Insomnia Cure, Sorry

Didja know we're trying to buy a house? We put our flat on the market in the beginning of May, the day after we found the house we wanted. Yes, all backwards.. and we have sorely learned our lesson for it..


We offered the full asking price for it, not willing to lose it for the sake of a few thousand or trying to play savvy business girls. They accepted and agreed to take the house off the market if we'd commit by ordering the (£400) survey immediately. Not a problem, it was done and they said they'd be okay waiting till our place sold.

In early June, we got an offer for our flat. Not exactly what we were looking for, £2000 lower, but still do-able so we accepted and called out the mortgage guy to get the paperwork going. A week later we phoned the agency of the folks who'd made the offer to see how they were proceeding. Oh, sorry , we were told. The couple has decided not to buy your flat and is looking at houses instead. I STILL can't believe days passed before we were told!


You DON'T want to hear the language that got thrown around in this household! It got worse too. The folks who own the house we want (the 'Smith's) had been waiting to look for their next home, waiting till we had a sale. When we'd received our offer, they went out and found one they wanted.


Nearly a month passed. No more interest in our flat. The Smith's were being pushed to start proceedings on the house they wanted and starting to panic. One week we heard she wanted to put the house back on the market.


Then they decide to phone their reserve buyer to see if they still had any interest. The reserve buyer certainly does BUT still has to sell their property too!! My nerves were fried.


I understand why they felt they had to do these things, but it didn't temper my emotions any. I wanted our £400 back. I wanted to withdraw our offer, only to come back with some insultingly low offer later, when we'd sold and they were desperate, you know? I was pissy and wanted someone else to feel as bad and as hurt as I did!!


Then the Smith's did something amazing. They dropped the price of their house (in writing-for us only) by £2000 so we could lower ours and maybe get a quicker sale! There was a bit more interest in our flat, but no offers.


The Smith's told us they had interest from a lady who worked at some other realty and they'd be showing her the house on Saturday. Up down, up down...


Lynne's looking for signs that good things will happen and has persuaded herself that seeing 11:11 on the clock means something good is going to happen. I tease her about that but have developed my own jinx signs. IF I get excited about any possible interest in our flat and tell anyone.. bam, the shit falls apart. IF I start looking in house mags or catalogues to furnish the new place.. bam again!


But this lady from the other realty is making herself look bad before she even gets in to view the house. She is pissy on the phone. She wants to know what offer the Smith's have accepted from us, wants to know how low they may be desperate enough to go. She calls them at the last minute on Friday wanting to see the house that night and they say NO.


See, we had a second viewing ourselves on Friday. The Smith's want us to have their house and totally believed this was the one that would offer. And the viewer DID, only £5000 below our asking... too low for us to afford to even consider. We said no and thought that was that.


Saturday brought miracles. A viewer from earlier phones out of the blue for a second viewing and then the lady who came on Friday phones and ups her offer.

The Saturday lady makes a bid by phone through the agency just as they're about to close.


We're completely overwhelmed and tell everyone we need time to think and will let them know on Monday. An hour and a half later, the Saturday lady is knocking on our door! She can't wait till Mon, doesn't want to risk losing the place and offers us our asking price! We ask about her finance, is she mortgage-ready etc..accept and shake hands on the deal.


This morning, the Friday lady has offered us £500 over our asking price and the estate agency suggests we go to sealed bids, closing tonight!


It's fair to say we were very tempted.. but we've decided that the handshake and giving our word HAS to mean something. Not only could it be good karma, but it also means there's a reserve buyer waiting for us if our recent luck holds true.