The Periphery of the Mind

When we saw the house and decided we wanted to buy it, probably the biggest question was "what do we offer?"

They were asking $146,900 for the place, causing me to joke around. "One-forty-six-nine is sooo much less than one-forty-seven! That's a huuuge savings!" But we got to thinking. The house had only been listed for about 6 days, including Memorial Day weekend. We wanted to make our offer binding; if they took it, they couldn't take any other offers. And we had a contingency that we wouldn't buy their house until after Maryanne's sold, and we wouldn't close on their house until July 8th. In this market, people can sell a house for full asking in less than 24 hours; Maryanne pretty much did. And we'd had two other houses go out from under us, with full offers without contingencies. If we wanted this house, we'd have to move fast and with full speed.

We offered them $147,000 because it's sooo much more than $146,900! That's a huuuge profit for them!

And I like to think that joke is what got us the place.