My cup runeth over...

Got a phone call this afternoon from my real estate agent, who had some good news and some less than good news. 

As is to be expected, he gave me the good news first...not only did we have an offer on our house, but we also had a pending offer on the house!  Two offers in one day, as opposed to two offers in 14 months!  Yes!

So...back in the real world, neither the real offer or the 'pending' offer are perfect. 

The first offer, which was actually officially submitted on a piece of paper, was a major lowball.  The first time I was low-balled, I was fairly offended.  This time, I'm not as offended...I understand what people are looking at...a house that has been on the market for a LONG time.  Might as well throw an offer out there, and see how desperate the homeowner is. 

Not that desperate yet.  Our current asking price is $160K.  Todays offer was for $154K, with us covering $5500 worth of closing costs...so, effectively an offer of just over $148K, with us needing to come up with $35,000 at closing, and taking a loss of 20K after relocation help from my job. 

Just can't do that. 

The other 'pending' offer is interesting, but not without risk.  

There is a guy that is interested in buying our house, but he is lacking in credit.  Not bad credit...just no credit history.  He attempted to place an offer about a month ago, but was told his credit history wouldn't get him approved for a loan...take out a few credit cards, pay them off, and see what happens to his credit rating. 

Things aren't moving fast enough for him.  What he wants to do now, is make us a full price offer, and as part of that offer, RENT the house from us for 3 months, and then try again on his loan approval. 

The good...some money coming in each month...not quite the full mortgage, but the rent rate is a fair market value.  The bad...there is still the risk that in June, he won't be able to get approved...which is fine..try again in July, and then in August if need be.  The problem lies in September, when I go over two years at this job, and my relocation package expires. 

So...the low-ball offer now, and be done with it in April, or take the chance on June? 

Neither...yet.  We offered a counter offer to the low-ball offer.  It's not meeting them in middle, but I'm not hard lining them either.  My wife and I had already discussed that by dropping the price to 160K, we were probably going to see offers less than 160K, and so we have countered at $158K, which, when you figure in what we will lose over three months from renting for less than our mortgage payment, makes the offers equal on paper. 

Looking forward to what tomorrow brings...but a slim hope is better than new hope.