Sorry Charlie

The house is a no go. The short version is they got another offer for the exact asking price, and they took it.

The longer version is that on this past Monday while at work, I got a call from the realtor who was a "sub" for ours while he was out of town, saying that he hadn't seen anything new on the market that would interest us, he wanted to let us know that he hadn't forgotten about us, and oh, by the way he had talked to the seller's realtor and he was going to be presenting the sellers 2 offers in 15 minutes.

WHAT???????? This is the point where shock took over and my mind went numb and I was pretty much useless.

"But I thought we were waiting for them to counter our offer, or at the very least respond with a yes or no....and what about getting the mom evaluated? Are they raising the asking price? I don't understand...", I sputtered. The agent said that it was highly unusual that they never got back to us and basically let it fizzle out. And no, they weren't raising the asking price, they just wanted to get one that would be a lot closer. And did we want him to call the selling agent and tell him we were still interested and he could throw ours into the pot with the other 2? At this point, I told him to call Joe and get his opinion as to what we should do. This is where it got sticky.

Joe, bless him had gotten off work at his regular time in the morning, but had to stick around for traffic court...so he was tired, and hungry, and did I mention tired?? That is not the most winning combo. So he called me after talking to the sub agent dude, and it went something like this. Keep in mind that neither of us had any paperwork with our chicken-scratch figures, Joe was really fatigued, and I was in shock in an office, because basically at this point we had 10 minutes to decide what the deuce we were going to do with a LARGE sum of money and our future.

Joe: Do you think we should go for it?
Kate: I don't know.
Joe: If they don't get the mom evaluated, what's the worst that could happen to us legally? I mean, if they don't like it after it's done and sold to us and then they realize she wasn't in her right mind, I guess they could take it away from us and then we'd be back in the same position, right?
Kate: I don't know.
Joe: Even if they said yes to our higher offer, we'll still have to work with these people on all the inspections/negotiations...is this really the type of people we want to deal with?
Kate: I don't know.
Joe: Do you recall any of the figures as to what our mortgage payments would be if we put down an offer of X amount? I mean, I recall that we qualified for X amount, but just because we qualified for that, doesn't mean we can actually afford it...
Kate: I don't know. (See how helpful I can be at very crucial moments in life?)
Joe: OK. Let's do it.
Kate: Really?
Joe: I don't know, what do you think?
Kate: I don't know.
Joe: Forget it! We're not doing this. It just doesn't feel right, and I don't have any peace about this situation at all...let's just hold tight and see what they do with these new offers.
Kate: OK.

And there you have it. I was a little mopey throughout the rest of the day, but I'm over it now. It was nice to finally have a definitive answer, even if it was the one I didn't really want. I'm sure that we'll be back out there this next week, scoping out houses, so definitely keep us in your prayers that the right one will pop up, and I will keep all of you in the loop.

***Chris, I'm surprised at you! Where do you think I learned my repertoire of moves to entice Joe with? I know, I know, Joe is a lucky man. And it's all due to Showgirls. Don't knock it till you've tried it!