I got some swamp land I want to sell ya!

We haven't had much luck selling our house.  Granted, the market is very soft right now and I shouldn't expect buyers to be kicking our door down.  However, I did expect a bit more interest than we are getting.

The first two weeks were great.  We had a constant stream of potential buyers wanting to see the place.  We made sure it was as spotless as we could.  We do tend to keep a more than average clean house.  I'll be truthful, it's in spite of me living there.  I could live in 3 feet of filth and it wouldn't bother me much.  For a guy, I don't think I'm bad.  I just know I have a higher tolerance for clutter than Skyprincess.

Skyprincess met a realtor in a cafe and we decided to give her a try.  To say we haven't been impressed, would be an understatement.  After three months, lowering the price $5000, offering a buyer's agent bonus; we went a month with noone seeing the house.  We don't know what our agent has been doing, but we don't think it was much.  So I decided to fire her and put the house up for rental property.  The rental market is insane in Memphis and we've been told we could have someone in it very quickly.

Although we've always joked about being slum lords and having huge portfolios of rental property, I wasn't comfortable holding property so far away.  I would need to have a property manager take care of the day-to-day operations and would need to trust the renters to not tear up the place.

Fortunately, I knew someone who did manage property that I trust.  I called our realtor and told her to send me a letter of withdrawal, etc. and to remove our listing.  To which she whined about all the expense she had.  Which to be honest, wasn't much.  It was a newspaper listing and her husband bringing a table to an open house.  Anyway... the next day she called and mysteriously she had a potential buyer.  Where that buyer came from, I haven't a clue.  We went through the weekend with no further information.  She wouldn't return my phone calls.

Monday she said the person was willing to pay full price.  FULL PRICE, not the reduced price.  WTF?  So of course we decided to go for it.  I called my property manager and told her I have a buyer and we won't need to rent.  The buyers were slow getting the offer to us, and it had a few items I wanted to change.  I got the counter back and waited and waited and waited.  Five days go by and I'm thinking it wasn't going to happen.  Then today I get word they were backing out due to the guy losing his job.

To me this all sounds fishy.  Our realtor told me not to worry, she's showing the house again today.  I just don't trust her.  I looked over our offer and have been trying to reach the buyer's agent all day, with no luck.  I just want to find out if this was a real offer or something my agent used to string us along.  If this turns out to be bogus, I'm going to contact the realty board, her realty company, and an attorney for damages.  It takes a lot to push me over the edge, and my agent has me standing on the precipice.

Mizike