The Offer

I realize, obviously, that this may be of no interest to you. I am doing this mostly for us, so we can look back and remember all the details. And if you happen to be a real estate junkie or are thinking of doing this thing for the first time, there's that too. Oh, and for all the people who love my stories. This is for you to read, too. Everyone else? Sorry. 


Okay, you know we found a house, you know how we found it, now The Offer:


Even though it was a Sunday morning, as soon as Jeremy said he was ready to put in an offer, I let our agent know, and wouldn't you know, that guy e-mailed me ten minutes later with all the paperwork for me to look over and okay so he could contact the seller's agent. We were shocked.


We decided on a VERY fair price, with them paying the closing costs. The only problem was they wanted to have 45 days after closing to be able to stay in the house, as a buffer, in case they couldn't get into their new house. After discussing it with our agent, we put in our offer that they could stay 30 days, if they paid us for every day they stayed. 


Then, fifteen minutes later, he contacted us again to tell us the sellers were meeting with their agent the next morning at 10 AM and would give us an answer by noon! Whooo!


Of course, I assumed since they needed to meet with their agent it meant that they were going to discuss a counter-offer, but the offer we made was generous, and I wasn't all that concerned, to be honest. I figured it would either be a little haggling over nonsense or they would act all crazy since the house just went on the market, but in that case, we could put in our final offer and tell them to take it or leave it, and if they were unwilling to be reasonable, it was their loss.


The next day, I had a playdate with my friend and her son, who I rarely see, and our agent called me when we were about a mile into our walk in the blazing sun while I pushed our umbrella stroller, which you cannot push with one hand, and, of course, I was a big old pregnant lady with decreased lung capacity, so I was pretty much huffing it through the next huge series of events.


Our agent called and said they weren't putting an "official" counter-offer, but wanted to gauge how we felt about a few things. Umm? Okay.


They wanted to ask for $5,000 more, not pay the closing costs, and wanted to keep the refrigerator and range. I love our agent, because he said he told them, without even asking us, that there was no way we would ever pay closing costs, and they could count that out of the equation, and the real issue was the appliances -- how big of a deal were they to us?


I told him I had an answer for myself, but I better call Jeremy. So I did. For a HALF AN HOUR, and dang him for being a Very Important and Busy Person who has important and museum-y things to do at work, because there are times he can't be reached, and I was freaking. 


But, as I kept calling him and getting his voicemail, I realized that we obviously had the upper hand. Why didn't they just make a counter-offer with those requirements? They were worried about scaring us off. 


So, since their deadline for responding was approaching, I called our agent and said if the appliances meant that much to them, they could keep them, but they shouldn't expect any more money from us and we would not pay any of the closing costs.


When I finally heard back from Jeremy, he said the exact same thing, so that was good to know, but in the meantime, since I was taking too long, apparently they got scared and just accepted our original offer! 


And we had done it. We made an offer and it was accepted! And that was it! I never expected it to happen like that, and I'll be honest, Jeremy sounded like he was going to throw up when I told him, but we got our fist house with the first offer we ever put in. 

Coming up Next ... The "wrinkle" in our best-laid plans.