August 5, 2009
Dear Everyone:
Sale pending!!!
By last Thursday, my
realtor had one offer in hand,
from my co-worker, and was expecting another.
In fact, she expected an offer from another party, but when they
never made one, she attributed it to the interference of the neighbor
that “Jeannie” nicknamed “The Mole Lady.”
On Friday afternoon I drove down to the realtor’s
office to look at the offer.
We had listed the townhouse at $299,990.
The offer was for considerably less.
And the second offer, which hadn’t actually arrived by then was
for even less, $240,000. But
it was a full cash offer; no waiting for financing to be approved.
We suspected this was because of the place around the corner,
which had the same size as mine and was a “short sale” at $239,000.
We put together a counter offer at $290,000 and sent it to both
parties.
Saturday morning, I got a message from the realtor
that my co-worker had countered the counter offer, coming up $10,000
from her previous position.
I told the realtor that I would call her when I was ready to head to her
office (I had some errands to run.)
When I called her she said, “There’s a new wrinkle.”
The other party had accepted our counter offer and
was prepared to put down 30% and finance the rest.
This was a businessman from
Normally, in a real estate sale, the buyer and
seller have different realtors, each taking a commission of 2.5%, for a
total cost of 5% of the sale price.
Because my realtor was representing both parties, she will be
taking a smaller cut. That
means more of a profit for us.
So I accepted the businessmen’s offer and we made the co-worker
Backup Number 1.
So far things have been going smoothly.
My realtor emailed me some forms that we had missed on Saturday
(there are so many forms!) I
signed them and faxed them back to her.
Last night I went to the townhouse to water the
plants and put the garbage cans out one last time.
I had called the garbage collection company and they arranged to
pick up the cans and will be sending me a small refund from my last
payment. And I finally
called the power company and had them change the mailing address to my
new place. I’ll continue to
pay for gas and electricity until after
escrow closes.
I find it interesting that when I bought the
townhouse it was from two men who had bought it together as an
investment. After 10 years
they couldn’t amortize it anymore so they “fixed it up” as cheaply as
possible and sold it to me for $150,000, making a profit of $5000 each.
Now I’m selling it to two men who will rent it out again,
probably for another 10 years.
My realtor specifically told me that the reason the
place got offers so quickly was because of all the hard work that we had
put into it. The end is in
sight! Everyone keep your
fingers crossed. (And God,
please keep the Mole Lady away from the businessman.)
Love, as always,
Pete
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