Trish, sorry this happened, but I'm glad this worked out. You really had me in the beginning.. wow, did I have some choice words for her. How someone could do something like this is beyond me and yes, karma will get them eventually. When we were selling this house the last time, I had about 50 roses at the time, which I brought to my dad's house to over winter in his vegetable garden over an hour away. Spring comes, there's a week left on the contract, I go and dig them up, bring them back and have a handful to plant when the agent calls to bring a lady through. She made an offer. I start digging the roses back out, staggering them as they were now blooming. Wasn't a quick closing, over 30 days. I remember telling her that I need to know if she is serious as there are roses in the ground that I can't buy any more and that if I dig them again I might lose them. She yeses me to death. So I dig the last few roses, wouldn't you know she says the roof needs replacing. Hubby was giving her a large sum for the closing, offered 1/2 for the roof, she said no. Ended up killing the deal.. as well as every rose that I couldn't buy any more. I used to cry. I'm thankful we didn't move out, nor did we put a deposit on something, and in the end it worked out. We got 5 years on that bad roof. I don't know if she was really trying to get you lower or if she really was scared. I'm sure her agent knew you had other offers you refused, why she didn't originally offer what she was comfortable with, who knows? I do know what it's like to be divorced, but why she didn't move in with one of her kids until she could mellow out is beyond me. To say i'm still angry about this whole ordeal is an understatement! At this point, is there any legal recourse for the hell she put me thru, even though she did end up buying? What recourse *would* I have had if the deal would have fallen thru? I was at a mall 2 weeks ago, in one of the "teenage" stores there was a little voo-doo dolls. I almost picked one up. Wish I could remember which store it was. A divorce can leave a person as shell-shocked as the death of a spouse. Would you expect someone whose husband had just died of cancer to make well thought out and logical decisions? I think you're lucky she went forward on the contract and it is off your plate. Recently happened to someone I know. Lost the hubby to cancer, decided to put the house up for sale a year later. Pretty much the same thing happened to her, except worst. Thankfully the sale stopped, another offer magically appeared which was over $20,000 (IIRC) more then the other. HAPPY HOLIDAYS everyone Merry Christmas Trish. I'm glad it worked out for you. Time to get really excited about the new house! Have they started it yet? I'll have to get pictures up of ours. We were there last weekend & have a roof, windows, doors, most of the plumbing, electric were done, even have tubs. My jacuzzi is already in our bathroom. They told us it might be ready in January so I was nervous, it's looking like March now. Hubby will start working again next week.. it will be exactly 2 months after his accident, but he's doing good and is almost able to move his fractured shoulder all of the way. This gives us another 6 weeks to hang tight before we do what we need to do to sell as it wouldn't be worth selling / moving / renting. You can be sure I'll be asking to borrow your selling dust! Merry Christmas everyone

Chanop - I am not familiar with the Capital ranges. I will look into them. cookncarpenter - It is not a tract home. I did ask the builder if I could buy it myself and also gave them the name of the local dealer, so they could buy it and charge me a little extra for their efforts but they won't do it. If their distributor can't get it then they won't deal with it. It is a bit frustrating. Other options I am considering... a) buy the Wolf through the builder and then switch it out later for the Blue Star. It would involve having to sell the Wolf and I don't know if I would find a buyer or how much of a hit I would take on the price. b) let them install the 36" whirlpool cooktop that comes standard in their homes and then get the Blue Star. It would involve cutting the granite countertop after it is in place and also possibly modifying the cabinets to fit the Blue Star. I am not particularly keen on either option but I think (a) might be the least hassle and the most expensive route.

Chispa - we did some of this. The past few days we visited some family in the area where we hoped to buy. We spent a few days just going around the area and familiarizing ourselves with the market and with the areas we had identified as possible. We were able to rule out a couple of potential areas. We visited some open houses which was helpful in getting information about each potential area. I have a good friend in lives in one of the potential areas and I went to see her and talked about the area and she drove me around to see some things. I also have the advantage that I have family in the general area (some living in or near the areas we are considering) so I talked to some of them and got feedback. It is clear that this process is going to be challenging. This is a hot market and houses often go under contract very quickly. In the last few years prices have risen considerably. It may be difficult to get a contract on a house even after we have a contract to sell our house. Given that it will be difficult for us to go long without a house once we sell our house this will be challenging. Another challenge will be narrowing down the area we want to buy in. The area we like the most has little inventory that meets our criteria. Many of the houses are older than I want (I want something no older than 1990) and prices are rising quickly in these areas. Even houses that need renovations can go under contract very quickly. We did look at some new construction while we were there at it seems to be a bit more consistent in terms of availability and pricing (but most of it is not in our preferred area). It is fairly clear at this point that most of our looking has clustered in two areas so we will probably need to have 2 buyer's agents. For one of them, I know some people who live in the area so will ask for feedback (one bought only a couple of years ago) on buyer's agents. For the other area, not really sure how I will find a buyer's agent. I have ideas on how to find seller's agents by looking at listings on closed properties, but finding a buyer's agent seems a little more difficult. Given the difficulty of the market and the need for us to move quickly once we at least have our house under contract (best case scenario), I want to get buyer's agents quickly so I can start monitoring the listings.

You can also look on Zillow, it will show the number of transactions for the agents for that area. You can then search (I use Redfin) for the buyer's agent on the sold properties. You can also immediately go to some open houses, many agents at the open are new, working them to get new clients, but many are top local buyers agents also. Talk to these agents, who seems knowledgeable about RE, and your specific area and who can you work with during a very stressful time. In my area, I prefer going directly to the listing agent, ding this I can get more information about the seller and more first hand information. I also know the listing agent wants to get both sides, working hard to make my offer work. I know this is not doable in others areas, but it has consistently worked for me to get the house I want.