I wrote what I thought was a heart warming post regarding balance and the upcoming holiday. My room mate read it and told me that she was looking forward to driving down and preparing a Thanksgiving meal for her dad.
I packed the car Friday night before she got home from her job and last minute errands. We spent the early evening packing the last suitcase (I am a guy and thought that two pairs of pants would be plenty for five day trip.) While my dearly beloved was laying out all the things I had forgotten to pack, she had me go fetch one of the suitcases in the car. I hate that. I knew that she would open it, dump it and proceed to repack it so that there would be no wrinkles in our clothes upon arrival. (and I thought it was a vacation)
Then.....
The phone rang.
You guessed it. That nice couple that I had been communicating with via e-mail wanted to know if they could look at some property in the Logan Circle area Saturday morning. I did that quick real estate agent calculation and figured that I could drive downtown, show them three or four units and be back home before my wife even got out of bed. I would have it wrapped up and we would be on the road by noon.
Well, I met them early enough and we only viewed three units. I just made very sure that they actually spent time in each room visualizing how they would use it and if it "fit". We had no problems parking and I lost track of the time...until my cell phone rang and I saw the dreaded word on the caller i.d.
HOME
I tried to casual, upbeat and cheerful as I answered. I tried to explain that things were moving fine and we should be on the road within the hour. There was a tinge of "ificouldreachthroughthisphoneiwouldwringyourneck" in her voice as she replied that it was now 1:30, she had spoken with her father and explained to him that we would probably arrive much later this evening. I promised we could stop at the Cracker Barrel and she could order whatever she liked for both of us. I promised to eat the damn spinach. I was saved from further prostituting my soul by my buyers, who had just returned from a longer look at the lower level. I did the good man thing - told her I was working and I would call when I was finished with the clients.
"WE LOVE IT!"
How do we go about making this our home? That question began to push my arrival time down south to beyond midnight. I explained the options. I went over the details. I got two lenders on the phone and while they chatted credit, I thought of how uncomfortable it is to sleep on my couch (it is o.k. when you fall asleep watching t.v. -it is quite different when you are relagated there for failure to keep up your end of the relationship).
The clock in my car let me know it was past 3:00 as I drove to the office to prepare an offer. I called an had the disclosures faxed to me while I was in route. I called my room mate and let her know that I was writing an offer but, not to worry, we would be on the road soon. I pulled into a spot out front and raced into the office. The agent on floor duty looked up and said "great timing, you just got a fax"
HMMMMM.....Not the disclosures, no, that would be too easy. It was an offer on a property that has been listed for over 6 months. Started at $219,000 and now was at $159,900. Full price offer asking for $5,000 in closing help. Did I mention that the bank was tossing him out next Friday? I tried to call the seller. His voice mail box is full and the phone hung up on me. I called my alternate agent and told him that he could deal with it on Monday morning. He called back with in two minutes to let me know that he is in Florida for the weekend and will not be back until Tuesday. He was sure that he sent me an email. AGGGGGGH!!!!!
I began putting the offer together. My phone rang and I picked it up figuring it could only be the buyers or my room mate. Wrong again. Some of you may recall, I have been having the vacant houses listed winterized. We have one more to go and my winterization maven was on the phone. He told me that he thinks we should finish it today because there is a threat of a hard freeze. Sure.....He asked me to drive out and meet him at the property at around 7pm. It is not on a combo lockbox, so I agreed.
I may actually have an offer to submit tonight.
I do have an offer on a listing that I had the last rites performed on last week.
I will have all my listings winterized.
Yet
I am
in the dog house now.
You see, my room mate read the blog and quoted me verbatim about putting family first.
I shall just stand on these feet of clay and head south one day later and a whole lot wiser than I planned.
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