We had (beware, I say had, not have) finally found a piece of land. It met all of our expectations: close to the centre of town, close to a school, with shops and a busstation nearby. It was a quiet street and the building regulations were very good according to our architect: ‘you can’t find any better’.
Had, not have. Wat happened?
1. We call the owners to talk about the specifics of the land. The lady in question tells us she already has an agreement with another buyer. That’s a pitty. But, she says we could figure out a way around that agreement if we’re prepared to increase the price or do a part of the sale unofficially. We think it’s weird, because you can’t simply step out of such an agreement. The lady suggests that we call back the next day, to see if the sale with the other people goes.
2. We call back the next day and yes, the land is still for sale. We’re interested of course, but we’d like to check out a few things (the loan, the building regulations and stuff like that) before we close the deal. The lady inquires once again if we’re willing to do something unofficially. She also asks about the price we’re willing to pay. We tell her we’ll decide about that after our inquiries.
3. The next few days we run around from one place to another to ask all sorts of things regarding this piece of land. We even get our architect to come and take a look. He tells us it all looks great.
4. We call the lady to tell her we’d like to buy the land and suggest a price, slightly below the price she’s asking. But that seems to be a big problem! The lady accuses us of being dishonest.
Excuse me?
The lady now tells us we agreed on a price and she already told some other potential buyers that the land was sold. Apparently we had an agreement without knowing anything about it!
5. After another day of talking and reconsideration, we decide to agree to the price the lady asks. We call her, but she doesn’t even want to talk to us. Her friend comes to the phone and he tells us they won’t sell to us no matter what. They don’t want to sell to dishonest people.
So who’s crazy here?
