Episode 8: Offering

Yesterday marked one year since I arrived in North Carolina. Yesterday was also the day we put in a bid on our first house. You'd think I'd be happy. Excited. Brimming with anticipation. I'm not.

So I guess I should back up a bit.

Monday night we went to tour the creamy yellow For-Sale-By-Owner house that I found on Friday. The owners were there during the tour which was kinda strange. I certainly wan't expecting them to be there. So I felt rather odd poking through their kitchen drawers with them in the same room! But Jim the Realtor did his best to snag them into conversations so that they'd focus on him more than us. Yay for Jim!

So the house. My instincts were right. We both really really like it. The layout is lovely. The lot is lovely. Even the bathrooms passed Tim's inspection (by far the best bathrooms we've seen yet). I didn't take pics because that seemed strange, what with the owners standing right there & all! But it's okay. The owners actually seem very nice. And better yet, we like the house. We really like it.

We decided to sleep on it, but the next morning we still felt the same so we told Jim we'd like to make an offer. I spent most of the day with Jim, getting everything arranged. We decided that we wanted to avoid all the crappy headgames that people play in real estate. We just wanted to be open & give them a fair, attractive offer. And since we felt that the asking price was fair, we offered the full asking price. An unusual step perhaps, but we thought it would help. We agreed to their prefered closing date. And we provided proof that we are pre-approved for a mortgage (which is an excellent thing to have in our corner). Indeed, we were able to lock in a very reasonable interest rate, which will certainly make the process much smoother.

At 8:30pm last night, Jim met with the owners to give them our offer. The owners said that they had spoken with some other people about the house so they would like to have 48 hours to consider our offer.
Forty.
Eight.
Hours.
Doesn't that seem a bit excessive? I mean, since we're offering them everything they've requested? Or is it just me?

So. We wait.

A few minutes ago Jim called me. The owners of the house had called. It seems that they will be receiving another offer tonight. After that meeting they will call Jim. Then Jim will call us.

Siiiiiiiigh.

Jim reassures me that we have a lot going for us. He said that the owners genuinely liked us, which definitely helps. Neither of the owners are originally from America so maybe Tim's accent endeared us to them. Plus, ya know, we are nice! Hell, just look at that offer! And of course it helps that we already know that we can easily get the mortgage for a good rate. And we're flexible on the closing date, too. All very good things.

But I have a bad feeling about this. I feel that we will not get this house. I fear that these people who are making the offer tonight are work colleagues of the owners. Maybe they'll go with them just because it would strenghten business connections or something. Or maybe these other people don't have a realtor, which would save the sellers that 2.5% commission. Who knows.

But it is so fucking unfair to think that we might not get this house after all that we have done! If you speak to sellers, 99.9% of the population would kill to find buyers like us! So it's insulting to think we may be passed over. It's giving me terrible headaches and I just feel like crying. I haven't gotten a single thing done today because I'm so upset. I haven't even eaten. I'm just distraught. Jim says to think happy thoughts & eat some chocolate (yes, this is my realtor telling me to do this!). He's trying to be positive. I just told him that I'm glad he's talking to the sellers for us because I am far too emotional to deal with this myself.

But I don't have a good feeling about this. Here's hoping this is just my pessimism rearing its ugly head. And here's hoping I'm in a better mood when I make my next post.