Outbid

Well, we thought we had a pretty good shot after the seller countered our $520K w/ $10K back offer with $539K w/ nothing back , and we countered again with $530 w/ nothing back. We were meeting him halfway, and we were even willing to move the settlement up 30 days to the end of May rather than June, which would allow the guy to retire sooner (retirement was one of his key motivators to sell this house and move with his new and retired wife to Fredericksburg).

Then on Friday, another offer appeared offering the full $549K.

We thought we still had a shot, though, because the new offer was contingent on the potential buyer selling their current house. Our offer had no such contingency; we were willing to carry two mortgages for a few months if we needed to. In this market, it's rather risky to accept a contingent offer, especially if you're looking to sell within 60 days, since a lot of houses are tending towards being on the market for more than two months.

We were wrong. Our offer was not accepted. However, and this is almost insulting, the seller wanted to offer to have us be a contractually obligated backup just in case the accepted offer did not pan out and the buyer could nnot sell their house. This would mean, that while we're waiting on pins and needles to see if we might get the house, we could not in good faith go out looking at other properties. As if!

Oh, well. All things happen for a reason, and God knows what He's doing.