Good news about the house sale. Things had been very quiet from our realtor this week. We didn't know whether that was good or bad -- but after repeated messages that weren't returned, we began to think it was bad. And we were right. Things were quiet because the appraisal wasn't coming in at the sales price, but $2000 under. The problem was apparently due to several things -- first, they were looking at the prices of the most recently sold houses on the street (2 others that sold that same week), and ours was being sold at a much higher price per square foot than any others. Second, the appraiser did a "drive by" and didn't look inside, so he or she couldn't see why our house was worth so much more than the larger house next door that still had original carpet, original paint, and original everything (from 30 years ago). And third, apparently appraisers are under a lot of pressure to not just appraise things at high amounts after the recent scandals and set backs in the sub-prime lending market. So, not hearing from our realtor was a sign that things weren't going well.

At times like this I'm grateful for Greg. He really is good to have around in a crunch. He told our realtor we wouldn't budge on the price and the buyer would either have to come up with the extra cash at closing, talk the appraiser into coming back to look inside, or shave the money off of her comission. Amazingly, within a few hours, the appraisal came back at the right amount and we're on for a Friday closing. Amazing what application of a little pressure can create!