The saga nears its end...hopefully

Some of you have probably heard every detail of this story until you are blue in the face, but if that is not you, here is our story of buying our first house, or trying. We are supposed to close on Friday...so we're down to the last lap and waiting with great anticipation to see how this week ends.

From the very start, we had a rough time trying to make negotiations. A few times the seller didn't even respond unless we contacted her agent. Then, after we came home to CT, thinking we had a done deal - although she had yet to sign the final documents, she said she wasn't sure if she wanted to sell anymore. She finally signed the contract after we said we were fine pushing the closing date back a month. We went forward with inspections, radon and termite on top of the usual one- so THREE inspections, had someone come in and give an estimate on a few small repairs, gave our earnest money, etc. So she allowed for all of this to take place and then contacts us with a request to cancel the contract in a fairly relaxed manner via email. She had a story that she has an aging mother who is ill and can't possibly find another home to move into in the 2 1/2 months from the time we signed the contract and the closing date. Lest you think we're totally heartless, she had previously, we found out, had other offers and done the same thing to those people. She had also contacted us the week or so before and asked if we would be interested in renting the home back to her after we became the owners. Um, no. Do we look crazy? From our previous experience we felt like we would never get her out. So we felt confident that she wasn't in dire straits and that she was using this an excuse. We also felt like it would be easier for her than for us to find another home, living in the same state, and us living 10 hours away and having 2 children for whom to find a place, or travel with by myself if I was to come down again, plus a growing baby on the way, which would make it increasingly difficult to move if we had to postpone moving into a home when we got down there. We decided not to accept her request to cancel. Most recently, she's asked us to pay her unexpected expenses ($2,000) of possibly having to store her things while she rents and the cost of having to move twice. Certainly an unusual request to which we didn't agree either.

I'm sure our real estate agent thinks we're nuts but we have such a good feeling about this house and neighborhood. So, we're holding our breath, and praying, that she's moving out this week. Otherwise we may have to take her to court and the whole process could take several months (right around when our baby is due:), either to get her to stick with the contract and move out, or to get our money back that we've already put into buying this home. We have a good feeling about things, like either this house will work out or something else great will have come on the market that fits our needs even better. We'll find out Thursday when Doreen goes to walk through the house to see if she's moved yet. If nothing else, the whole thing makes for a fun story of buying our first home. We'll see what happens...