I've sold a number of foreclosures and short sales over the last year. Some of them go smoothly. Some of them do not. This is an example of one that did "not." Two and half months ago I received an offer on a property that has been on the market for four years. Even in this market, four years is a pretty long time. We've never had so much as a sniff, so when I got a well-qualified buyer to offer $800,000 on an $899,000 list price I was hopeful that we could work out the details with the bank. Nearly two months after having submitted the offer a negotiator finally called me. The communication shortfall was not because of lack of effort on my part. By my count I had made inquiries regarding the file a dozen times in hopes of generating a response. When the negotiator countered at $950,000 I expressed my concerns that we would lose the buyer. I was told to submit "compelling" evidence as to why the counter offer was too high. By my count I spent nine hours putting together what I thought was substantial statistical data gathered from MLS. Today the negotiator called me back. She adjusted the counter offer...to $1.1625 million!!! No, I didn't cry. I just laughed in hopes that I might maintain by sanity. Needless to say, the prospective purchaser has removed their offer. The sad part is that the bank will buy this home back at auction, put it on the market at something north of $1.1625 million and after several months, having lowered the price periodically, sell the home for $800,000.