I just couldn’t take it anymore. The site must change! So, I’ve signed up with an actual company and paid them real money to host my web site so that I can finally effect those changes. This page, the only one I’ve had any control over for the past few months, will lag a bit behind the rest of the site. One of the perks of actually paying for hosting is that I now have access to a banner free blogging program. So, in my copious spare time (Ooh hoo hoo! Hee hee hee hee hah hah HA HA HA HAAAAAAH! Oh man, that hurt.) I’ll be migrating over two years worth of posts to the new application. Other than that, it should be mostly painless.

She countered our counter to her counter. In fact, she didn’t budge on the price one cent, remaining at the dollar amount we originally offered her and claiming ANOTHER piece of it for herself through some creative math.

I don’t think so.

Again, she took the time to insult our realtor who, as far as she knew at this point, was no longer even in the picture. She also appears to be putting herself into a potentially nasty legal situation by attempting to counter offers from two different buyers simultaneously. If both buyers should accept, she would legally be bound to sell two homes when she only has one. Unfortunately, although we could make her life deservedly miserable by suing in such a situation, the other buyers would end up winning on the grounds that they had an earlier claim.

So, we’ve decided to step back. Hers is not the only house in town worth having and this deal is getting hinkier by the day. If she thinks she can do a better job than a trained realtor then more power to her but, from where I stand, she’s not having much luck. We “countered” with an email telling her how uncomfortable with the situation we were becoming and that our realtor deserved our loyalty. We welcomed her to contact us again if her position changed while we continued our search for a home.

If she chases after us, great. If not, it’s been fun and I’ve learned a lot from the experience.

We didn’t hear a peep yesterday. After submitting the offer, Mym and I agreed that if she had the cojones to counter it then she was just greedy and we would look elsewhere for a home.

At first we took no news as good news but, as the evening wore on, I proceeded steadily to the extremist corner in my head. Each hour I managed to talk myself into or out of the house with a dizzying logic. We distracted ourselves as best we could. This morning I woke up dreaming that the seller had countered our offer for an extra hundred dollars. All things considered, the previous night’s dream starring Owen Wilson was preferable.

All day today, co-workers asked if we’d heard anything yet. Whenever my cell phone rang, I jumped. Most of the calls were from other people wanting to know if the offer had been accepted. The exception was one of the lenders we decided not to go with and he was understandably a little bitter. Finally, around 4:30, our realtor called practically in tears. After all her hard work and after the initially very friendly demeanor the seller had presented to her, she was suddenly not only getting the cold shoulder but the seller was trying to take a sizable bite out of it.

So yes, the seller countered, but not for a higher overall price from us. The attached letter explained the bitter experience she had had with her own previous realtor and why she wanted to cut our agent’s fee in half as a result.

Our realtor, wonderful woman that she is, just wants us to get the home we want and has agreed to release us from our contract with her in order to purchase this home if such is our desire. Because, obviously, the seller hates realtors. Precisely because our agent is so intent on looking out for our interests and because of the tremendous help she has been to us as first-time home buyers, we are not willing to just cut her loose.

I had an idea.

We have decided to present a counter offer ourselves, reduced by the total amount that would have gone to our realtor. Further, since we will now be expected to do this on our own, we took a bit off the top for legal consulting. After one more small adjustment for a shorter closing date, we were left with a number that, although lower overall, was perfectly defendable and came with the agreement that the seller would not have to deal with a realtor. Instead, we would let our realtor advise us on the side, then pay her out of pocket if the deal went through.

I thought I would hate the process of haggling, but it’s almost fun when it becomes just a numbers game.