From what I’ve been hearing these past several days, we’re going to be experiencing a cold spell starting on Thursday which happens to be Veterans Day, and likely lasting well past our ten day forecast. It looks like winter is well on its way, so get ready to button down your hatches. I was very much hoping we’d skate thru November with days like today, but unfortunately it isn’t going to happen.
It was somewhat of a quiet Tuesday which afforded me time to review sales files which are coming up for closing next week. I did have to call one of my sellers again to remind her that we absolutely must have her mortgage payoff more sooner than later because if we don’t get it, we won’t be able to close on the sale of her home we already have scheduled for next Monday. Of course her loan is with some obscure lender out on the East Coast which makes it even more difficult. I even placed another follow-up call to her late this afternoon, and since my call went to voicemail, I left a strong encouraging message to get it faxed to my office or emailed to her. I don’t even want to get started on the voice prompting which is now happening in our banking industry. Just this past week I had to speak loudly and clearly to a “robot” while continually saying, “I want to speak to a human.”, and finally I got directed to a real person. If this artificial intelligence continues to infiltrate every facet of our lives, it just may very well be the beginning of the end of humanity.
I was quite surprised by the number of “likes” I received on my office’s Facebook page last night, which is now making me wonder if I should have more photos taken with willing buyers. I also received an email early this morning from a dear one who was also encouraging me to do such. The next time I have a photo taken with buyers, I’ll have to make sure we’re not standing in direct sunlight, just so our faces appear more realistic instead of the un-natural squinting from the sun.
The sale file that I’ve been pampering along these past weeks, got past another hurdle which was its appraisal. Because it happens to be a government loan, there are always those check-lists the appraisers have to go down, just to make sure such loans meet the guidelines of our government loan underwriters. All we’re waiting on now, is the title work which I hope will be completed before the end of this week. With Veterans Day in the mix, we’ll unfortunately be short a work day. Once that home closes, I’ll be breathing a great sigh of relief.
I’m growing all the more frustrated with a roofing contractor who’s supposed to get some shingling done on one of my listings, and since we have it under contract, there’s going to be more time lost because of those weak excuses I’ve been getting from that roofer. I swear this has been quite the year to remember with my dealings with so-called reputable contractors. Now if they’d have to suddenly start selling real estate, I’d wager they wouldn’t last six months because today’s buyers and sellers wouldn’t put up with their chronic lying.
Speaking of contractors, I heard a terrible story today about a woman who’d chosen another one of our “reputable” contractors to do some work for her, and after she agreed to have them do the job, they waited long enough, and then came back with a jacked-up price of over 10K more to do the job, and only because of the increase in prices of the materials being used, and of course she believed it. It makes me want to vomit when thinking how many other elderly people are getting hosed by such greedy minds. Yes, that was one more example of such mentalities to where if they think they can charge such bloated prices and get away with it, they’ll do it. Shame on them.
After seeing a recent sale close, I was reminded of a day several months ago when asked by a couple who were planning on selling their home, to stop over and give them some suggestions on things they could do to make it more marketable. I agreed, so we set a day and time to meet. There was at least two hours spent that one sunny afternoon at their home, and by the time I left, they had their “to do” list in hand. Just as I was walking to my car, I had this creepy feeling I’d just been used, and wouldn’t you know I was, because about a month later they listed it with one of my competitors. Am I angry over having lost that listing? Absolutely not, but what bothered me the most when I saw that sale come thru, was knowing those two sellers didn’t have the brains enough to step out of their selfish circles and at least call or send a note of thanks for the time I spent at their home. They’re long-gone and happy they are because we don’t need anymore “all about me” people residing in our community. Don’t you think we already have more than enough?
After reading the news this morning, it looks like beginning in 2024, South Federal is going to be closed for a number of months which will create more detours in our City because the work they’ll be doing will begin just south of 6th St. which is Hwy 122, and stretch all the way south past 27th Street. It will be nice to have those inside turning lanes which works well as long as drivers pay attention to the changing from four lane to two lane. It’s taken a while for people driving on North Federal to get used to it, but one place they shouldn’t have have made that change, is just past the “Fareway Curve” which has likely created some fender-benders. I still don’t understand why they started it right there instead of the block farther north.
Before the over-night temps start dropping well below freezing, I’ll have to get out and take additional photos of our trees and landscapes. There’s one absolutely beautiful “Autumn Flame” maple in our area I’ll have to capture before it gets hit by a hard frost.
Tonight’s One-liner is: Instead of constantly striving for fame, success and comfort, all we really need to be happy, is someone or some thing to be enthusiastic about.
