BUGGERS!

So I've been laying low and not posting because I didn't want to jump the gun like last time. Marc fell in love with a house from our recent tour de force and though it didn't meet all of my criteria, it met enough that I could give it a thumbs up with a clear conscience. No tears this time!

So we made an offer! But then they ignored us. Our realtor started to get nervous, thinking that they might be stalling, waiting for another offer to come in so they could pit us against each other.

And she was right. An hour ago she got the call giving us THREE HOURS to respond with our "best and final offer".

So now, instead of telling us to offer 90%-95% of asking price, she's advising us to offer 100%-105% of asking. Which puts us ABOVE our budget ceiling. We can make it work, using some of our retirement savings to bulk up our downpayment, keeping our mortgage payment as it would have been. But still, if we were in that price range to begin with, how would this house compare?

I want to vomit. There's nothing worse than bad karma, and this has bad karma ALL OVER IT like cat poop.

If we DO offer asking price or above, and we get it, will we forever have a bad taste in our mouths? Conversely, if we offer UNDER asking price and lose it, and end up renting for goodness knows how long and then re-moving within the same year (at our own expense) will we be kicking ourselves for being idealistic and not realistic?

In the end, we need a place to live, and these buggers have us over a barrel. T minus 90 minutes to make a decision...