Remember the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, when Dave has to pull out the key components that allow the computer HAL-9000 to "think" and speak? HAL had been given conflicting data sets from which to work, and eventually the conflicts caused it to glitch. Dave pulls the acrylic "cartridges" out of their data ports, and eventually, HAL regresses from dissonant and faulty advanced reasoning, through singing the children's song Daisy Bell, until finally asking the plaintive question, "Dave, will I dream?" HAL then goes dark. I am feeling like someone is emptying out my data ports, and I'm at the "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do..." stage. The last four days have been a deluge of data, and I have to deconflict everything I've heard and said to narrow in on working only for my clients and no one else. This morning, against the odds, the seller of the home I held open chose my offer to counter first, and on the strength of the offer we wrote, they awarded us the contract. We had to agree to their additional clause, but it was incredibly fair, and on reflection, my buyers agreed that the house was still a good investment. My head is still spinning from how quickly I went from not knowing this house existed (Thursday morning) to having it under contract with people I just met (noon today). I've gone through the gamut of emotions with the new clients, including fear, elation, anxiety, sympathy, and just about everything else that can happen with a whirlwind life change. There were nine other offers, and I am confident that I had conversations with most of those people after six hours' worth of open houses. I can clearly picture at least one who came back on the second day, madly in love with this house, while her broker wrote an offer for her out of my sight. I have to harden my heart about winning ahead of her. I really enjoyed talking to her, but she was not my client. This creates a lot of conflicting data sets, and now I need to finish pulling out all of my thumb drives. It's time to find out whether I will dream tonight.
Congratulations on the contract! How fast things can change!
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