Howdie everyone. To my defense I am a very inquisitive person. I am now and have always been the one asking How Why When ect...I am not one to simply kick the tires and call it a day. No way...I am the one taking the car to the drag strip to test it LOL! Even as a child I was the one taking things apart to find out how they work and some may call me nosey...I am ok with that. I ask the questions no one wants to ask and I notice things other people don't. Having said that I knew I had a bad gut feeling about Ilya's client. I will not go into details about them but lets just say I know enough to know that any transaction with these people will not be easy. So my realtor gave us the facts and covered every possible scenario and in the end Ed said our best option was to go with our plan of countering with $81,000. It showed that we were willing to be flexable but on the same token it shows that were also need to walk away with the funds to buy our next home. He reminded us of our homes true value as well as how much we need to move on. We simpy cannot go as low as $75. So we made the counter offer and asked for a response by Friday. BUT...... WE also got another offer!!!! No it wasn't either of the 2 who claimed they were going to write offers. Nope it was the young couple who came thru Monday evening!! They were approved for $80,000 and offered $80,000!! They have been out and about looking for some time now so they are ready to settle when they came upon our home. So Frank and I are going to see what Ilya's reaction will be. We do not want to cut ties with him because you just never know. But we are most likely going to just accept the second offer since it will give us the extra funds to buy the fence (it always comes down to the fence with me LOL-I guess having lived in a row home for over 20 years I really want my own defined space LOL!!) Now Ed knows this second couples realtor really well and said he feels the 2 of them will be able to make this work out for both them and us as well. Sadly Ed told us since this whole transaction will be with FHA it is not likely any settlement will happen quickly. It may take up to 45 days so I wont be in my new house for July 4th. The good news is Frank and I have vacations scheduled for the last week of July and the first week of August!! We pick those weeks every year. So there ya have it. 2 offers is so much better than one!! Cheers! Susie

RavenC.--I can vouch for that for a fact! House was on the market last summer and the agent just listed it with MLS, and didn't do a darned thing (other than asking us to drop the price $10,000 after only a couple of weeks!). He was an older, established agent we THOUGHT would do well for us. This fellow is a neighbor (lives behind us as a matter of fact, and for that reason, DD was leary about us getting him), he's young--in his 20's. But he's been amazing. Took fantastic photos himself, has the house on every RE website, on Youtube, facebook. He's had 2 open houses (both of which were well-attended and generated interest and second visits). DD, as you can imagine, has turned into an instant fan! Susan, yes, they're pre-approved and sound like solid buyers. But we know there's always the chance things could hit a snag--not popping the champagne yet! Jasdip--the houses are 32 miles apart, but with traffic it's upwards of an hour travel time. Not horrible. Maire Cate--I THINK DH will probably retire (he works 1 mile from the house we're selling) once we make the big move. Might be a few weeks of commuting, depending upon how we work things out, but as of may 1 (settlement is may 3) he'll have accrued his 6 weeks vacay for this year, so that will help, too. And we'll both be 62 by the end of May Yes, as many have said, just to be at this point is a huge relief. THanks for all the kind words and good wishes. Nice thing is, they seem to be a lovely young couple who fell in love with our house (It's a 90 year old home with a lot of 'older' features like crystal doorknobs, stained glass windows, French doors). We're glad that it will be in good hands for the next stage of its life.

Thanks for answering, everyone. We can't buy without selling, no down payment. (We are not struggling financially, but coming up with 50,000 for a down isn't realistic and we are loath to go the "funny" mortgage route and end up with two properties and upside down on one of them.) I considered getting an appraiser, but we seem to be one of those areas where an appraiser "hits the number." They are in the real estate agents' pockets. The property is assessed for 220,000$ and last year those numbers were running pretty close to selling prices. My husband and I have decided not to go lower than 175,000$ (maybe 174,000$? I've seen some people on this board recommend countering like that.) That was our rock bottom price and it did get an offer; so who knows, maybe another one will come along before the end of the month. Also, although the offer was represented over the phone to me as "cash", it would be equity from the buyer's home and still has a financing contingency and an appraisal contingency, as well as a feasibility contingency (and only 1000$ earnest money.) I would be more likely to say yes if the guy actually had money in the bank and wanted to close next week. Oh, and our agent is working both sides of the deal, so I have to take what he is saying with a grain of salt, also. Margaret

The buyer forwarded the entire inspection report to our realtor directly--not through her realtor-- did not include any monetary renumeration to cover the lists of comments the inspector had... just the comment "I hope the sellers will work with me on these items" What does that mean... our realtor sent the email with the inspection report this morning she has been in meeting and hasn't called us to discuss... I think some of these finding are incorrect he cited two leaks--one under kitchen sink, one under master bath sink I went to the house and checked both-- The master bath sink did have leak--probably from when my husband did some make ready to get the drain stopper to work better...he had to disconnect one of the plastic conduit lines and that is where the link is so he can tighten that connection But I found no leak under kitchen sink--ran garbage disposal with water, ran dishwasher, ran water into both sides of the sink and had paper towels inside on cabinet base---nothing showed... He said the link was at sink drain...nothing... Cited three windows that would not open-- all windows opened as of 3 weeks ago when we had windows washed... so I think they were difficult to open maybe but functional...didn't know about that when I was at the house to check but we can do it later today and other stuff...like gutters had leaves Folks--it is fall---there are 3 pecan trees on the lot and other trees plus ones in the neighborhood... we cleaned the gutters and downspouts 3-4 weeks ago before house went into MLS-- of course there are leaves in the gutter now--we didn't clean them daily... They will be there until spring starts... that just seems to be going out of his way to point out problem that anyone with trees and gutters would have... And the stuff I thought he would take issue with--like some My question is do we say YOU set a monetary value to these items or tell us which ones you consider important enough to have remediated before you complete the contract? I think this is really snarky way to negotiate and I really don't like this buyer but I am more emotional than my husband... I don't want to give her any concessions since I think we took a big enough drop in the contract price... but have friend who is builder who said that you don't want to get into a line by liine, item by item fight... he said make it lump sum value to cover all problems and she takes care of them... I just think some of what the inspector has listed are borderline bogus just to improve her bargaining position-- that she likely knows him because of her job at mortgage company or though her mom, the realtor, Suggestions?