by special request.....

So... I have had a special request. To tell about the worst house that I ever tried to sell.... I should tell you about the most challenging listing I have had. I have been in many, many awful homes - dirty, messy, smelly, etc. But my most challenging house was cute and clean.... AND the sellers were nice! Lucky me or I don't think I would have made it thru this one.......

I work on a team (there are two of us) - so, not only do I split my commissions with the other agent in a transaction, but, I also split my commissions with my business partner. Both of us have been in Real Estate for about 2 years or so. Having a partner does have it's advantages. For example, this weekend I was able to spend with sodak angel and 10 other people. I would not have had that pleasure if I worked alone.... So back to my listing - my business partner and I were approached about listing this little house out in the country. Woo hoo!!!! A listing!!!! We had a listing! (takes a while to get established in a small town - well for that matter it takes a while to establish yourself anywhere in real estate). The sellers wanted to move into a home here in town that they would fix up - they needed it to be cheap and could we sell their house for them at a cheaper commission rate? Sure we thought, we would be getting commissions on the house that we are selling and the house that our sellers are buying so it would be OK. Yeah - OK alright - were weren't thinking that a $29,000 house doesn't bring a big commission check to begin with.

The day that we were hoping to list the house we drove the 25 miles one way to check it out. Wow, awesome lot, peaceful area, nice above ground pool (if I remember right, we were in the midst of a hot spell for weather) and thought the house was cute. It was a 2 story home painted in white with green trim. It was one of the older 2 stories that have a screened in porch on the front. Then we walked inside - a nice large entry area before you hit the kitchen. Thru the kitchen we could see wonderful new cabinets & appliances. Woo Hoo! Gotta like that! Started to walk thru the kitchen to see the rest of the house and felt myself walking down hill.... huh? Stopped and looked and realized that the floor in the kitchen slants down hill - quite a bit down hill - like a lot. Wow - I thought uh, oh, what is the rest of the house going to look like? Well, really it was cute. They worked very hard on re-doing the entire house - when they bought it 3 years ago, they paid $7,000 for the house. It needed a LOT of repair and the sellers did it all - except the kitchen floor. As the story goes, the people that lived in the house before them, were having a new furnace installed. The foundation of this home is cement block, dirt & stone. Really more mud than anything (we had some big storms with quite a bit of rain not long before they wanted to list it). The furnace couldn't be carried down stairs so a hole was dug thru where the cellar is and the back hoe hit the foundation wall when digging and um, well it kind of moved it -I guess you would say. So for years the kitchen floor was starting to sag until some jacks were installed to support the floor. So my partner and I were a LITTLE worried about this one. Looked down stairs at what was going on - immediately wondered if anyone would buy this house. But we decided to talk to our broker and felt that he would foresee any issues that could come up. Yeah, right. So we listed it and disclosed what we knew about the floor and decided that $29,900 was a good price for this four bedroom sparkler (we call homes needing help sparklers). There were offers right away! Within the first few days - and there were 3 different people that wanted it (it really is cute - and a great location). A young girl & her boyfriend got it. The type of financing was first time home buyers & there are always challenges with this financing - especially on old homes (early 1900's). When the offer was accepted, we went thru everything that we thought an appraiser would see as an issue with this financing and the sellers immediately painted and fixed the items we thought necessary. An appraiser came out to tell us what the house was worth (which also determines what the buyers mortgage company will borrow them). He started in the basement and came upstairs telling us that he was REJECTING the appraisal - wasn't going to do it. That he felt the house was a hazard and needed to have an entire new basement and that the sellers shouldn't even live here - huh???? We about died right there! How in the heck were we going to get this house sold so that the sellers could move to town???? We had already had the house inspected by an inspector and he didn't express concerns with the foundation in such a manner. In fact he made some recommendations to the buyers and they were fine with things as they were. We immediately got to work with the buyers mortgage company and discussed with her that it would benefit everyone to higher a different appraiser. They did and it appraised! Oh Yeah - we were ecstatic! A few days closer to closing we got the title work in on the property. OMG! There were I think 8 different liens on the house. 2 of them from people that we had never even heard of - thankfully the sellers knew of 1 of them. We were asked by the title company to take care of clearing up the liens - huh? How? I went to my broker and asked him. He said well - we will have to find the people that put the liens against the house. OMG! Now we are PI's! Realtors wear MANY hats!!!! Many, many phone calls later, we were able to find 1 of these people and she was able to verify for both of the people (she was a relative of the other) that the liens were taken care of - just never removed - UGH! Then - we found out from the county that the property is in, that the house was never released from some bankruptcy issues and that it would have to go thru the court system and take approximately 3 weeks to get into court. OMG! Again! We talked with the sellers and found out who the attorney was that handled their bankruptcy and the county explained to us that he didn't file all the necessary paperwork so - the attorney screwed up and was going to mess this up for the sellers & buyers. After many VERY stressful days of trying to figure out how to get this done, he was able to get information to the county so that the house was able to close - however, to this day - I don't think he has finished with bankruptcy paperwork and is charging the sellers for his screw up! Crook!

Then we find out that the sellers bought this house on a contract for deed and don't know a phone # for the person they bought the house from years ago. So again we are PI's and hunt down this guy so he can sign over the deed to them. This gentleman ends up going out of town and we didn't know when we would get the deed from him. OMG - panic again! We have to have the deed in order to close on the houses. OMG, OMG, OMG. We found him, it worked out, and he was able to get the paperwork via Fed Ex and return it Fed Ex (which we were told wasn't going to happen - but it did). Persistence pays off BIG TIME! Two different times during this deal, our broker told us that he has never come across issues like the ones we were dealing with in almost 25 years of being in the business. So we were sales people, Realtors, Private Investigators, Lawyers, runners, and stressed outers! But we got it closed! And after all of the many, many issues we had and our expenses - we made $170.00 each on that closing - not good! We really wanted to cry when we figured out how much we would make (or not make). However, we learned TONS of valuable information that we will never forget and it did make us better Realtors. AND the sellers were soooo appreciative of all our hard work and we know we will end up with referrals from them. As well as it was very rewarding to have to jump some very difficult hurdles (that negative nellies told us were going to end the deal) and have it all work out. The sellers did find a house in town here - and are working hard at fixing it up!

There really is a "worst" house though. I showed a house that was obviously a serious - has an illness - packrat. I am NOT exagerating when I say that there was "stuff" piled everywhere. We could not see any of the walls - except for up by the ceiling and could tell they were white walls. There were boxes of stuff stacked everywhere. In the living room there was a path from a recliner to the TV so that you could see the TV - same thing from one side of the couch - the other side had stuff piled on it. In the kitchen even the table & benches had stuff stacked on them. In the bedrooms you could tell where the person would lay on the bed. Everywhere else there were boxes or junk on the bed. One of the rooms you couldn't even set foot in - it was full from front to back. The basement was the same way - except had a path to the washer & dryer. I haven't ever seen anything like it. And, it was NOT someone packing to move - this is how they lived. It was so terrible. When we went thru the back door to the back yard and came back in, someone got some black "stuff" (probably tar) on the rug by the door. And the man that lived there called and had a fit that someone got his throw rug dirty. So we had it dry cleaned - should have just bought him a new one - would have been cheaper with the style of rug it was. Scary stuff that place was.......

So - that is my 2 "worst" hopefully will never be another worst!

Whew - you asked and I wrote - WAKEUP!

There is a first time for everything.....

So.... This is my first Blog - EVER! Yes, I am a blogging virgin. So forgive me if I don't follow blog etiquette.

I have decided to join the Blogging experience to make some new friends and learn some new "stuff". I really enjoy the internet and my computer - I am sure that I will "fit in" just fine.

I have listed my interests in my profile (family, animals, real estate, reading, remodeling, weightloss, cooking) and hope to find others with some of the same. I have been checking out others blogs and found that I could really get lost in this! Wow - it could really waste some time. Gonna have to be careful with this thing!

If you are blogging your success, failures, & challenges in weightloss & or exercise- please post on my blog so I know to come visit yours. We all have a lot to learn - some of us more than others :) and I love to read about others and learn from others..... during my search for perfection!