Erika: Did we get our first home, or didn’t we? When Eric says I’m good with money, that is true. And I see saving money as a bit of a competition with myself. I also reward myself with a “well done!” present from time to time, even if that’s not how I see it. When Eric wrote in his post that I’d text him and said “bids went too high”, that’s not exactly what I wrote, but how he read it. Whoops! I know the market, and I know this area where the apartment is in. It is worth more than we talked about, so my bids went higher. Still within my (our) budget though. I didn’t say anything to Eric, because I wanted to surprise him and I really wanted this to be our first home.

So… What happened? Of course I couldn’t keep it to myself. I can never keep a secret that’s about myself. Well… Hardly ever. And I was so excited. I was the last bidder on Wednesday night and the ones selling wanted a quick deal, so I only needed to wait until Thursday lunch before getting an answer. We were only two bidders left and I had put in my absolute final bid, I didn’t want to go any higher. My last bid was what I call “my cousin bid”. When my cousin bought their house they won the bidding war by putting just a little bit more in as their last bid, a bit they didn’t have but had to borrow from her parents. I don’t have to borrow the money, but to me that was my “it hurts a bit to place that bid but if I lose the apartment just because I didn’t, it would hurt even more”. When I woke up Thursday morning, there had come in a new offer from the other bidder. I said I was out. I was gutted and told Eric about it all, and that we lost anyway so it didn’t matter. And I was upset because I really wanted to surprise him with our first home. He started talking about trust, in a jokingly way, and that he wasn’t ok with what I had done. I tried to tell him that the apartment is worth every single penny, and that it didn’t matter because we didn’t get it.

Was that it? It turns out, no! We still have a chance. Not a big one, but there is a small tiny micro, maybe nano, chance that we still can get it. The real Estate Agent send me a text yesterday evening, saying they’d signed a contract but that the bidder who won have to go back and talk to their bank, before the deal will be done. I try to not get over excited, because if they’ve only gone over their budget with a bit the bank will probably help them. But what if they’ve gone over their price range by far? What if I get a call on Tuesday, after Easter holidays, and Eric and I have got a second chance with our first home? What then? For sure I will not accept having bid against someone who shouldn’t have gone that high in the first place, they’ve been pushing my bids higher and higher. And how do you win that battle with a real estate agent? I get nervous just thinking about it, but I’ll put hard against hard. I have no idea if that bidder even is a real bidder. 

The real estate agent have told me things like “the seller have already bought a house, and not a cheap one”, “they’ve turned down a bid that was a bit higher than the asking price, that they got pre showing” and “they want a quick deal before Easter so they can relax with the family over the weekend”. It doesn’t make sense that someone who wants a deal done as soon as possible, to be able to relax over Easter, still chooses the not done deal offer. The bid wasn’t that much higher than mine (ours) either…

Good Friday, but no rest for the living. Time to go and do some work!