Another early December day arrived with a few snow flurries, bone-chilling dampness and overcast skies, but at least the snow stayed east of us. Yes, we need the insulating snow once our temps start dropping like a rock when hard winter arrives.
A furnace in one of the vacant homes I’ve been checking on, started making some strange noises while it was running, so I phoned the owners who instructed me to call my office’s HVAC person to check it out, and after some serious investigations by the tech and a trip out to Plumb Supply, a new blower motor was installed and everything was back up and running. Thank goodness I noticed it before it went completely out, and likely over a weekend which is always the worst time to go and get needed parts. Yes, that furnace issue ended up consuming a good two hours of my day, but at least it’s fixed.
I have several closing coming up before Christmas, and after getting all the needed documents on one of them, along with the sellers’ signatures, I went ahead and created my closing statement on it, and then scanned it along with all the accompanying documents over to the buyer’s bank, just so I had everything they needed enough ahead of time, and only in case that bank was needing something else. I’m still waiting on title work from an attorney’s office on the other one, and once that’s received, we should be ready to go.
There’s another closing that’s supposed to take place before the Holidays, and after hearing some distressing news on the seller’s side, I placed a number of calls to those involved in the process, just to let them know we’re in need of a fast track closing, so hopefully they’ll get on the stick so we can get it moved up in time. For sure I’ll be breathing a sigh of relief once it’s closed.
I went and checked on the dryness of my black walnuts, and for some reason, they’re still not quite ready to crack, because after cracking two of them, I could tell they’re in need of more drying time. The lack of rain we had during our growing season, certainly had an effect on them, along with many of our other fruits and vegetables.
It came as no surprise when reading today where Iowa is in the top twenty of our fifty States with bad road surfaces. I’m sure you all can remember what our streets were like last winter. My gosh, I still can’t believe how bad that stretch of I35 is between Clear Lake and Dows. I’m hoping they’ve done something with it before the cold arrived.
When looking at the recent sales, I happened to notice a home being posted sold which belonged to a husband and wife who were clients of mine a very many years ago, and my first encounter with the husband, was when he was single and struggling financially. Well, I did manage to find him a home which had gone into foreclosure which the lender was being more free to sell to my buyer with so little of a downpayment. After several years had passed, he ended up with a live-in whom he later married, and since the wife wanted a bigger home, I gave them a laundry list of things that home needed before I listed it, and luckily the followed my instructions, which helped it to sell quickly and for a good price.
The next home I found for them, also needed work, but in a good neighborhood, so again I instructed them on what to do and not to do, and wouldn’t you know, several years later, they decided to move up and sold that one for a good price. I then went on to sell them their third home which also needed work, and by that time, they didn’t even bat an eye over following thru with my suggested improvements.
Well, when the time came again where they wanted to continue up the ladder of success in real estate buying and selling, I went out there and made a few last minute suggestions which they agreed to have done, and one of them required a contractor which they called and scheduled a day and time that improvement was to be made. Since I hadn’t heard from them after that work was done, I placed a call which went unanswered, so I got in my car and drove out to their home.
When I arrived, the husband was outdoors, so I got out and walked over to him, and the moment he opened his mouth, I knew something was up. Well, wouldn’t you know, that contractor called his ‘buddy’ Realtor who gave them this big sales pitch which ‘hubbie’ and his ‘wifie’ fell for, hook line and sinker, and as chance would have it, that Realtor had just left with their signed listing contract in hand, shortly before I arrived. I didn’t throw any sort of a fit, but sternly said how disappointed I was with the both of them, and especially after having selflessly assisted them in growing the equity in the three homes they purchased from me. Well, as always, it was all about the money they were going to make, but thank goodness I never had to cross paths with them ever again.
As a footnote, they used that agent to sell their home, and then again when they purchased, but this time around, it came as no surprise when seeing they used yet another listing agent. I certainly hope they’ve moved far and away from North Iowa because we have enough greedy people in our midst with absolutely no loyalties. When in the future I speak about a husband and wife who had some ‘eyebrow-raising’ habits on the personal side, I may possibly be speaking about them. Ouch!
Because of how brutally cold they were in cutting me off, I could still get in my car and drive to all three of them in the order in which they were purchased and sold.
Tonight’s One-liner is: Greed is normally balanced by fear which is the root of all evil.
