Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The Buying/Selling Game

I've always hated buying a car. Just the whole process of game playing makes me feel dirty. Well, apparently buying/selling a house is about as nasty, just much more protracted. In selling our house we've tried to price it appropriately, knowing that it needs some little things done here and there. And we've been as honest as possible about the issues and what we will or won't fix. And I think our agent has done the same and been pretty straightforward. However, the buyers' agent apparently likes the game playing. Every little thing is potentially a "deal breaker" as she tries to bluff us into stuff. And she's not on the top of her game, apparently, as evidenced by the number of calls we have gotten needing to check this, or inspect that, or get one more thing for their lender. We're way past the deadline now for repair requests, but we're still having inspections and water tests done.

I guess she's finding, though, that with no place to live lined up yet, we're ready to call her bluff. If they walk away now, they stand to lose well over $1000 in inspections and appraisals, and we won't have to hurry and find a place to live. A "deal breaker" might be welcome right now.

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