Oops. My. Bad.

We didn't get the house! So, wha 'appened?

1. The seller accepted our initial offer, but it was contingent on our lender's required pre-appraisal, which we paid for. ($450!!!) The bank just wanted to make sure the house was worth what the seller listed it for.

2. The house was not worth the listed price, so we re-submitted an offer more attuned to the appraisal. They refused. Why? Because they did not want to pay our real estate agent's commission. Too, they did not offer a counter-offer.

3. The seller kept calling my cell phone to, I think, avoid speaking to our real estate agent, which is a no-no. I can cite cases in my court where behind-the-scene real estate dealings have gone awry & now it's left to my judge, who is no real estate expert, to figure out who is going to prevail. We never answered the seller's calls, but he did leave messages. The last one was golden! He wanted us to know that the failure of the last deal was not his fault, but our agent's because he didn't want to pay her commission. Also, "good luck" and "have a nice day."

4. The end.

The story feels so unfinished to me. We spent $450 and have nothing to show for it! I feel like this seller, who is in complete denial that this is a buyer's market, burned us. We totally paid for his appraisal. I'm 11 kinds of sad & angry. ATM & I have been dealing with it as best as we can, but this last one really broke our hearts. I think we're taking a break because we can't find one house in the LR/NLR area that does it for us. Too, all of this hunting has affected us adversely. It's all-consuming and we haven't been sleeping properly. Maybe it's good that we step back and get some sleep. Too, we've got some things going on that need our attention, so. So. We will try to not get so emotionally connected to a house we love next time. My bad!

This evening, I am going to learn how to knit. Terrifying! But, hanging out with my lady friends will be so good for my soul.