I held it together when the house was not selling and, for legal reasons, it needed to sell or else.
I held it together when changes were taking place in my life, changes that would rock even the most solid, stoic of characters.
I held it together when moving everything everywhere wrenched my back, and the holding it together was not tarnished by the fact that I still have a vast amount of moving ahead of me.
I held it together when I found that I needed to buy new furniture for the new apartment -- great fun! great expense!
I held it together when the very same van that I was treating with kid gloves started flashing "low oil" lights today, even though I had just changed the oil last month and had put on perhaps 55 miles since.
I held it together when my robust exercise schedule faltered -- the first major casualty of a hell schedule.
I held it together as I sat on the landing steps of my loft at the wee hours of the morning today, looked outside and noticed a solitary person walking, one prong at a time, on the railroad tracks. He looked lonely and sad.
I held it together through sadnesses and worries of others, which make me sad and worried for them in addition to making it absolutely impossible to look up with pleading eyes and ask for much hand-holding.
I held it together when my daughters were shaken out of bed because, unexpectedly, the realtor with the new buyers and their little children showed up at our doorstep and informed me that they expected to spend the morning here, overseeing the engineering inspection, giving me five minutes, FIVE FREAGIN' MINUTES to get the place in order for their peering eyes (and I don't care if they read my blog, so there!) and leave them to their devices.
I held it together when I came back well into the afternoon, loaded down with groceries and who knows what and they were all still there, discussing why the outside door downstairs was sticking and why the furnace was rattling. I have a furnace that was purchased within our tenure here, damn it, go pick on somebody else's furnace!
I even held it together when the purchasing wife said she would be back this Thursday along with the engineering crew, because they still needed to pry open the crawlspace and had no time to do it today.
But when I got a call saying that they were sending out a roofing contractor who would do an inch-by-inch analysis of the roof and would I mind? -- I sat down on the kitchen floor and cried.
10 hours ago
Would it be appropriate (and/or legal) for you to call them up and say, "sure, the roofer can come over, but do you mind if I put out another ad in this week's paper so that I can find a prospective buyer who will show more respect for my time and privacy?"
ReplyDeleteDoesn't a roofing contractor, by definition, make money by telling people that their roofs (or prospective roofs) need repairing immediately? Even in Madison?
I can understand how nervewracking this part of the process is, and unfortunately they can't. Hopefully, the buyers are reasonable and do really like the house (as at least the latter would seem to be the case). The worst case should be that you negotiate a price concession to make whatever issues go away -- IMHO it should be small, if it comes to that, since you didn't push them for top dollar -- and go to closing. The best case is that they just want to put a price tag on future work they'll do (which we had, in fact, done before waiving the inspection contingency on our place regarding some electrical stuff, without actually demanding anything of the sellers).
ReplyDeleteP.S., this might just be fantasy hardball, but two words that you could have added to the listing to motivate your buyers: "secondaries welcome."
ReplyDeleteAs usual, Tom offers good advice about these economic matters.
ReplyDeleteTry not to be too worried about the house sale. The buyers have fallen in love with the house. We all know how hard it can be to fall out of love. Believe me, they want to buy the house as much as you want to sell it.
A big purchase like a house is bound to draw out the hardball playing character in anyone. It's like a hand of poker to buyer and seller alike sometimes. Tom's right though.
ReplyDeleteDo your best to not show distress. I know it's hard to hold your emotions in check after all the stressful things you mentioned, but that's what you have to do.
I would avoid all face to face contact (if that's possible) with them at this point. That would take the edge off some of the anxiety.
Here's wishing you good luck on this.
Thanks everyone. As usual, your comments are totally helpful and the amount of good vibes generated by them make up for the insanity of this month.
ReplyDelete"Secondaries welcome" made me smile.
They do love the house and they have been alerted to the fact that they got their price and they best not groan too hard about forthcoming expenses.
Oh, as a funny subplot -- when I returned to the house with my groceries etc., the buying wife was on the front porch. I mistook her for one of the engineering people and I shouted to her -- hey,I can't believe you guys are still here! did the buyers' kids at least leave already?
She did see the humor, and I did apologize and I think she understood (how could she not) that I had had enough already.
But, guess what: by mid September all this will be a thing of the past. Endurance!
I may go celebrate big time then!
Hi Nina,
ReplyDeleteI love your & the other madison blogs. They make me feel like a part of me is still in Madtown.
The buyers & their agent are way out of line by showing up unexpected for an inspection like this. If this happened to my client, I'd raise hell.
In fact something similar to this happened to us a few months ago & we straightened it out real quick. They apologized & even gave our sellers an apology gift.
I hope this works out well for you in the end.