A Ray of Hope-ish

I got an offer on my redneck hovel in Leeds. Actually, I got the offer last week. It is a low-low offer. Though I am not against the price exactly, I was totally against the terms. Let's just say, it isn't a win-win.

When Ray sent me the offer last Thursday, all he wrote was "I don't like the seller. They don't always close." And then I didn't hear from him until Monday afternoon, though I asked him several questions Thursday such as: how do we counter this to a more amenable offer?

By Monday I had already called Luigi to complain about Ray's lack of initiative and Luigi--who is probably sick of my weekly examples of how I would sell a house if I were Ray (or anyone else for that matter)--apparently had a little chat with Ray. It seems Ray has changed his tune from, "Do whatever you want, I don't care if you sell this house," to "How can I help you, Mrs. Landlord who has a gazillion homes you want to sell and if I do this well you may call me again to help you."

In the case of this particular offer, I decided to pass. I am not excited about the crazy terms. For example, if I want some other closing attorney other than Flip, I can pay for them on my own AND pay for their closing attorney. Additionally, the earnest money they are proposing putting down to hold this home for them is about par with the hourly wage of a small Guatemalan sweatshop apprentice. And, let's not forget my favorite: in order to make this sale go through, they need the social security number of the tenant before their inspection period is over with--though I don't know why.

It does seem Ray is a bit more responsive to me as a client. It is too bad Luigi had to have another pep talk with him to make this happen. And sadly, Ray is still much, much better than Slick Rick in Calera.