And Yet, More Kvetching

All I seem to hear about we irresponsible Americans is that we're impulse buyers, carrying more debt than is reasonable, acting quickly and without adequate intellectual reflection.

Why, then, do we have people ringing our doorbell at 9 a.m. and asking questions about the house because our agent didn't answer her phone on the first ring, yet our house has been on the market for a week with no contracts yet?

I know a week doesn't sound like very long. It is an eon compared to how quickly things went in this real estate market in the recent past. I know the price isn't too high, as we have what those in the know like to call "comps", houses we can use as a comparison to set the price of this one. I do think it's a ridiculous price for a house of this size, but this is supposedly the price that the market can bear.

I'm starting to think we're getting reamed because of the possible closure of the largest training air base on the East Coast, just miles away from here.

For those of you following along at home, our agent is going to ask for the couple who are only qualified for 94% of the asking price to make their best offer. Hopefully they haven't found anything in the meantime...although, I'm not picky. Hopefully we just get a contract today or tomorrow.

Yes, I'm in a hurry, and yes, we don't close on the second house until September 14, but I'm not much for uncertainties. Impatient? Yes. Whiny? Probably. Unreasonable? Perhaps.

In other news, I caught some sort of scratchy throat/stuffy ear thing on the plane on the way home. Honestly, that recirculated air is a breeding ground for every creeping crud from people far and wide. I woke up feeling not as bad as I did last night, and I feared it would be the opposite. You know how it either gets better or worse on the second day, and you can tell from there how long you'll be bothered with (alcohol and menthol free, of course, for the baby) cough drops and kleenexes? So this was the better outcome there. It will still suck when I have to pull up roots and vacate the house so it can be shown to yet more people who will neglect to put in an offer for it.

Part of me wishes we could get away with asking to see people's pre-approval letters before I actually get out of bed and leave the house for a half hour. I mean, if your qualification doesn't even come close, aren't we all just wasting our time? Trust me, our house is not as interesting as a museum. If you are looking for a pleasant way to spend a half hour, there are many more interesting things to do than gawk at our linoleum.

Or am I just being cranky? I can never tell.