Ball One

I knew that my lower offer would have a tougher chance of getting accepted, so I made clear to my agent that I was happy to do anything outside the price to make the offer more attractive.  I included a sizable 3% earnest money deposit (the maximum allowed for liquidated damages under California law), and offered a 30-day closing window - I had been pre-approved through Provident Credit Union, and was ready to move forward with them, plus since I'm in a month-to-month lease, I could move out of my current place whenever I wanted.

Because of the slight delay getting the disclosures, we ended up submitting the offer on a Monday instead of a Friday, and gave them 48 hours to respond.  I was expecting a "Yes," "No," or, more likely, a counter.  Instead, I got a pseudo-counter - the seller's agent wanted to know if I'd be willing to pay just $10k less than the listing price.  My response was, "Uh, no."  Again, having done my research, I knew that that was way too high.  Regina wanted to know what my final offer would be; I let her know that my initial offer was basically my max, but that I would be willing to go a few thousand higher to close the deal.  That still left a hefty gap between us.  She called back in a bit to say that they weren't interested.  I shrugged, went "OK," and moved on.

I was kind of surprised by how well I took it - it was the closest I had come yet to buying a condo, and it had seemed like it had the right potential to work.  It was a rare unit in the area I wanted, small enough to fit into my price range, and overpriced enough to scare off competition.  Again, I continued taking a break... it seemed like by this point I'd exhausted all my options, and, barring a price drop at Belamor, I'd be best served deciding whether to switch my search to another area or resigning myself to renting.  Still, I wasn't too disappointed - since I had based my price on facts and not on emotion, I could confidently say "No" and not second-guess myself.