Sunday, October 21, 2012

Sunday Salon - October 21st - Tale of the Sale of the Haunted House

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My Tale of the Sale of the Haunted House

For the last (2) months I've been trying to sell my parents 100-year old (2) family house. Although my parents died 25 years ago the house has been occupied by various family members until recently. We had a quick offer who ended up backing out after the home inspection found some issues with the foundation as well as some other issues, but because it was "priced to sell" we quickly found another "cash" buyer who plans to rehab the house.  

We hired a company to do a clean out of the house, basement, shed and 2-car garages.  We followed the state regulations on smoke and carbon detectors to the tune of $260.00, but the fire dept still made us jump through a few more hoops before they would give us the required certificate for closing. But then after a  $50.00 check we got the certificate we needed.......good for JUST (60) days or we must jump some more. 

We were so happy to be closing by October 10th ----- but then they found some issues with the title that delayed the closing date. FORTUNATELY - the new buyers are investment buyers who agreed to delay the closing until the end of the month --whew ---The title issue has now been addressed and we should be good to close by the end of next week...yay. All the while I have been taking time off from work to make all these things happen, and have no vacation or personal time left. (I do have sick time though and this is making me sick:)

BUT NOT SO FAST we haven't closed yet!! Yesterday, my worst fear became reality. Since the house has been totally vacant for (3) weeks now, I've been going there about once a week to make sure everything was okay. Yesterday morning I arrived to find the back porch door wide open, and the (2) doors to the basement wide open.....any guesses why that might have happened?

Copper heating pipes (1/2) of them were cut out of the basement - they must have gotten spooked before finishing the job, and left 1/2 intact......Do you now see why we call this the "haunted house"? It feels like someone doesn't want this house to leave the family. It has been a (2) month nightmare with nothing....nothing.... going smoothly.

I do have a wonderful realtor who got her plumber friend there already for an estimate. They also secured the house in case they perpetrators come back to finish the job. When the police arrived to take a report, they said this is about the 100th case they have had in this city - all involving vacant houses with "for sale" signs in front of them or "new construction". 

We are hoping since the buyer will be rehabbing the house, that we can just give him a credit at the closing, and still close by the end of the week.....PLEASE wish me luck -- on a positive note I've lost 8 lbs since we listed the house in August -- yup when I'm stressed I eat less and clean more:)

Now for Stuff about Books
  • I've been on a book purging frenzy - I've donated about 50 unread books that I no longer feel I will ever want to read, and since I've reached the point where I prefer eBooks to hardcovers (at least), there will be more on their way to the library book sale as well.
  • I've become more of a minimalist the older I've gotten and seem to be annoying by clutter lately. I'm NOT a "neat freak", just don't like stuff everywhere.
  • I have several reviews to catch up on: Winter of the World; Ken Follet (very good); Peaches for Father Francis; Joanne Harris (a fun read); Bartender's Tale; Ivan Doig (liked it a lot).
  • Almost done with Stephen King and son Joe Hill's new book, In the Tall Grass (just 2-cds) and if i may just GUSH about Louise Erdrich's new and highly addictive book, The Round House (see my Tuesday - First Chapter ~ First Paragraph post) - it's awesome (about 1/3 through so far).
  • Reading plans for this week - finish The Round House and In the Tall Grass; begin Beautiful Ruins (possibly on audio) and hope to begin The Panther; Nelson DeMille as well - 
Have a good week everyone and thanks for letting me rant:)

26 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about your house selling stress. I really hope it goes smoothly from now on. I've got my fingers crossed for you.

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  2. Wow, that is a total nightmare story about the house! Re copper, I always worried about the copper on the pipes outside of our house in Tucson even when we were living there (you needed to use good material because the desert heat would pretty much destroy anything else). Even people living inside doesn't stop that kind of thing these days!

    And I think I would take your response to stress (losing weight) over mine, which I'm afraid is the opposite! I wish I could get the desired endorphins from exercise, but chocolate seems so much easier!

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  3. I do hope the sale goes through smoothly.

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  4. Oh those evil ones! I am so sorry that happened to you and I hope karma visits them really soon.

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  5. Oh my gosh, what a nightmare! I'm sure you'll do a happy dance at the closing.

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  6. What a nightmare! I knew the copper pipes had to figure into this tale... my realtor friend had this happen to a vacant house she is selling, too. Good luck, Diane!!

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  7. Oh, I empathize about the house-selling angst. Five years ago when I sold my house in the foothills, we also had so many issues come up. And when one was resolved, there would be another. Property line stuff, septic stuff, etc.

    Eventually everything fell into place, and even when I knew it had closed, I had nightmares.

    Good luck! I like that idea of putting a credit into escrow to speed things along. I had to do that, too, with the boundary issues.

    Here's http://laurelrainsnowswonderland.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/check-in-round-four-oct-21/

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  8. Sorry to hear about the house selling angst. It is one of the most stressful things one can do, for sure!! Hope it goes well this week. Thanks for the heads up on The Round House. I'm adding it to my reading list!

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  9. Good luck with the house stuff! I know what you mean about clearing up clutter--it does bring a sense of peace. Enjoy your reading this week, Diane!

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  10. That's really too bad about the copper piping getting stolen! I hope things go smoothly for you from here on out!

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  11. What a nightmare. I truly hope you get through this and are able to get the burden of the house away from you. We've had that copper pipe theft problem here too. Good luck

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  12. I'm sorry to hear about all the troubles. I'm sending good luck wishes your way that you will indeed close by the end of the week. =O)

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  13. I cringe even when I think about selling our house- always a stressful time. Hope it all goes smoothly from here, Diane.

    I too, am getting bothered by clutter and am very reluctant to add one more thing to this house. I keep worrying about the kids having to clean it out.

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  14. Ugh, what a nightmare! I hope the buyers go for your credit offer and take that thing off your hands!

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  15. So sorry about your problems with the house selling. It reminded me of the day I arrived at work in CT to find we had no running water. Thieves had broken in over the weekend and cleared out all the copper pipes. We've had a house selling nightmare too, which is ongoing 18 years later because we sold it ourselves. Thankfully you have a realtor and an investment buyer. Here's hoping it's all over ASAP.

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  16. What a nightmare! I have a friend who is going through some similar stuff with her vacant, for sale house. Apparently, a ring of crooks seem to be using the mailbox for fake deliveries. Identity theft and all that. People can't even sell their houses without drama these days.

    I so wish this closes for you when it's supposed to. It should. You've paid your dues for goodness sakes!

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  17. Wow! So sorry to hear about all the trouble with the house! I hope you are still able to close on it.

    I donated 5 huge boxes of books to a friend over the past 6 months and still have 3 bookshelves full of unread books. Probably time for another purge as I usually read ebooks these days.

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  18. Good luck with the house - it's probably not the best weight loss plan, though!

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  19. The house sounds like a Halloween horror story. Hopefully it gets sorted out soon. At least you've got some good reading lined up to distract you.

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  20. Oh my goodness, what a nightmare! I hope the buyer is willing to take the credit and that you can finally close the sale and be done with it all. Good luck!At least you are reading some good books.

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  21. Oh my goodness! That is so crazy! I hope you don't go through anymore issues and that the closing goes ahead as hoped!

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  22. I'm so sorry that you've had to go through all of this just to sell the house. It does seem as if there are forces trying to prevent the sale from happening though!! That stinks about the copper piping. They have those types of thefts everywhere in detroit and the house doesn't have to be vacant for the thieves to walk on in and steal them!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well!!

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  23. You sure have endured a lot to sell your parents house. My fingers are tripled crossed that you close this week!

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  24. Oh my gosah, Diane, what a nightmare! I hope it's all worked out by now. What lousy (or haunted) timing for the copper. I've heard of this happening, but it's just crazy.

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  25. Oh, but congrats on the 8 pounds!!

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