The Real Estate Deal That Just Keeps Getting Weirder...

If any of you have been following the over-the-top real estate transaction that we've been involved in--it's just gotten a little lot stranger!

Just to update you on some of the strangeness thus far...Mr. Howell (the current owner) had originally asked if he could leave "some" of his stuff in the basement after we close on the house until his daughters could arrange to get it. Although the realtors thought this was a little unorthodox, we agreed to it if it would get the deal done.

Then that agreement morphed into a letter that stated he would be using "three rooms of the basement for storage for an indefinite amount of time." Three rooms? Indefinitely? But we agreed to that too...

Then Mr. Howell got confused about the closing date--thought it was much later--and asked that he keep more of his stuff in the house (living room, dining room and bedroom) until the scheduled pick-up.

I was a little apprehensive about this, because the second we close on the house, we are going to start ripping down wallpaper, ripping out carpet, painting, etc. But I thought--well, I guess if throw some drops cloths over everything it will be alright?

So now, Don called Mr. Howell this morning just to check in with him, and he said that he's actually going to be LIVING THERE during this week-long period after the closing!!

I said to Don there's no way this can happen--I don't think the house will even be habitable. But he says he told Mr. Howell that and he doesn't care.

Can you believe this?

At this point, I'm convinced the guy will never move out! Maybe I'll just put a mattress in the basement for him and call it a day!

An Example

I might as well rename my blog "Jennifer's Boring Blog About Real Estate" as that's all I seem to talk about...

I know I have gone on and on about what a nightmare it is to keep our house even semi-clean and ready to show to prospective renters/buyers. After the botched rental, it seems even harder! I think I got out of cleaning mode and was so happy to be done with it that I went to the other extreme.

The house is a disaster!!

It doesn't help that we've been crazy-busy, not just dealing with our tenant fiasco, but with the millions of interesting things our kids are involved in.

Tonight, for instance, Andy was in a jazz concert that took place at a very prestigious venue with probably hundreds of people watching! It was a lot of fun and I think I'll dedicate a whole post to it soon (I took tons of pics that I have to go through first)--but just the dynamics of getting everyone ready for an event like this becomes all-consuming and, as a result, the house gets trashed. (I also had a nervous breakdown over Andy's pants-but I'll save that for the other post too.)

Anyway, just as an example of how quickly the house can spiral into a pig sty--here is a pic of my kitchen counter this evening:

I numbered the items as a handy reference.

1. Leftover tomato/chicken/cheese concoction for tostadas (from Noble Pig!). I had attempted to make a picnic dinner...but then it rained....but all that will be in the other post.

2. Champagne.

3. Klassy Kups for champagne.

4. Worms for turtle (at least I moved the crickets!)

5. Leftover water bottles.

6. Bag o' nipples.

7. Lots of bottles (Pickle still drinks out of a bottle, ok! Yes--I know she's 2 1/2 but the "Bottle Fairy" has been too busy cleaning the house!)

8. Bags from Cost Plus. I bought these glasses--aren't they cool!?

I don't know if you can tell in the pic--but they have fleur de lys on them.

9. Bag of art supplies.

10. Flower arrangement to prettify the house--but never made it off the kitchen counter.

11. A bunch of miscellaneous crap.

12. I think this is a loaf of French bread?

Tell me--based on this pic--would you rent my house! NEVERMIND! Don't answer that...

Adding Insult to Injury

I need some opinions here.

I told you that the pink-haired people are trying to back out of the 2 year lease that they signed with us. Upon hearing this, we told our realtor that we had better get our house on the market immediately and try to find new renters--and we also told him to let the "renters" know that they could "buy" themselves out of the lease by paying four months rent or (and this is the option our lawyer advised) they could pay monthly until we (or they) find new tenants.

Also, just to update--when they were entering into the lease, we lowered the price to their requested amount, agreed to move out earlier than planned (even though that meant changing our closing and move-in date) and we started packing up our house--so now there are boxes, etc. everywhere which will all have to be dealt with before we start showing it again. Not to mention, the time we had the house off the market was probably the last week where potential renters for September 1st would be looking.

So today our realtor forwarded this email from the renters' broker to us (obviously I'll change the personal information in it) and--OMG! It's the most insulting thing ever! The realtor is basically saying that her clients are destined for sainthood and we are money-grubbing monsters.

Here--read it for yourselves (just for fun I'm going to highlight all the insults in blue!):

"Hi Peter,
Thanks for your email and thank you for helping to find a fair resolution on the lease of [house]. I always know that you are doing the best you can and I appreciate your professional efforts on this one.

I think it would be appropriate to share with your clients the situation my clients, the L------s are in. They too are feeling the effects of this market - the financial impact and the emotional impact.

The L-----s purchased their home 2 years ago for $1,325,000. Now we are on the market for $995,000 and have entered into a contract for a normal negotiated price off that list price. The L----'s have lost approximately $400,000 in this deteriorating real estate market. That being said, they have weathered this transaction/situation with grace and dignity - not blaming anyone - just accepting the situation as out of their control.

We entered into a contract for the sale of [their house] - twice. The first time within 10 days of listing the home. The buyers were from North Carolina and their plans changed and backed out of our sale for personal reasons. After 3 weeks of being under contract, we had to go back into the market. There was no financial reimbursement for time lost. We then entered into a contract with a family who was very well qualified financially - they had already closed on their home - and their mortgage contingency was more or less a formality. We were, as you know 4 weeks from closing and on Monday the buyer of our home lost his job. He is probably in his mid to late 50's and we know that can be tough. They notified us on Monday that they could not proceed with the purchase of [house].

Peter, I would like you to know the response of my clients....After an initial pause and "Oh Shit", they expressed their concern for the buyers - wondered how they were doing - felt compassion for a professional who still has a child in college and has now lost his job. There was no discussion has to how we could "screw them" for some piece of the earnest money or make the resolution of this transaction difficult. All this on top of the fact that now we have to go back into the market - yet again - in August of all times. It has been very difficult for my clients as well.

I share this with you because, on the other side, we were all quite shocked to get a different sort of response from your clients when we let them know that we needed to get out of the lease. I know we cannot expect everyone to be understanding, but we can hope that all involved understand the tough environment we are all operating in. It is sad that a man/husband/father lost his job; and it is unfortunate that we have had to "sell" [their house] twice because events outside of our control have transpired; and we feel very badly that after 6 days from signing a lease we are asking to be able to get out of the lease for unfortunate events outside of our control. We entered into it in good faith and we are asking your clients to release the L----s in good faith, under the circumstances. The L----s cannot afford to execute a lease and simultaneously make mortgage payments on [their house].

It seems to us fair that since your clients were only out 6 or 7 days of rental listing time that the L---s reimburse your clients for 1 week of rent (approximately $1075). Although we believe that is the fair option, we are willing to offer your client instead 1/2 month rent or $2125. This give them a bit extra for any inconvenience during those 6 days.

Thanks Peter for handling this on your end.
Linda"

So this woman attacked our character! So far this deal has been all about THEM--they want a lower price, an earlier date--and now--to be let out of the lease! I told my realtor that we would be more than happy to let them out of the lease--once we (or they) find us new renters.

Is this unreasonable?

And frankly, I would have been WAY more inclined to let them out if we hadn't received this personal attack! Now we're mad.

So please--I'm interested--what would you do??

Finally!

Well, I'm happy to announce that we finally FINALLY have a signed contract with Mr. Howell!

As I told you the other day, this deal has been like a roller coaster and today was no different. We got word this morning that the selling broker would be meeting with Mr. Howell and hopefully getting the contract signed. I wasn't holding my breath as I've been disappointed so many times--but I drove past the house as I was picking the kids up from camp and saw that her car was there--so I was hopeful.

Then a friend and I met up with the kids for lunch after camp and my realtor showed up (don't know how he tracked me down!) at the restaurant waving the contract.

But after a quick look through it, we soon realized it hadn't actually been signed, only initialed.

So he had to run off and find the listing broker, then go back to the house and really get it signed!
I said to him that based on the way this whole deal has gone down, it's really no surprise!

But anyway, it is signed and we are very excited! We do, however, still need to deal with our current house (we dropped the contingency) and our current plan is to rent it for awhile and sell it later when (hopefully) the market has rebounded. So renting vibes are appreciated now!

Although we will very busy in the next couple of months preparing for the move and planning for some cosmetic things we will have to do to the new house--I feel a huge sense of relief!

So...cheers!!

Underground

I just figured something out--when I'm stressed-out I can't write my blog! Just like when I'm stressed-out I can't eat...I guess I have to be in a good mood to do both!

As usual, I've been upset over this crazy real estate transaction.

Saturday was a low point--I "lost it" and literally cried all day. There was a new setback with the deal that was not only frustrating but extremely unfair and I started panicking that after putting our lives on hold for over a year to get this done, we were going to lose out to a ridiculous situation and I had no idea what we were going to do next. It was a miserable day and I ruined it for everyone.

Then Sunday was stressful all day long until very late in the day when things were really looking up and we were all excited.

Then Monday was awful and stressful when things took a bad turn around lunch time and things looked bleak, but then looked a little more hopeful toward the end of the day.

Now, as I write this on Tuesday night (and I just watched the season finale of Real Housewives of New Jersey--OMG!!!) we are in limbo again.

This real estate transaction has been like riding a roller coaster in a nightmare! I think we could have made a crazy reality show on the drama surrounding it! Or maybe a movie?

Dona and I decided that if our saga were to be a movie, this would be the cast:

Me--Angelina Jolie (it's my movie--I can do what I want!)
Don--George Clooney
Our realtor--Robin Williams
The listing broker--Bette Midler
"Mr. Howell" the seller--We would have to resurrect Jim Backus to do his role justice

Anyway--now you know that if I've gone "underground" it's because I'm worrying and not eating and too depressed to write. And there's been a lot to write about this week too! I'll try to elaborate when I feel better, but in short:

--One of our ferrets died (while she was staying with friends--part of the real estate/house showing ordeal).

--She succumbed to an illness with the menacing name "Green Slime Disease."

--We had a ferret funeral.

--We caught a raccoon.

--But not the one we wanted to catch.

--We discovered "Happy Hour" at my favorite sushi place.

--Pickle has done and said lots of cute new things.

--Example: This morning she said to me "Mommy, you're my best friend in the world and you are my superhero." CUTE!!

--I started a new drawing class.

Sorry I've been such a slacker. I need to get this deal done STAT!

M.I.A.

I'm so sorry I fell off the face of the Earth!! I have never gone so long between blogs--even through vacations and rampant stomach flu--and I don't even have a good excuse. I guess have been overwhelmed lately with our ridiculous real estate transaction that has been going on for ONE YEAR!!

It seemed this past week we were getting much closer to a deal. Don went off to have some strategic meetings with Mr. Howell and we had lots of meeting with our realtor--all of which left me mentally exhausted and unable to come up with a reasonable blog.

See, Mr. Howell--after ONE YEAR of negotiating with us--which included offers, counter-offers, contracts, lawyers, realtors, appraisers, contingencies, our house for sale, our house for rent, endless hours of cleaning, open houses, baking thousands of cookies for that home-style aroma, storage, and lots of crying and screaming--has decided (when we were this/close to a deal mind you) that he wants to look into selling his house to a charity so he can get some kind of tax deduction!?!

Does that make sense to anyone? Can you get a tax deduction if you sell, not donate, your property to a charity? It makes NO sense to me. But, in any case, we are on pins and needles waiting for him to make a decision. It is very stressful. Adding to the stress is the fact that our house is still on the market (even though we don't technically have a deal now) and I still have to constantly keep it clean--not easy with five kids and ten thousand animals--and will soon be even harder as today is the last day of school.

So...just a little stressed out here!

Actually, it feels good to vent--though I'm sure it doesn't make for a very interesting blog read...sorry!

I'll leave you with a pic of Undercover Pickle and the promise of being a better blogger!
Also, could everyone please cross their fingers that Mr. Howell takes our offer!?! Thanks!

Boxes...

This is going to be me life for the next few weeks:

I plan on boxing up as much superfluous crap as I can to make our house more saleable. Please forgive me if my blog starts to turn into nothing but musings on packing tape for awhile...

Meanwhile, we have scheduled the inspection of the new house for Saturday--that should be interesting as it's a 100 year old house and undoubtedly has some interesting issues!

But can I just stress/freak out for a second? Although we've been told that Mr. Howell has accepted our offer and asked that a few changes be made (like the amount of time we have to sell the house) he hasn't actually signed it yet. Our realtor isn't worried and says that he's just on his own weird time frame--but it makes me anxious!

Meanwhile I have a storage unit thing arriving tomorrow to put the boxes in and we need to tell the architect who's been working on our renovation about our new plans. I'm making Don tell him because I'm too scared to!

So...just a little stressed at The Fun House!

More Real Estate Drama...

The continuing saga of our never-ending real estate transaction...

If you're really bored and you haven't read any of my past ramblings about our bizarre real estate dealings, you might want to click here and here to catch up. Otherwise, here comes the most recent installment in the craziness.

When I last updated, we upped our offer slightly on Mr. Howell's house and he never really responded. The realtor called us about a month or so later and said that he would accept a higher offer and that was about the end of it.

More recently, we brought a friend of ours in on the case who is also a broker and happens to now work in the same office as the broker that has the listing on the house.

Under his supervision, we resubmitted our offer with the same price as before, but also adding in a contingency clause to sell our house first--so it was actually inferior to our previous offer--but the market has gone down the tubes even more since then, so that's what we felt comfortable with.

We submitted this about two weeks ago--our new realtor telling us that we should get an answer in a day.

A day went by--still nothing, but the realtor said Mr. Howell needed another day to discuss it with his daughters (he's a widower). Another day...nothing.

Another week...nothing.

Our realtor was getting more and more frustrated as it was nearly impossible to reach the listing agent, and when he could speak with her, details were always sketchy about why we weren't hearing back.

It all started to become laughable to me!

Then finally, on Friday our realtor called and said that the he found out the seller was working on some kind of cryptic deal and couldn't make a decision until he was finished. He wouldn't reveal what this mysterious deal was to anyone except his listing broker and she was sworn to secrecy. She would only tell us that it was "something really weird." (!!!)

At that point, we issued a kind of an ultimatum that we would "appreciate" an answer by noon on Saturday. Sooo much time had gone by and we just couldn't stand being in limbo anymore!

Of course, noon rolled by with no word, so we went on with our weekend. I headed out to get some stuff framed (including an original Little Edie poster--I'm so excited to have it!).

Anyway, while I was at the frame place, Don called to say our offer had been accepted!! I was shocked!

So, at first, I was really excited--but as the day went on, I started to feel overcome with panic.

It didn't help that when we went out to dinner to celebrate, Gooser sobbed through the whole meal because he doesn't want to move. But he started to perk up a little when I told him that the closets of the new house would make very good batcaves!

In the middle of the night, I woke up consumed with doubt and worry that we are making the wrong decision, but after talking to Don today, I feel better about it.

The next obstacle now will be selling our house--Mr. Howell changed the contract giving us only 45 days to sell. I don't know if that's even possible--but we're going to try!

In the next week or so, I'm going to be in a frenzy of cleaning and organizing--in fact, I think I'm going to box up a bunch of crap and put it in storage so my house doesn't look so cluttered.

Please wish us luck--we're going to need it!

A Whole Lotta Nothing

I find myself writing this post with no clear direction of where it is going. I had a couple of makeshift ideas, but to tell you the truth, I'm so preoccupied with our ongoing real estate saga that I forgot what my ideas were. So this is going to end up being a weird stream of consciousness post.

Okay--the real estate thing goes something like this...(I'll link back to some posts about it here and here in case you don't know what I'm talking about.) Long story short, we have brought in another realtor on the case. He is a friend of ours and I am hoping that he can get through to the seller and get the deal done--otherwise we will drop the whole thing and continue with our renovation.

So here's how it stands--we re-presented our offer but added a contingency to sell our house first (because the market has gotten so much worse) but with a more aggressive approach, really outlining how terrible the housing market has been around here and providing comps proving that our offer is a good one.

The scary thing is that if he accepts it, we will have to put our house on the market in five days! That really freaks me out, but I'm trying not to dwell on it. Also, I keep going back and forth--wondering if we're better off buying that house or sticking with our renovation. I'm so sick of thinking about it! The thought of change scares me and the thought of renovating exhausts me. I'm so confused right now, I didn't know what I want! But, in any case, I should find out which direction we'll be going soon and I will keep you all posted.

Onto more random things...I copied Brenda's (from Queen of Good Intentions) menu for this week and tonight I made "Bacon Cheeseburger Chicken" (it's really only chicken--doesn't have anything to do with a burger!) and it was cRaZy delicious! It involves teriyaki sauce, Ranch dressing, bacon and cheese. If those ingredients sound good to you--check it out! needless to say, Pickle LOVED it! Everybody did. I managed to get one makeshift pic before we devoured it:

I also made the rum cake recipe I found on Pioneer Woman. OMG!! It probably had ten million calories--but it's worth it! I don't even have a pic because we were all on it like animals. Oh, also, I made it without nuts beacuse we have all kinds of nut allergies here, but I put brown sugar in the bottom of the pan instead which made a delicious crunchy crust.

Finally, I thought I would grade my resolutions thus far:

--flossing/gum stimulating--B+

--eating only heart healthy foods--B+ (except tonight's dinner was clearly an F!!)

--not eating any food after dinner--A-

--going to watercolor class--A

--painting 3 times a week--C (I've only done it once, but I might work on it tonight).

--exercising--B- (I've been working out w/ the trainer, but not by myself).

So I haven't been perfect, but I will keep trying to improve!!

Sorry for this stupid, disjointed post!

Real Estate Update

We had the meeting today with the Thurston Howell type (read yesterday's post if you don't know what I'm talking about!)

and I guess it went pretty well?

He was a very nice man, but I was so terrified Pickle was going to break/ruin something that I had a hard time concentrating. There was a porcelain doll from the 1800s in plain sight--not a good toy for Pickle! Then at one point she flew into a rage because she couldn't stack the coasters on the coffee table to her liking. Also, there were a lot of chocolate cookies being served and I had visions of chocolate smears on his furniture and carpets! That didn't happen...I don't think?? At least I hope!

So we had a nice talk--Mr. Howell and Don have a lot in common--they went to the same schools for college and graduate school! Then he gave us a nice little tour around the house.

We didn't talk any business but I get the sense that he definitely wants more than we're asking and I don't know if he'll agree to our price. I will call the realtor tomorrow and try to find out what he's thinking.

So please keep crossing your fingers for us--I would love to get this done!!
Oh, and apparently Gooser really wants the other house. As soon as we got home he made this sign:

And I had to stop him from going outside and displaying it on our lawn!

Weird Negotiations

I wrote about a million years ago (back when I had no blog readers!) about how my husband and I were trying to decide if we should remodel or house or move. We have started the remodeling process--the architect has been working on drawings, etc. but we also found a (very expensive) house on the market that we like.

Months ago, we made a "lowball" offer on the house (to say lowball is laughable because it's still a ton of money) but the owner countered with a very high number and the negotioations didn't really go anywhere.

Over the past few months we have come up a little with our offer and he has come down a little in his asking price--but we still haven't been able to settle on anything.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to stop by during an open house and talk to the realtor. I mentioned to her that I was considering writing a letter to the owner--kind of introducing ourselves and explaining why our offer was lower than his asking price (it needs work). I was afraid we were coming of as these faceless jerks and I wanted to look more "human" to him.

The realtor thought it was a good idea--so I wrote a nice letter--even including a pic of the kids! Plus, we upped our price somewhat.

Yesterday the owner of the house called me! He said he loved the letter and picture and he understood where we were coming from about the renovations that needed to be done. One of the things I had emphasized in the letter was that we respect and appreciate the architect (it's an historic house) and that we would always remain true to the original design--he seemed to respond well to that.

Anyway, he said he wanted to get together and meet with us! I think he's considering taking our price and wants to see if we're a nice family that will love and appreciate his house. So tomorrow is the big meeting--please wish us luck! We would love to have this house and I would much rather move and slowly do the renovations that house needs, rather than do the ginormous project we would have to do with our current house.

By the way, the owner of the house sounded exactly like Thurston Howell from Gilligan's Island! I can't wait to see what he looks like in person--but I'm totally expecting to see Mr. Howell!

I'll keep you updated!