Battling to Stay Hopeful

A whirlwind weekend. We got inspection and pest reports on the Pink House, realtor F. asked the other agent when offers were due; he responded, "First come, first serve." The reports were not bad - small electrical and plumbing updates - so we decided to make an offer on Monday 9/21. Then I headed off to Portland to see friends.

Got a call from F. on Saturday night - the other realtor had called, and they had received an offer that demanded a response by Sunday evening. If we were interested, we needed to move now. A flurry of phone calls between me and the Husband, me and F., the Husband and F. We decided to jump. The asking price was $479K, but F. had done the comparisons, and nothing in that area was going that high, especially with an old kitchen and bath. We settled on an offer of $465K (gulp).

F. was a warrior, blazed through paperwork, and delivered our offer to the other agent's doorstep on Sunday afternoon. Back in Portland, friends were already congratulating me, although I warned them it was too soon. We stopped into Powell's City of Books, and I browsed the home improvement section, trying to show restraint by only writing down titles, not actually purchasing the books. Trying very hard not to count my chickens, but bought a copy of This Old House magazine at the Portland airport, and daydreamed about repainting the Pink House the whole flight home.

Sunday night, and the Husband and I were settled into the couch with the pooches, watching the Emmys (Neil Patrick Harris rocks) when the phone rang. It was F. - she'd already heard from the other agent, and we did not get the house. The other bidder made an offer slightly over the asking price, no closing costs back, and wrote in "As Is," which meant either that they did not intend to do their own inspection, or if they did and found something wrong, it would not change the offer. F. said outright, "That's crazy, and I will never let you do that."

Making an offer near $500K without an inspection and bearing all the risk? Sounds like complete insanity to us. But if people are so desperate that they will take these terrible risks, how will we have a successful offer?

I am dejected. Fourth offer down, how many more to go?