The Queen of Short Sales

We have not yet found out for sure if we are going into contract on the 2nd short sale (the one we put an offer in last Thursday). Today we got notification from the listing agent that they wanted to know our highest and best offer.

What do you mean our highest and best? We gave it to you? We offered almost 27k above list price. What more would you like? Not to mention today you sent us this lovely addendum detailing out a few things that will be removed from the home before we purchase it. Namely, all lighting fixtures and ceiling fans, all stainless steel appliances (dishwasher, microwave, cooktop, double oven, fridge, and hood vent), the wrought iron courtyard gate, and all shutters.

You want our highest and best? Subtract fifteen thousand from our offer. That's our highest and best.

I only wish I was gutsy enough to tell them to do that. Instead we wrote an offer that our highest and best would be to top every other highest and best offer by $1000 (including our own original offer!). Can you tell we kinda want this house? We just really want to be done with this homebuying experience.

I blogged about three months ago about how it all seemed to fall right into place and therefore that must have meant that it was all meant to be. Now I wonder. It has all fallen into place- if we want to live in a rental home for the next two years while our tenants enjoy ours. Or if we want to drag our children from viewing to viewing trying to get in and see homes before they have been on the market for more than 48 hours.

As of right now we are on hold to find out if we are going into contract on the Suntrust short sale until at least Wednesday. The listing agent wanted to give all parties an appropriate amount of time to revise their offers before submitting them to the sellers.

What I really want to know is, why on earth would they be worried about getting highest and best on a short sale? We were led to believe that our offer was heads above the other offers they received. The seller stands to gain absolutely nothing over starting this little bidding war. If they garner an extra five grand out of the deal it all goes to the bank. A short sale is a short sale. It is my understanding that they are several hundred thousand dollars upside down on this house- is five or ten thousand going to make or break the bank?

Instead they are wasting precious time dickering back and forth with the offers they have received. They had a notice of default filed at the end of July- which means that they will likely be going to trustee sale sometime late November or December. I certainly hope that we get this contract and that we can get through the short sale process before their sale date comes up! We have been told that the sale date would just be postponed if their short sale negotiator did not have time to complete the file yet but we really don't want to drag this on either. We would really like to be in our home before Christmas. After all- Santa really wants to bring the girls a swing set- and he just can't leave it at our rental. (no room to even store the boxes!!)

Stay tuned. We will hopefully know by Wednesday night if we were the lucky lottery winners or if we are back to ground zero.