House Update

So far, there's no real news on selling the house. We've had several showings recently, and the feedback our Realtor has gotten has been mostly positive, with of course that one deal breaking objection in each case. One potential buyer loved our house, but thought our bedrooms were too small. Hey, so did I. I had a HUGE master bedroom in my former condo. I personally like the large family areas in the house, but I already bought it. One person liked the house and found it fit perfectly within budget, but is a first time buyer and expects to find a house that won't require any painting. When we bought the house, we had already looked at about 25 to 30 houses prior, and this one was in about the best move-in condition of any that we saw. I've been told that buyer was just starting, and may be back after viewing the other inventory in this price range.
We did have two offers come in, from the same person. The first offer involved a contingency to sell another house. That was fine, but my Realtor suggested we counter with a requirement for this person to reprice and then drop the price by a certain amount every two weeks until the house sells. We liked that, because otherwise we would have to take all of the risk. If we were to enter into a contract with a contingency, and the other house didn't sell as a result of being overpriced, we would be screwed. Our Realtor researched comparable properties in the area and came back with a price, but the buyer didn't want to reduce and walked away. The person did come back with another offer with no contingency, but the offered price was too low. We're selling our house at a loss, and though we do know that and have built up a financial reserve to compensate, that price would have been more than we could afford to bring to the table to get out. Why are we selling at a loss? Family. My in-laws asked us to take over their house for several reasons which I will leave vague, and we are happy to comply even though it means taking a loss on our house.
We counter-offered. The potential buyer came back with another counter, which was still lower than we can go, so we countered again. We have heard nothing since. That is very frustrating. It seems to me that common courtesy would be to reply with a rejection or another counter, but we have had nothing but silence from this person and agent. That leaves me wondering if the person went away, or needs time to consider, or is pulling together another counter... We have no idea. I really would have appreciated some word, even a "get lost, and take your counter offer with you." The difference between our offers was very small in the grand scheme of things, and I can't see how it would break the bank on the potential buyer's side, though it would break the bank on our side as it determines how much money we have to bring to the table at closing to cover the difference between the sale price and our mortgage balance plus closing costs..
I will be so happy when this is finally over, although one of my fears is that as stressful and frustrating as trying to sell my house will be, we'll find out that this is the easy part. That is the kind of fear that can keep you up at night. On top of it, I'm hoping to trade our Windstar in on a used Hyundai Accent to help get our gas costs down, but we can't do a damn thing until the house sells. We need to see how much of our reserve is left over after closing before I can consider getting a used, more fuel efficient car.
I debated with myself for a few days whether to post this or not, but I believe I have not given any significant details to identify anybody involved. I doubt anyone involved reads my blog, but I have done the best I can to respect any confidentiality that may be in play.