"Well, if that's too much, what were you thinking?"  What I'm thinking is I shouldn't even be in this conversation.  I'm so sorry for wasting your time. 

They negotiated down to $12k for that common stretch, but good god: if I'm going to spend $11k-$15k that's something I've got to plan like a year out.  Like, holy shit.

I'm not embarrassed but also it was the most embarrassing situation I've been in in a while: I just had no clue the scope of what I was walking in to.