Offer Possibly Accepted

Got a call from the agent for Property C. He is going to take my offer to his client and he thinks his client will accept it. He wanted to know if I could close in 7 days. I have no problem with that, but I had to check with my escrow company if they could move that fast. He also wanted to know if I would make my $1,000 earnest money deposit non-refundable upon contract acceptance. I agreed to that. The agent said the guy needs money and this would sweeten the offer, given that it was already $40,000 below the asking price.

I called up the escrow officer I used for the sale of my last property, since she was so helpful. She definitely remembered me :-) and said there was no problem closing in 7 days.

So now I'm just waiting to hear back from the seller. And of course, I have the usual self-doubts now: should I have offered less, what if the house is a disaster, etc. I've called my agent to request some comps to see if her values are in line with my values. It's a bit scary now, given the current price declining environment. I suppose if I get cold feet, I can back out at the counter-offer. The seller will need to write a counter to change the COE date and make the deposit non-refundable. I told the agent those changes were ok, so if I do back out, it will probably piss him off, but better that than be stuck with a bad deal.