hello sleepless nights.

Just when I was starting to breathe again. And sleep again. I just talked to our real estate agent here, Iris, and she told me to contact our lawyer and see how we should be proceeding. What?! A lawyer, you say? I'm just as stunned as you. Let me take you back a bit...

I called Iris at 9:25am Friday morning to see about conditions being removed from our buyer. She had the paperwork sitting in front of her. All conditions were removed, the buyer's signature was there, and it had been faxed in. Done and done, I was told. Firm sale. There was rejoicing in our home. : )

1:15pm: I received a call from the buyer (yes, direct to me. She thought it'd be ok since we had talked before since this was a we-list caller). She told me how she just had an operation and couldn't get around well, how she owned her place outright and just needed an appraisal on it for the bank to forward her x-amount. That was running behind, especially since she was so sick, and could we please give her one more week to lift her conditions (i.e. get a bank appraisal). She called me directly thinking if she described her situation directly to me, I would be more likely to be lenient to her personally, rather than just a name on a sheet. I told her that there must be some mistake somewhere since her realtor had faxed in her removal of conditions sheet that morning and as far as we were concerned, we had a firm sale. And to call her realtor. She was shocked: she had signed the paper, but only because she was sick and could only get out the previous day to do it. She told her realtor to hold on to it. Her realtor didn't. There is the error. The larger-than-life error for this poor buyer. She assured me that's what she was going to do.

After many back and forth calls with my realtor, we were told we had a choice: (1) we could allow her the extra week, but that would keep it as "conditionally sold" and she could walk away at the end of the week if the appraisal didn't work the way she wanted it to, leaving us at square one. OR, (2), we could just say sorry, but it's a firm sale. By law, it was faxed in and it's a done deal.

Dan and I wavered a bit, angry that we had to make a choice and that even though it was her realtor's fault, we were the ones who were going to have to pay the price for it. Dan told me, "You know, an apology from her realtor would go a long way here. Just some humility saying they made a mistake, and can't we all work together to fix it."

At that moment the phone rang and it was Iris saying she had just got a call from the buyer's realtor saying that the buyer and us had just got off the phone and worked everything out and agreed to give her the extension, and to please send over the paperwork. This was at 3:45pm. Iris said she had no knowledge and she had to call us on it. Of course, it wasn't true and the other realtor was trying to pull a fast one. That really didn't sit well with either Dan or myself and so we said, no, keep it a firm sale. If it's got down to deception and lies, then we want no part in new dealings.

That's where it ended. Iris told them that it would remain firm. The buyer still owes her deposit, however, which was due on condition day (last Friday). She hasn't paid it and has been told by her realtor to talk to a lawyer on how to proceed. Iris told me to talk to our lawyer on how to proceed. Her realtor was angry that we wouldn't relent to a mistake being made. On one hand I feel like a giant bully saying that it's firm, and think, "it's only a week! Why make it all sour?" On the other hand, I don't want to open the possibility to us going back to square one again, and I don't want to deal with a lying realtor (hers). We have nothing to be ashamed of, we've done nothing wrong. We didn't make any errors. But it's looking like we're the ones to blame. This SUCKS!

So, I put in the call to "our lawyer" but she wasn't available at the time of the call. Hopefully she'll call back soon, as I am turning into a mess all over again. Hello?! We've bought a house here! We're moving on! Oh, my heart, my nerves. I can't hack this. I think I may have a mental breakdown before this is all over.

Ah, what angst.