With Fall having officially arrived, I dare say Mother Nature has again proven to us how quickly she can turn the pages on our four seasons. It saddens me a bit when thinking back on how abnormally dry this past summer has been, along with the near non-stop battle we’ve had with those biting gnats which I hope will not be pestering us again next summer.
My very early morning appointment arrived a little late which was understandable since they had to drive a good 45 minutes in the dark, but I did have all their closing documents readied for their signatures, and after we had a short visit, I proceeded to scan and email those docs to a closing company in Urbandale. About five minutes later, I received an email back saying, “Perfect! Thank you!”. After I ran several little errands, it was the hour for me to head to the Dows acreage where I was to meet the closing agent from Urbandale, the buyers and the selling agent.
The 45 minute drive down was pretty uneventful, and since I’ve driven it more than once, it didn’t seem like such a long haul, and in spite of my arriving about 10 minutes early, the buyers were already in the home doing their walk-thru, so I introduced myself as the sellers’ representative. We had a nice chat regarding what their near-future plans were. It came as a bit of a surprise that they’re planning on raising goats and chickens for themselves, and after they’ve expanded enough, they’ll start selling them to the general public, and of course I soulfully wished them the best of success, but I did have to caution them about not starting out big, but rather on a smaller scale and then working their way up, and only because all too often, the enthusiasm of youthful minds, sometimes clash with hard realities. I must’ve made quite the impression on them because they asked me for my business card, just so they could get an invitation sent to me for a big party they’ll be having in November when all their family members are present. In spite of my having a cash buyer waiting in the wings if their loan had fallen-thru, I’m very happy they ended up with it.
The closing went as well as I was expecting and when finished, I headed over to the sellers’ new home to deliver their closing documents, along with their proceeds check. I also had three small watermelons which I brought with me which I gave them as a small token of my appreciation, and wouldn’t you know, they in turn gifted me three dozen eggs from their free-range chickens which I certainly wasn’t expecting. Yes, they’ve been darned nice people to work with and hopefully we’ll be able to stay in touch. The husband is filled to the brim with a dry humor which always gets me laughing.
It was well past Noon when I arrived back at office, so I skipped lunch and proceeded to get that sale file fully closed-out, and then make a few more rounds in the Downtown before settling-in at office for the remainder of the afternoon.
The better part of the remainder of my day, was getting some additional research done on two more homes I may be getting listed in the near future, but what’s now troubling me, is the number of price reductions I’ve been seeing these past several weeks, along with homes staying on the market longer than they have been since the pandemic arrived, so perhaps we will have a soft-landing with these runaway sales instead of hitting a brick wall like I’d feared.
One of our national real estate pundits just yesterday was saying that it’s likely there’ll be even fewer sales next year than there were this year, which was nationally an over 20% decline from the year before. I’m convinced we’re in a ‘lull’ right now, but I believe they’re be another spurt once we have our first hard frost which always seems to incite buyers to get situated before the winter snows arrive. I’m still surprised we haven’t had much activity on my new listing at 315 Parkridge Drive, but again, I believe we’re in a major slow-down.
A long-time resident native called and began asking me some poignant questions regarding my take on what’s happening with the ‘ghost hotel’, the ‘bridge to nowhere’ and that ‘dead’ Southbridge Mall. I shared some additional information I thought he knew, which was our City having co-signed on the loan David Rachie took out with Clear Lake Bank and Trust to buy that mall. Of course I couldn’t help reminding him that if our City gets that mall back in our laps, it’ll be the third time we’ve owned it, and each and every time, it was a money-loosing proposition. When in Heaven’s name will they ever learn? He also agreed with my belief that the land that mall sits on is cursed, and since he was in the loop of the City around the time it was built, there were those with forward-thinking minds who were dead against it, but they were dismissed as being overly negative, and plowed forward with getting it built. So here we are decades later with that albatross still around our necks. My closing remarks were all about getting new City Council members elected where there’ll likely be more scrutinizing of those ‘recommend approval’ stamps on their council packets. Someone recently told me that one of the Council members doesn’t even open his packet until he arrives at a meeting.
It that be true, then it’s time for him to go.
Just before closing up shop for the day, I decided to take an long-overdue drive out to Mossycup Farms which is just north of Clear Lake, just to personally see what they’ve got to offer, and believe me, I was very impressed. I purchased some bacon made from their free-range ’boutique’ breed of hogs, and if it ends up being as good as it looks, I’ll be shopping there more often. Her prices weren’t as much as I was expecting, which gave me one more reason I’ll be frequenting her shop. Just remember, it’s best we keep everything as local as possible because we’re all in it together.
Tonight’s One-liner is: Good nonsense, is good sense in disguise.
