Cracking the Real Estate Code

As mentioned in a previous post, my house is for sale, and I have an accepted offer on a house in Maple Bluff contingent on the sale of my house. Usually the selling and purchasing of homes is a fairly straightforward matter, with only the occasional knot to work out. My experience has not worked that way. There is something very odd going on with this entire transaction. My realtors have been utterly baffled that in this hot market my house hasn't sold in the past 3 weeks. Houses that are far tackier (believe it or not) are getting accepted offers on the first day of listing. Particularly after ripping up the crappy carpet to display nice hardwood floors, and painting after removing the dark paneling, mine's stylin'. The realtors who've shown it are giving Jeff, my realtor, the thumbs up and no negative feedback. And I've had an average of more than one showing a day. But no sale.

The odd "this deal is snakebit" sensation continued Saturday when Jeff was at my house to let the dogs out for a showing, and as the buying agent and his clients went in, they were ever so impressed when the door handle fell off. And Sunday for another showing, a Rottweiler charged the potential buyers, as the punk who lives across the street with his parents was screaming at the beast, "Get your fucking ass back here!" (Fortunately the beast turned around, doing no harm.) Welcome to the neighborhood.

This morning Jeff called to tell me that a realtor had called to say she would be faxing in an offer on my house. Hurrah! At last. Then 30 minutes later Jeff called to say that the owners of the Maple Bluff house decided last night to get divorced, and the dude part of the couple wants to keep the house because it's been in his family since it was built 50 years ago. So he's considering his options such as writing an offer that would bump me unless I remove the contingency of selling my house, or possibly offering me cash to politely withdraw. Since the trust fund hasn't come in yet, my position on fighting him for the house would be tenuous, so I'm inclined to take the money and run. In the meantime, Jeff's checking options with his real estate attorney. At this moment it's all theory—I've seen no offer on my house, no generous offers of cash to withdraw from the Maple Bluff deal, no... nothing.

More to be revealed....