Schadenfreude

While I've never been above a good gloat, schadenfreude in and of itself has never appealed to me.

Schadenfreude, the German word that translates literally as "HarmJoy", describes the state of being happy at someone else's misfortune.

I don't enjoy watching other people suffer.  When someone falls down on the ice or walks into a door, I don't think it's funny.  I cringe.

But when there's some sort of poetic justice in it, when karma bites someone on the ass, I'm not above gloating.  For example, when a homophobe discovers he has a gay son or when a selfish rich prick loses all their wealth, I enjoy it not because I inherently enjoy other people's pain, but because I like justice.

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I've been feeling something like schadenfreude this week as the saga with our Buyer From Hell (BFH) comes to a close. This was the woman who for four weeks kept Betrothed's condo off the market while making our life hell.  We gave her two deadlines to finally pay the balance of her earnest money, and BFH continued to stall and make demands. I was feeling the need to jam a pencil into this woman's neck.

When she ignored our last deadline and sent a nasty message to our lawyer, Betrothed told the lawyer, "I'm through with this buyer."  We had the lawyer terminate the contract and put the condo back on the market.  We decided that the stress of having to try to sell the condo was less than the stress of dealing with this woman for another 6-8 weeks (until the closing.) 

The horror is over.  She can't hurt us anymore.  Now the healing can begin...

Even BFH's realtor apologized to us for her behavior, which made it clear that we're not the only people who thought she was a pain in the ass. Four days later her lawyer sent a message saying the contract had been canceled.  She ended with, "I am very sorry for all of the work that everyone has done on behalf of this matter.  I hardly think that an apology suffices."

So now both her realtor and her lawyer had apologized for her.  Maybe next it will be her dog?

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Here's where the schadenfreude comes in. We heard from our realtor that BFH's realtor was so exasperated by her that she dumped her.  I didn't know you could be fired by your realtor, but, wow, she must have really been terrible if her own realtor didn't even want her business any more.

But it gets better.  Betrothed's condo was only on the market for two days when another buyer came along.  Not only did the buyer offer $5K more than BFH had offered, but she paid all of her earnest money immediately, and even moved the closing date to one that was more convenient for us.  Squee!!  We're keeping our fingers crossed, but if this buyer doesn't flake out (like so many have), all the troubles with BFH may have been worth it.

And here's the icing on the whole HarmJoy cake.  A few days later, we got an email from BFH's realtor.  She received a voicemail from BFH saying that now that now she had some time think about it, she realized that the place was perfect for her and would like to try again to buy it.  The subject line that her realtor wrote was: "OMG - [BFH] is back and wants the property..."

Sorry, we've found a new buyer who treats us much better than you did.