Houli will attempt to make his way to Punt Road via either the NAB AFL Draft or the pre-season draft after the Bombers and Tigers failed to negotiate a suitable exchange during trade week.
Essendon football manager Paul Hamilton said Houli had indicated he intends to leave Essendon with the Tigers offering him more than the Bombers "could or would".
"Bachar has made it very clear that he wants to leave and I know there has been a lot of conjecture as to why," Hamilton told essendonfc.com.au.
"(Coach) James Hird met up with him last Thursday in an effort to convince him to stay but wasn’t successful.
"Bachar has been offered a significant contract at Richmond and certainly one that we were unable to match. It is a lot more than we could or would offer him.
"In the end he has made it very clear that he wants to leave Essendon to go to Richmond."
Richmond offered the Bombers draft pick No.46 but Hamilton said that selection would have been of no use to Essendon, with the club only planning to use three selections in November's NAB AFL Draft.
"They (Richmond) were offering a fourth-round pick and then later offered us a third-round pick (No.46 overall)," Hamilton said.
"The compensation that Richmond was offering us wouldn’t have made any difference to us or assisted us in any way due to us only having three picks in the draft.
"It wasn’t something that was worth considering."
Houli was reported to have become disenchanted with the Bombers due to a lack of opportunities, and he walked out on the club last week, refusing to attend the best-and-fairest count.
Recruiting manager Adrian Dodoro said the Bombers had not given up hope of retaining the midfielder and would use the time ahead of the draft to attempt to reconcile with him.
"I hope so. You'd think so," Dodoro said when asked if the relationship could be repaired.
"He's been a required player so we'll have a chat to him but he's got his heart set on getting to Richmond and they've got the whip hand at the moment with the pre-season [draft] so we had our hands pretty much tied."
Richmond football manager Craig Cameron said negotiations between the two clubs had ended in a stalemate.
"Essendon didn't want to accept our deal and we thought what they asked for was a little bit over the top," he said.
"He's disappointed it didn't happen today (Monday) but he's confident he'll get to where he wants to be."
Houli has played 26 AFL games since being recruited with pick No.42 in the 2006 NAB AFL Draft.
Follow our complete coverage of the 2010 AFL exchange period from October 5-11. No trades are official until paperwork has been accepted by the AFL and formally recognised after 2pm on Monday, October 11.
Join the AFL trade conversation on Twitter: use #tradeweek in your tweets.
