There are two houses we're interested in. Both have been on the market a while, just over three months, and are within a few blocks of each other. Very similar size, condition, features and so on.

House number one required four attempts to get to see it. We called days in advance, and either get a direct "no" or a "maybe, call us that day and we'll see," with the followup call always met with a "not today." Finally, we got to see it, and it was very nice, but not a complete slam dunk. A few weeks later we were narrowing down our list and wanted to see it a second time. We're now three attempts in to trying to get an appointment scheduled, again with more than enough notice and a lot of schedule flexibility, and haven't yet been able to make it happen.

House number two accommodated our first request for a showing, on the exact date and time we wanted it. It was similarly nice, though not a slam dunk. No house is perfect, and they all have tradeoffs. We wanted to see this one a second time too. We happened to be in the neighborhood looking at something else, decided house number two was a finalist contender after having seen more houses, and called to see if there's any possibility of seeing it in the next few days. The seller happily accommodated us immediately, with no notice, even though that's not what we were asking for.

Add to this the fact that house number one has a price 20% above anything that's sold in the area in the last year, and hasn't changed the price since putting it on the market months ago. House number two has a relatively competitive price and has lowed the price four times.

Which one do you think made its way onto our finalist list, and which dropped off?

House number two, offer made and accepted. That's how it's done!

Congratulations!

I'd have done the same thing.