Buying a House Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

Actually, I should call this "You don't have to get dumped to feel the sting of rejection."

I made an offer on a house last week. My realtor and I spent quite a bit of time hammering out a number we felt was reasonable. We didn't expect them to accept, but we expected a reasonable counter-offer. The offer was about 6% below asking, and less than $2,000 below the appraised value according to the county auditor.

The counter offer came back; it was for the asking price, less $100.00. No, I didn't mis-type that, one HUNDRED dollars less than the asking price. Not even worth driving to the realtor's office to sign the paper work to make the offer, in my opinion!

My realtor called me and I thought about it (for about half a second) before I told her not to bother writing up another offer. The situation is that the husband has been transferred to Texas (he's there now) and the wife is there with two small children, a cat and a dog. The house has been on the market over four months. School just started, so no local family is going to be looking because they aren't going to be willing to pull their kids out of school now. The holidays are coming up, and my realtor tells me that it's very slow during this time of year. On top of that, it is very much a buyers market here right now.

So, I think I'm right to walk away, but like most relationships, I find myself thinking about what could have been. How nice it would be to kick-back on that deck after work. Then I find myself wondering what the house is doing now? Does the house ever think about me? Does it regret it's decision? Maybe the house and I could reconcile, but wouldn't I always be thinking in the back of my mind how the house cruelly cast me aside before and my do it again? Maybe the house is seeing other potential buyers? Maybe it's having these huge open houses, with any Tom, Dick and/or Harry walking through it, checking the closet space, measuring the bedrooms, examining it's fixtures...

Uh... Sorry...