tidying up

Tom has put his whole effort into the showing of the house. I am very impressed. He tackled the office yesterday. Everything in it is now in boxes in the garage, including the working phone, oops. I knew things would be put away or even thrown away that were needed and wanted. He had given me a week to get to it myself. The week that we were having our sale at work and I was on to work extra hours.



I am so tired. When I am home it is get ready and pack and clean. No breaks. The stress just makes me want to crawl back in bed. The one thing Tom wont let anyone do. The boys are home for spring break. They have been an incredible help carrying down garbage and boxes. The garage is piled high.

The next step is a dumpster. We are debating between a 4 yard and a 20 yard dumpster. There is nothing in between. I am thinking a 4 yard would be sufficient, but we could error on the side of too big and save money if it is needed. A 20 yard will take up the whole drive so we need to run it by the neighbors and see if they mind or could use one. They have already cleaned out their garage and house so I am guessing it will be just us and the 4 yard, or 20 yard.

I can not say now that Tom did not try and sell this house, make the effort up front. It is already a lost battle though. As soon as we listed , the houses that were our direct competition dropped their prices $10,000 and $15,000 below what they had them, putting them $10,000 below us. I can't blame them. That is what you do in a sale, beat out the competition in price wars.

We were hoping we could get out without really shorting, but it is unlikely now. The comps in our area are as old as last summer for the last closing sales. There are no buyers, just sellers all looking for the very few and rare buyers. It will end up being a give away, because of the foreclosures and the mortgage companies poor handling of the situation.

Longview is another crisis. I called to make a re offer on one of the houses we bid on, only to find my agent had picked up another client and was making a counter bid. Ethics? She knew our plan and what our offer was. I called her broker, and told her if their offer was anywhere near ours there would be serious issues. If they win it will be public record what the house sells for. I hired a new agent and put in our offer, but we had to change our offer price. The agent new how much money we had to spend and our strategy. She knew the price the bank rejected. She knew our ceiling price. I was angry to say the least. I am debating my recourse.

When Riley was sick I knew my role. I was to hold and nurture and console. I was mom. The doctors do the medicine side of things, while I make sure everyone gets on with living and try to keep as good perspective as possible.

Now I am in this debacle, that is not life or death, just dirty politicking. It is about money and ugliness in business. I am still expected to be cheerful and upbeat and helpful, but it is a lot harder this time.

I could deal with my father in law pooping on my carpets. I could deal with my own sick child. I could deal with my own Dad's slow death with cancer. What grates on me is dishonesty. Human frailty is what it is. We are not meant to live forever in this world. But we do share it.

Donald Trump is thinking of running for president. He made his money in real estate. That says a lot of the character of the man. Look at what banking and real estate has done to this country. Two years ago I would never have played the game we are forced to play right now. Not paying on our mortgage so we can make the bank accept an offer for our house or take it back from us. Business, it is just business.

Now Government is trying to stop foreclosures, while we want it to just be done with, since we can't sell the house without bank permission. The bank doesn't want it, yet they wont let us let it go either.

Back to cleaning and the hopes that someone somewhere will want to take this house off our hands, so we can move on to the next phase of our lives.