It couldn’t have been a better day for people moving from one home to another with this exceptionally beautiful weather we’ve been experiencing. Yes, these are my kind of days where the sun is bright, the breezes are whispers, and the humidity levels down.
With my having to stop at a gas station for a fill-up, I headed out a little earlier, and when I pulled up to the pump, there were two men with their back-packs strapped onto their backs, walking down the sidewalk and then crossing over into a residential area. As I’ve mentioned before, these early morning back-packers seem to be coming from, or going to some sort of “study” group which I’ve never heard or read about. We can all pretty much resign ourselves they’re up to no good. The shifty one kept looking back to see what I was doing. Yes, our City has quite the population of them.
After my arrival at office, I busied myself with those last minute duties I had before heading out to my mid-morning closing. When finished, I called the owner of our new listing and asked if I could run over and take some photos of his home located at 408 N. Jackson here in Mason City. He gave me the go-ahead so I ran over and got what I needed which I then posted online. It’s a solid home and worthy of being a first for someone. I especially liked it being close to West Park which has always been a great place for people to enjoy Willow Creek, along with its winding footpaths. I often see people walking it at all times of the day.
I managed to get to my closing just in time for the loan officer to call me in for the sellers’ side. I’d already met the buyers since they’d visited the open house I had on it several days after I listed it, and then called their own Realtor to sell it to them. I reminded them that their new home was custom built by R. P. Hansen who was a master builder in our community. There’s no doubt that two-story home is a mid-century classic which will out-last all the cheaply built new constructions we see selling for well over a hundred thousand or more. If that home were to be replicated in today’s market, the builder’s price tag would be pushing $700K for sure.
Once the closing was finished, I called one of the sellers and told her she was now officially homeless which always gets a good laugh out my sellers whenever I mention it. On my way back to office, I stopped at my sellers’ bank and dropped their proceeds check off with their loan officer who’ll be closing on their new purchase next week. I will continue to hold that family in the highest regard because they’re the most level-headed people you’d ever want to meet.
While at another office today, one of the clerks who I know well enough, had me blushing by the time she finished going on about how well I was dressed today, so I guess I’ll have to wear my light gray tailored suit more often. Because she was on the subject, I couldn’t help saying how much I can’t believe how sloppy people look when they’re out in public, and especially the men with their un-trimmed beards and mustaches. I went on to share my thoughts regarding how much harder it must be for people to feel good about themselves when they don’t work at making their appearances presentable. One’s exterior view has often been considered a reflection of their interior, which makes sense to me. Just for an example, my mother who worked very hard on the farm, would never ever leave our place without freshening herself up and wearing something publicly presentable. My how times have changed.
As I was driving down Commercial Alley in the direction of my bank, I couldn’t help noticing a dark blue Tesla parked at the rear of Central Park Dentistry with both its front and rear windshields completely broken, and those breaks looked like someone had purposely done it with a heavy baseball bat. I did notice it had Dubuque County license plates, but there wasn’t a soul near it. I couldn’t help believing someone broke those windows while it was parked there because there’s no way anyone would’ve been able to see while driving it. Yes, they were that badly broken. I’m couldn’t help wondering if someone had parked it there during the night, and some devil having decided to take a hammer or bat to it. Let’s hope that craziness doesn’t get started in our Downtown, and if it does, then our City had better take a pro-active step and have high-resolution video cameras posted at the corners of every street and alley in our Crescent of Culture.
I had a good showing on my listing at 2802 S. Jefferson today, and hopefully the buyer will call for another look. She was a little concerned about the basement because of the dampness down there, but I had to remind her the home is not located in one of our “wet” districts, as well as there not being a sump pump installed. Most don’t realize that if a home’s basement floor shows no large cracks or heaving, it’s almost a given any sort of basement water problem is caused by surface run-off. There’s no question that would all be corrected if the sod was peeled back to three feet from the foundation, additional fill dirt added, and then the sod re-installed. Yes, that water issue would be greatly lessened. Good gutters, good run-off, and a reliable sump pump, is an economical “fix” for such issues.
A sobering conversation took place today with one of my dear friends who’s very much in the know regarding past events repeating themselves, and the only reason I brought up the subject, was my having heard about certain groups of our young being formed across our Nation who’ve got some pretty skewed ideas on how to make our Country great again. All I could say was, “Just remember what Hitler said about controlling the minds of the German youth, because if he could, he’d be able to take control of Germany. Most have not read enough about how Hitler managed to create a following.
Tonight’s One-liner is: The first step in solving a problem, is to recognize that it does exist.
