Delayed Gratification

A few weeks ago the wife found a house for sale she liked.  By coincidence, they were having an open house that weekend. We went. We looked.  We loved the place. It was a bit bigger than we need at our stage in life, but it was as close to a dream house as we could get in our price range.

I called the mortgage company to see if we could make it happen financially. We scheduled another visit to the house. We liked it even better.

I spent a few days traveling on business. The wife wanted to look at some other houses, because that is the way she shops. Compare, contrast, compare again -- then think about it for a long time before you repeat the whole compare thing. That is just the way things are and after almost 30 years of marriage I know her decision making process is not going to change.

We got a pre-approval letter from the mortgage company  and finally made an offer.  So did another party. The sellers came back and said, "give my your best offer".. We upped the ante a bit. We offered the asking price.

We live in a small town and through the grapevine we learned the sellers were showing the house again Monday evening -- after they looked at the offers from the two they already had on the table. A third party offered more than the asking price and we lost out on the house. I have no doubt the sellers told the people viewing the house what they needed to offer to get the property. No one offers more than the asking price without a hint or two.

My wife cried.

I know what happened, but I cannot prove it.

The fatalist in me opines that it was just not meant to be. The realistic me is more than a little disappointed.