Lost in translation....

Remember the Chinese house in the backyard that we were *hoping* to buy and then looked at several weeks ago? After seeing it, I wasn't too keen on the idea of moving in the backyard - the kitchen is WAY smaller than mine (and I love to cook), the master bedroom isn't as roomy as I'd hoped, the basement is unfinishable without significant work (the mechanicals are right in front of the egress window, so we'd have to move them), the carpet needs to be replaced, and NO landscaping or any other improvements whatsoever have been done. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed, and we decided to stay in our house.

All along, Matt wondered what we could buy it for though... He knows how much I seriously LOVE our neighborhood, and how many friends the kids have here, and ultimately, you can't put a price on that... With all that being said...

Sharon (the homeowner) called me last night. She had consulted with a realtor with the understanding that he'd appraise the house, and she could try to sell it on her own for two months and if it didn't sell, she'd list with him. Anyway, when she told me the price, I nearly choked. Literally I had to repeat it three times to make sure I got the translation right. It's at least 40-50K more than we were thinking it should be, and we weren't interested in that price range.... Needless to say, Matt was laughing in the background, and I immediately had to tell several of our neighbors who also about swallowed their teeth.

So now I have the unfortunate task of telling her that we aren't interested... Numerous people think I should tell her the truth (that the house is WAY over priced and that houses haven't appreciated 50K in 3 years), but I really don't want to have that conversation.... It's just not my style...