"Did I say something wrong?" Was it callous?
Yup. You think he's HORRIBLE? Tell me I'm hiding something and my response would make the one posted seem pretty mild. And why is it the exact 150 you are looking for? I'd take his advice.
Yeah...hate to agree on this one, but "hiding something" screams of LIAR, CHEAT, THIEF...to a lot of people. He is making a decision to say, hey....if you think I am lying then forget it.
Better approach might have been to enlist a club member to go take a look and get pictures for you. If you use that approach on the owner now, you may already be doomed unless you can come up with a very strong apology.
I had a guy pull that on my Cardinal. He calls my mechanic (without my permission) and says something like, "I think this guy is desperate, so I am going to talk him way down". Next time the guy emailed me, I told him that I would not sell him the airplane and go find another.
Don't mean to beat you up, but that is where email can be a real drag on negotiations. Whereas you probably didn't mean what you said, that is how many would interpret it.
Hope it works out for you though.
