Dang, I missed Friday the 13th.

[judecorp]

There hasn't been much going on to post about, unless you want to hear all of my ire at people who want to sell their houses for ridiculous prices and aren't willing to concede AT ALL that the current market is not at all the same market as, say, two years ago's market. They're hardly distant cousins twice removed. I mean, they both involve houses, and that's about it.

So I thought we were on to House #3 but for a brief time yesterday it looked like we were REALLY on to House #4. After we let go of House #2 for it's crazy overpricing with no hope of coming down ever (beggers can't say "final offer" ever, not in my book, but hey that's cool, keep your house), we got word from our realtor that someone was going to offer on House #3, so we bumped our offer up a couple thousand clams when we heard the people really really wanted to move out.

This is the part I love, I admit: when the realtor calls with the "situation" and I get to figure out what's between the lines and what the REAL situation is. I may not be able to solve ghost mysteries like Scooby Doo, but I'm a goddamned interpersonal Encyclopedia Brown. It's kind of my job, and why I love social work. But anyway.

So our realtor (hereby known as Crash) calls and says that the seller's realtor told her that the did in fact receive a second offer but if we wanted to offer the full price ($7K more than our high offer), it would be ours. We said no and hung up, and at this point I told Jen, "Their other offer is lower than ours, otherwise they wouldn't be calling us. They are lying." Sure enough, several hours later we received /another/ call, and Crash said they had dropped their price $1K. Ummm, no.

(See, the part THEY don't know is that we'd decided when we got the first call that we weren't moving on our offer at all, not a penny, because if we are going to buy a ranch house in Easthampton we are paying that much only because it is cheap. If we're going to go up $7K we might as well go up $10K and buy that first overpriced ranch which is in a better location (Florence) and has a carport. And Florence Ranch is still on the market with no bites and has already been Price Changed, so umm, no worries there.)

I told Jen after the second call, "They are going to realize that they are not going to get their asking price for their house, and that our $7K lower generous offer is the best ever. And they are going to call us back and 'generously' offer us their house." Jen was dubious and said that sellers agents don't call people back. But they do, of course, if they are trying to unload overpriced houses on a timeframe.

Crash called last night while we were at Shani's for Game Night and lo and behold, the sellers want an extra 24 hours to think about our offer - likely because they have some showings or an open house today.

Think hard, dudes. No one in THIS market makes an offer right at showing, especially not one that is not a really lowball offer.

I may be cheap, and I may be cocky, but one thing this househunt has taught me is that I have some weird psychic ability to know the situation.

Comments

[vorpalbla.livejournal.com]

"I may not be able to solve ghost mysteries like Scooby Doo, but I'm a goddamned interpersonal Encyclopedia Brown. It's kind of my job, and why I love social work."

Likewise!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Of course!

[ladyoracle.livejournal.com]

maybe you should play with investments

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Play with them how? We're using most of our extra money to buy a house, but we are planning to invest some of the leftovers. The house was our first priority, though.

[phatsin8.livejournal.com]

I do not miss house hunting ONE BIT! It is extremely annoying when people list their houses without leaving themselves any room to negotiate. Noah and I ended up buying the house two doors down from the first house we offered on because they refused to budge in price. When their realtor called back to ask why we didn't make a second offer she got a rude awakening message to deliver to her clients. Long story short, we got a much better house for our money and the house two doors down from us never sold and the owners eventually gave up.
On another note, I know that part of house hunting being so frustrating for us (and most of our friends) is because unless you have limited funds you almost always have to settle for a house that isn't exactly what you want. It's fun hunting when you're in a really great house that seems "perfect" but its a real drag when you spend all day looking at homes that either "need work" or just need acceptance of their flaws.
Hopefully, ya'll will get some details hammered out soon and this will all be behind you. Just pray that you don't end with a mortgage company like ours that keeps losing our checks and makes us cancel them then pay through the nose using their pay by phone service so that the payment isn't late. *screams*

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Well, thankfully I didn't have an idea in my head of a "dream house." I mean, there were some things we wanted but didn't get (like a garage and a house with 2 floors) but I know that we will make a home of anyplace we buy, simply because we are in it and we will make it ours. There is plenty of time in life to buy a house with two floors, but right now we had a chance to buy smart and I'm glad that's what we chose to do. We could have spent more money and made things tight to have a big dream house, but instead I think I'll try to keep our bills down so we can have a dream family.

But yes, househunting is a huge pain in the butt!

[eeka13.livejournal.com]

Um, YEAH you missed Friday the 13th. Where's my birthday greeting hmmmmmm?

:o\

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I was going to post a birthday greeting and then Jason stabbed me and I died. Happy Friday the 13th!