We made an offer on that new house Friday. We said we'd give them $2000 under their asking price, and the sale would be contingent on the sale of our house. They'd have the right to continue marketing their house, but would have to give us 5 days notice if they got a better offer. That would give us the opportunity to speed up the closing on our place, or drop our offer and they'd sell to someone else. We didn't think (nor did our realtor) that it was a bad offer.
We (and our realtor) thought their counter-offer was over the moon ridiculous, though. The guy wanted $5000 earnest money, where the norm up here is $500. He wanted us to drop the contingency on the sale of our house and buy his place out-right. I guess he thought we were Rockefellers in disguise or something. Then he wanted to see a spreadsheet with our asset vs. debt ratio for his personal approval.
Say it with me: Beg pardon?
This guy wanted to see our bills, vs. our income, vs. our capitol. What the hell kind of position could he be coming from? Is he looking to get into identity theft or something? We told him to pound it out his ass, in polite, real-estate worthy terms. The realtor wouldn't let me trace my hand with middle finger extended on the response. Party pooper.
My dad thinks that no one would make such an arrogant/desperate counter-offer unless they were in pending serious financial trouble. Wouldn't that be ironic; Matt and I buy the house at the bankruptcy sale for thousands less? Heh.
In the meantime, we've decided to leave our house on the market. If it sells within the next 30 days or so (and the other place doesn't sell), we'll come up with another offer and see what happens. This means I have to continue to keep the house immaculate for the drop-in real estate visits. Sigh...