Your mad admin in the process of selling his childhood home. I don’t want to sell it, really, but I can’t live there and my sisters have their own circumstances so either can’t or choose not to live there either. We tried to rent it to a relative, but that fell through before it even started; at least the relative never moved in. Hence, the regretful but necessary sale.

I am not a good negotiator.

I’ve bought cars before, of course, and I basically do as much research as I can, walk in, and if the car dealer is not financially bending me over any more than they do to anyone else, then I figure I’m escaping as well as I can. (Translated: I research the average sale price for the car in my area, and if I’m getting a price around that, well, I just lie back and think of England.)

My thinking on this is as follows: I buy a car about every eight to ten years. So in my life I’ll buy a car perhaps six or so cars in my adult life. The car salesman sells that more than that a week. Perhaps more a day. He’s going to be better at it than I ever will be. I’m not going to “win”.

But this is a house, and I’ll only be doing this once, and I’m on the selling side, and I know that I’ve never done this before. Sure, I have an agent, who knows how the transaction is done, but I still have to decide on the price, and what to give in an offer, what to accept in counter-offers, etc.

In counter-offering, I think I’ve pissed off the potential buyer, who was thus far the main person interested in the house. It might be difficult to find another buyer.

Or they’re taking their time in responding to see if I get so eager for an offer, that I take whatever they eventually counter with. I probably will, because even if this is just a negotiating tactic (which I’m not good at, remember), the truth is this process is kind of driving me mad. Well, okay, more mad. As per usual.

Add that to still mostly grieving my mother’s passing, and… well… I really want it to be over.