How this experience began: part 2

Not long after the initial visit we were in contact with Shep letting him know that we would like to put in an offer on the property at $55k less than the listing price and it was at this time that Robin and I began to familiarize ourselves with the intricacies of the California Association of Realtors' form entitled 'RESIDENTIAL INCOME PROPERTY PURCHASE AGREEMENT AND JOINT ESCROW INSTRUCTIONS' (I will tell you now if you have yet to experience the tediousness that is reading and comprehending this document that there are more favorable ways to spend one's time). Here we were introduced to such jargon as 'contingencies,' 'Escrow,'Transfer Tax,'Home Warranty Plan, and 'Property Disclosures.' Once the arduous task that was familarizing ourselves with the document was completed we submitted this offer to the agents in person and were unexpectedly wrangled into a face-to-face meeting with the two of them (one being the aformention Middle-Eastern woman, the other a corpulent East European who seemed to take great pride in: 1) extolling his victories and spoils in the real estate game and; 2) pointing out everything that we'd done wrong in completing the offer (most of these errors due to subtle differences between the Bay Area and Sacramento Valley offer protocols), adding emphasis to these with a combination of highlighter markings (this writing implement looking more like a crayon between his vienna sausage fingers) and unnaturally loud mouth-breathing. The take home message from this meeting was that they would be getting back to us once they presented the offer to the sellers (it should be noted here that the general tone of the meeting was a negative one. We came away feeling that they didn't take us seriously and that we were basically pushovers and this didn't sit well with us.

The counter-offer came back with a price just $25k less than the listing one and included an addendum page that include such gems as:

1) The Wood Destroying Pest Inspection shall be the Buyers' responsibility.
2)The Sellers shall not pay the cost of the Home Warranty Plan.
3) Buyer Inspection Contingency shall be removed within 10 days.
4)All property disclosures provided on MLS shall be signed by the Buyers and delivered to the Listing Agent within three days after contract ratification.
Among others...

The seller's terms were agreed upon during a conference call between Shep, Robin, and I and the counter-offer was signed by the two of us and resubmitted to their (the seller's) agents and thusly was the Escrow machine set into motion.