Smug Marrieds: Bidding Wars

This house-hunting process is not for the weak of heart.

To wit, Blair and I found this amazing home in Greensboro, way beyond our price range. But the online photos were so stunning I begged Blair to let us go and and just look at it. Which we did. And of course, we loved it. But we told our realtor it was just too expensive and we comforted ourselves with the fact that even if we could afford it, it really was just too much house for two people. 

The selling agent called our realtor and our realtor indicated our price range -- a good $60k below what they were asking--and the agent said, "They need to sell. Make an offer." 

New ballgame. Now that I knew I had a shot at it, I wanted this house. Forget too much space--did you see the ginormous screened-in patio? The gourmet kitchen? The front AND back staircases? Mine, mine, mine! 

We made an offer. And heard nothing back. Until we heard that they were waiting to counter because other offers might be coming in. We freaked out and immediately upped our bid by $10,000. We must have this house! 

The counter came back yesterday. They'd come $30k off their asking price but were still almost $30k over what our realtor had indicated to their realtor was our price range. They wanted us to meet them in the middle. 

We halfheartedly threw $5,000 more at them but to no avail. They rejected our counter and so Dena's Barbie Dream Home is no more. 

On the one hand, I don't blame them. Their home is absolutely worth more then what we were offering. On the other hand, I'm irritated at being jerked around. They knew our price range, they knew how far below their asking value our price range was, and yet their agent encouraged ours not once but twice to please have us make an offer -- these people really need to sell. In the end we bid over the price range our agent had indicated to theirs that we were seeking and it still wasn't enough. I'm frustrated at the wasted time and energy. That's a lot of hoping and dreaming packed into 2 days just to have it crushed. 

There's still one other home we're very interested in, assuming it hasn't sold during this little side drama. We're going to look at a few more homes this weekend and so we'll see where we land. 

Sigh. I kind of had a feeling we didn't belong in the big, enormous home built for entertaining (and a family with children) but it was fun to imagine the possibilities. Onward!

Cheers,

Dena