Friday, March 15, 2013

Rollercoaster Rides and Rants

Welcome to my world.....I'm riding the real estate roller-coaster.



It's up,up, up the coaster, cleaning, projects, dusting to prepare for showings, banished from the house, then waiting for feedback.   With the feedback comes the down, down, down.  "To much that still needs to be done", "the neighbors junk cars a garbage strewn yard" and "there is horse poop in the pasture".  Really REALLY, Imagine finding horse poop in the pasture.  For heavens sake, what were you expecting on a horse property.    I think I'm getting to a point that I don't even want to hear the feedback.  I have pretty much done all that I can in the house.  The yard needs more attention and certainly needs more spring weather to get it accomplished.

Every buyer doesn't need to love it like I do.  I only need one buyer.  Patience has never been a virtue that come easily to me.

I'm certainly grateful for your supportive comments.  You don't know how encouraging they are to me.  Living solo, I do all the planning, all the work and I do it without support or encouragement of a partner when my I'm tired or my spirits are lagging.  You have picked me up and have been tremendously helpful to keeping my motivation in gear and moving forward.  I couldn't have gotten this far with you each of you.

I can see a list of things to do when banished from the house while it is being shown is necessary.  Sometimes I don't have more than an hours notice so the house needs to be ready as well as a to go bag of items I might need while gone.  I take my lap top and kindle with me so if I don't know what else to do I can spend some time at a WIFI spot and do updates on the computer or read.  Mostly though I want the time to be used for errands that will move me closer to the house selling or getting ready for my trip.

On one of my first banishment, I was driving down a substantial arterial road with four lanes and a median turn lane when the car in front of me slammed on their brakes.  While I could not see the problem I slammed on my brakes as well.  This can then proceeded to DRIVE AWAY.  As I proceeded forward I was able to see what was in the road.  A toddling baby!!  I would guess him to be about 15 months old with a diaper and nothing else on.  (It was 40 degrees.) I again slammed on my brakes and moved my truck into the next lane.  Through open my truck door and jumped out and scooped up the baby.   He was 1 foot from my bumper.   He had a sister who was following him who I estimated to be about 2 !/2 years old. (and was fully dressed).  I asked her where she lived and she couldn't or wouldn't talk.  So I went door to door in a little trailer park asking if anyone knew these children.  Two other cars behind me stopped also and we eventually found their home, three trailers from the busy road.   A man answered the door claiming the children, he said, "She keeps unlocking the door."  I was stunned!!  If she kept unlocking the door wouldn't you find a different lock... door handle cover or put furniture in front of the door to prevent an escape?  One of the ladies who also stopped, called the police to investigate the situation.  I was so shaken that I was unable to drive so I sat on the side of the road until I was calm enough to drive.

What was the driver in front of me thinking that they could just drive away?
Do these parents not understand the incredible gift and responsibility of  these children?
Just what kind of world do we live in?



7 comments:

  1. OMG, I am shaking here thinking about those poor babies and their father's asinine response. I certainly hope the police charged him with neglect at the least.

    On the other hand, get a tough skin because those comments are going to keep coming. Just know that you have done a phenomenal job getting your house ready and the person who falls in love with it is out there. It's like a knife in the side when people criticize your baby! you will survive all of this and be on the road to your future in no time! Hang in there.

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  2. Well now it's even clearer to me why I am a bit of a misanthropist. Some people don't have the brains God gave a goose. What a shame for those poor children. My guess is the police won't do anything until one of those children is killed. A friend is a social worker and it is impossible to protect children. All the rights are the parents'.

    Best thing for you to do is get yourself on the road and leave the house in the hands of a realtor. Take your new home and go have fun while they work to sell it to the person who is going to love it. I know a number of people this worked for including me when I was selling my father's house. I cleaned it out, cleaned it up, gave a trusted neighbor a key, close the door and called or emailed the realtor every week. Same things.....well the furnace is old, the water heater is old, looks like the new carpet needs to be restretched. What's that stain. DUH.... But one day she called and over nighted me the contract. We dickered a little and the deal was done.

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  3. You are in the hardest part of the home sale...waiting, but also being ready at a moment's notice to show it. We hated that part of selling our home. But when the right people saw it, it only took a few weeks to close the deal.

    Best wishes to you for a speedy sale.

    And remember...there's only so much you can do.

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  4. I agree with Sherry - why not take yourself on the road for at least a break? When I moved from Texas to Minnesota, I MOVED and left my property for the real estate agent to sell. I think that was the best way; I didn't have to live in it and make sure it was always ready to show and I wasn't around to hear the comments. Sure enough, after a couple of months, my beloved property was sold and the deal was done! At any rate, you deserve a break! Go if you can!

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  5. Like the others go camping. Selling is never fun.

    And OMG those babies. I wouldn't would even have bothered looking for the parents I would have just waited for the police and turned them over. Then maybe steps would have been take to protect them against their uncaring parents.

    Good luck selling hang in there

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  6. I did the same thing. I had my estate sale and a couple of days later, took off and left my condo in the hands of the Realtor. Mine was a short sale, so I wasn't waiting for any proceeds, I had already lost all my equity. But I still needed to "get it sold and get on with my life."

    It took some time, but when I had offers, we did everything through e-mail. He would e-mail me the docs, I'd sign them with an on-line signature and scan them in and e-mail them back. When it sold, the final escrow docs had to be notarized and overnighted back, and I was done.

    If you've done all you can, why not take off for a while? Have some fun. If you're not in the house, it will always be neat and clean, no dishes, no dusting, no getting ready for a showing. Have your Realtor give you updates when needed. It will sell - it's a nice house.

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  7. Sad to say, but our population has been so dumbed down that there are people who don't even know how to take care of their own children any more. You and the others who stopped did what you could by getting these children off the road and getting them back home. The rest is up to the local authorities.

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