It was another biting-cold day that came and went, and for sure I’ll be hoping my system gets acclimated to these coming weeks and months of frigid temps. I likely would’ve been accustomed to it by now if we hadn’t had those abnormally high temperature days which set my system back. Not to worry, I’ll get used to it.
For it being a National Holiday, it seemed like a business as usual day, and in spite of my wanting to get some personal work done today, it didn’t happen because I was kept engaged in real estate work nearly the entire time, so it looks like I won’t have to worry about tomorrow feeling like a Sunday.
Since I’d begun my tedious and time-consuming task of getting those black walnuts cracked several days ago, I made a point to call one of our local figureheads to tell him I had a pound of walnuts for his personal use. Knowing how much he enjoys using them in his baking, I was compelled to give him more this year.
When I pulled up to his home, he was already at the door waiting for me, so I was ushered in for a short visit. He made me smile when saying, “From my youth on the farm and seeing these beautiful nut meats, you need not tell me how much time you spent cracking them because I’ve been there and done that.” I was happy they were well received and appreciated.
Before leaving, we had a nice chat about the elections and the current state of our City, along with him taking the time to show me a few historical gems he had in his home, and one of them happened to be a hand-painted portrait of a young man who in later years, became a prominent figure in several of our City’s circles before his death. I’m sure only a handful of our senior natives remember him.
Another unexpected compliment I received from him, was saying after having been at my office several times, his convinced I possess a good eye for design and appeal. I think he would’ve had more to say if he’d seen what it looked like before I started working on it over a decade ago. Unfortunately it’s still not finished, and only because I’ve had other projects to work on that were more important, but not to worry because it’s getting pushed closer and closer to the top of my “to do” list.
When I returned to office, I called the seller of the home that was sold yesterday, to go over an email the selling agent had sent regarding some improvements they’d like to start making before closing. For the most part he agreed with the exception of them having to wait until after closing for any major upgrades. Since it’s a cash sale, I’ll have to go over tomorrow morning and place a sold rider on my for sale sign.
An agent from another office called and asked if she could do a video tour of 521- 5th St. SE around noontime today, and since it’s a vacant home, I gave her the green light. For whatever reason, there’ve been a great deal more video-touring going on which is telling me we’re still getting far-away buyers purchasing. I’ve always been leery of “video” buyers because no matter how thorough they are, they still don’t give the whole picture, and from what I’ve heard, there’ve been buyers walking away from their purchases on the day of their physical inspections. I’ve yet to have that happen, and hopefully never will.
After several back-and-forth emails with a seller today, we now have 224 W. Spring St. in Manly, Iowa reduced to $149,500, but the real bonus, is the seller agreeing to offer a buyer a $5,000 concession towards buying-down their mortgage rate. Between the price reduction and the concession, that’s a good $10K drop, so hopefully once I receive the official change in an email, there’ll be some good buying activity going on. I still can’t believe that home hasn’t sold, and only because of how well it’s built and the prime Manly location it’s in. Wouldn’t that make a great home to host a Christmas family gathering? Please put the word out.
I did have time to check the online news feeds, and to my surprise, they still don’t have all the election results in for those battleground States, and it looks like there’s gonna be a runoff election for the Senate race in Georgia, but what has been grinding on me to the bone, is all this under-the-belt bashing that’s been taking place, which I absolutely can not stand.
I was reminded several days ago that this all got started when Newt Gingrich was running after the Republican ticket back in 2012. I definitely remember listening to his rants, and every time I’d hear him, I’d think to myself, “What kind of a low-life loud mouth does he think he is?” Unfortunately, too many politicians took notice and since followed suit, which has brought us to our current devolved state of American political discourse which reminds me more of a bunch of screaming monkeys in a zoo.
Speaking of screaming monkeys, I got a call from a well-known today who knows the rest of the story of a given family, and after sharing a few more insights, we both came to the conclusion that more than one of those family members have serious mental issues, and in spite of one of them saying, “I’ve had all the counseling I needed.”, there’s no question that counselor needs to give all that money back because those were failed sessions, and in fact, I believe that so-called counseling made that person even worse by making them believe that flip-flopping from a soft-spoken angel into an out of control screaming maniac, is just OK. Oh, I could tell you some hair-raising stories about a handful of deranged individuals who’re part of that family.
Tonight’s One-liner is: Democracy comes to an end when only half the people vote.
