More like...stick something in the ground. Does it die or not??

Totally how I garden too.

Counter offer. What to do, what to do???

$4500 above my offer. Do I try to knock that down $1500? Or just go with it? I don't want to upend things.

Sitting here, I feel like I would counter-counter, but in real life, I dunno. Is the $4500 more still doable for you?

Yes, it's fair. I think I will talk to my realtor and go down $1500 or $2000 and hopefully lock it down. I am unreasonably worried about making someone say fuck that and walk away. As a general thing, not here specifically. So I just have to keep reminding myself it's not unexpected. (It's not, right??)

Countering when I got my current job offer was bar none the scariest thing I've ever done, and I had to keep focusing on how pissed I was at myself for not doing that on other occasions.)

That sounds reasonable, brenda! Deep breaths!

Hmmm. This is from the selling agent to my agent:

Sorry for the slight delay. I had to remind my seller of updating work yet to be done on the home. Though she did decide to counter in price. I advised her not to go higher than she did. Also seller and I would much rather close at my office or local Lake Geneva title Co. This is reflected in the counter offer.

Just a fyi. I'm not sure if seller will go any lower in price. I also believe she will not do any repair work post inspection report. Especially since installing a new well. Seller will also be leaving monday morning on a 4 day business trip. Her availability to me will be limited. Anyways see what you can do. Thanks much for the offer and good luck on your end.

Must think on this.

It's been on the market for a long time and has dropped in price some, and my offer was $12k below asking. So it's not an unreasonable price by any means, and much less than they initially set out to get. (And the fact is, I really want it. It's not perfect, but in a venn diagram of location, characteristics and price it's pretty uniquely in the sweet spot.)

Go, brenda, go! Good fortune!

I'm thinking of doing some kind of container garden on my otherwise-unused patio this year. It may never get beyond the thinking/planning portion, though.

To put my crazy fully on display, my offer was a nice round number. The counter is also a pleasing number. Counters I would make come out awkwardly. This is genuinely weighing on me.

Do you have an idea how much work needs to be done, if the seller doesn't do any more? Is that still within your budget?

There's only one area of real concern, which is the roof condition. If that needs immediate work, we'll need to work that out either in having it repaired or dropping the price. Otherwise there are things like the screens on the porch need to be replace, no big deal. The porch steps probably need some shoring up. That sort of thing. The roof is the only deal-breaker I can see. (And as noted, they did just redig the well, which would have been the other potential spoiler.)