We have had five—FIVE—offers to date.
We have been on the market for just shy of 6 months.
Almost consistently, we are the second choice (“if the first one doesn’t work out, we’ll be back”). Ha. Even their agents aren’t so sure about why we’re the 2nd choice rather than the 1st.
Now, I am almost afraid to believe in the offers we get.

1. The second week on the market (mid-February), we had an offer that was asking us to drop way down in price and they were unwilling to bend or meet in the middle. They were also very slow about making the offer and responding to our counter offer. As in, they took three and four days rather than the allotted 24-48 hours. It was believed they would have been the same way if we’d accepted—that they would not have made it to the closing table.

2. Many months later, we finally got a second offer—the last day in May, to be exact. It was a full price offer and they wanted to close fast—you heard a bit of it in previous posts. We moved; they folded. We now own two houses and things are getting stretched really, really thin.

3. There was a verbal offer the day after we accepted the above one. Obviously, it was not something we could consider since we’d already verbally committed to that one. But, I still say it counts, and they were disappointed. I am, too, in hindsight.

4. This past Monday, we got an offer that was several thousand less than our asking price, MINUS closing costs, MINUS a carpet allowance*. The bottom line on that offer: we would go down in a hole by $14,000! We countered offering partial closing costs. They came back again with a slightly less offensive offer (only minus $9,000 this time, for us). We countered the same as before. I mean, come on, COMPROMISE. If they’d have come closer, we’d have tried to worked it out. They said they’d be back if they couldn’t find something else. You know, we could have paid for a YEAR or more on that house before we could afford their first offer! Cripes.

5. Yesterday, we got a lovely, reasonable offer—within a thousand or so of our asking price, but they wanted full closing costs. Since we’ve been stretching ourselves with two house payments, it’s not quite so easy to come by at the moment, however we took it (we’re also spending untold hours keeping up the yard and interior which is valuable time when you have two little kids). We’ll scrape it up any way we can and get that house off our back. As an incentive, they are pre-qualified (offer #2 was having trouble with this which meant we didn’t even get to keep their earnest money! ARGH.), and can close in 10 days (deliberate choice on their part to encourage us to accept their offer). Hallelujah! That’s enough to not counter, take it and RUN.

*No one commented on the carpet until our furniture was moved out, then everyone noticed wrinkles and spots, so last night my hubby and parents stretched it and shampooed the living room--until after 1am. I stayed home with the two kiddos who’d have been in the way and bored. Truthfully, other than the need to be stretched, it was comparable to the carpet in our "new" house, so we just got hit by whiney people.

In the meantime, I’m working to trust and praying that it goes through. You must admit, the track record isn’t so hot. (I'm usually afraid to post or tell people about news of any sort, because it seems that the second it leaves my mouth, it changes. However, I give up. I will just expect it to change and hope it doesn't. If I were superstitious, which I'm very much not, I'd say I jinx things!)