Last Tues I got an email from our realtor, Lee Ann. She wrote that she'd gotten a call from the listing agent for the 'water house', which is our #1 choice. The listing agent told Lee Ann that she was expecting an offer on the house, and wanted to know if we wanted to make an offer too.
Not good news. When I read it, my heart sank. The worst position in which to be in real estate is competing for a property. We don't simply want to get the house we like the best, we want to get it for a good price. When there are multiple buyers competing for the same house, the seller is the only one who gets a good price.
I called Joe to let him know about Lee Ann's email. We discussed it at length, and decided not to submit an offer at that time. First, Joe is still waiting on his official letter from the State regarding his new job, and second, we didn't want to be in a competition situation. And I guess, really, in my heart of hearts, as much as I really like the 'water house', I felt like it wouldn't be the end of the world if we didn't get it. We're very fortunate; there are other houses we like and could picture ourselves living in, too. So we decided to weather the storm. I wrote back to Lee Ann and explained our reasons for not making an offer, and asked her to keep us informed.
Joe & I were both busy on Wed, Thurs, and Fri so we didn't feel tortured by waiting to hear from Lee Ann. Finally on Sat I called her to get a status on the deal. Apparently Lee Ann had been busy too, as she had not talked again with the listing agent and did not know what had happened. She said she'd check and call me back. A little while later she reported that the 'water house' was still available! I asked how much the offer was for, and what was the reason for the rejected offer. She wasn't able to tell me, since she hadn't spoken directly with the listing agent. The receptionist simply confirmed for her that the property was still active. So, that left the rest of Sat, all day Sun, and most of today for Joe & me to hypothesize on what had happened.
Had the offer been for such a low price that the seller rejected it? But offers that are too low are usually countered by the seller. Had the counter-offer been rejected by the potential buyer? Maybe it wasn't the price. Maybe the offer had come with some undesirable contingency. What could it be? How would we know what to do?
So this morning I emailed Lee Ann and asked her to get the details on the offer. Several hours later she replied: no offer had been made. However, the potential buyer whom the listing agent thought was going to submit an offer on Tues came back on Sat with a contractor to see the house again. It appears that the other person is interested enough to bring/pay a contractor to see the house and give them information or an estimate on either adding on or just updating it.
Once again, not good news. Joe & I were hoping to wait a few more weeks to make our offer. A few more weeks would give more time for his letter to arrive, more time for our own home improvement projects to be completed, more time for us to actually get our house on the market, and most importantly, a few more weeks would put us at the end of the summer; a real motivating factor for sellers in beach communities. No one in a beach community wants their house to still be unsold when Labor Day arrives.
So, tonight we discussed this latest information over dinner, as well as 101 different strategies and back-up plans. Our plan is to continue to wait it out. We do not want to be in a competition over this house, even if it is our #1 choice, because we want to get a good deal. We don't want to put in an offer yet, knowing there is someone else out there that might take this as a bidding game. So we'll wait. We know the other party brought a contractor to see the house on Sat, so my guess is that if they plan to move forward, they will submit an offer sometime this week. If they don't submit an offer this week, they probably got negative info from the contractor about the renovations/updates they were planning, and decided not to move forward. We can certainly wait the rest of this week to see what happens. If the listing agent does get an offer from them, I think she will call Lee Ann again to see if we want to submit an offer too. At that point we'll know an offer has been made, and we'll have to wait and see if it is accepted or not.
If the house sells, then it wasn't meant to be for us. If it doesn't sell, then we may be able to stick with our plan to make a low offer around Labor Day. Hearing myself say that reminded me of the tarot card reading Wendy did for me just over a week ago. She interpreted my cards to say that I needed to relax, go with the flow, and trust in the process. Not that I really make decisions based on this reading, but my inner voice is telling me not to get worked up over this, and it reminds me that there is at least 1 other house we like a great deal. It doesn't have that spectacular water view or dock, but it does have a heated in-ground pool and costs $211,000 less.
So now we try not to go crazy as we wait.
Drag Queen name of the day: Hazel Eyes
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