June 2006
Wow. Things have been way to busy for two people who have been wanting to get in to the retirement
mode.
As mentioned in the previous post the "For Sale by Owner" sign went in the ground for our Stoddard
water front home on May 7th. We were somewhat surprised that the original 12 or so people who had
been badgering us for months, wanting to be called the minute we were officially ready to put the house
on the market, were extremely slow to respond with coming to look at the property and or for that matter
to even make an offer. The phone calls from those who saw our add in the paper or drove by and saw
the sign in the yard were many. We probably averaged 3 per day for the full 3 weeks that we planned for
showing the property and inviting offers. I could write a book here about the experience of trying to sell
ones home ones self but suffice it to say I now believe realtors earn their commissions. I am not sure I
would do a self sell again. It was a pain in the you know what.
By now you can sense that I am speaking in the past tense! Yes, we have accepted an offer. Much to
our satisfaction the offer has come from the one couple that Kathleen and I had hoped from the beginning
would be the eventual buyers. They are the two people that we feel will fit best with our wonderful
neighbors, be the easiest to work with on our transition to the closing on the sale and our transition from
our home of 35 years to our new and exciting home on wheels, the "Tin in the Wind". As I write this we
have an agreement in principle and are proceeding with this sale as is customary in the Midwest, "a
handshake and a hug" Our buyers now have 7 days to make there informal offer formal. They have
agreed to work through the process with a long time Realtor friend who we have contracted with to handle
the closing and will assist them as well in drafting there "formal offer" with our requested good faith
deposit attached.We are extremely confident that this will all move along without any major stumbling
blocks, but one still has butterflies until the formal offer and earnest money is in hand.
While all this has been going on Kathleen and I managed to slip away over the Memorial Day Week-end
with the "Tin in the Wind" and "boondocked" for a couple of days in a very beautiful secluded spot. We
thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was the first time we had towed the jeep and that went flawlessly.
We both have a renewed excitement and desire to just get on with our new life of leisure and travel. The
temps were in the mid 90's and it was a great opportunity to get acquainted with our new home and all its
great systems. The air conditioning kept us quite comfortable and we had to check occasionally to see if
the generator was indeed running as it is extremely quiet. We invite you to click on the button below to
access a few pictures of our exclusively private hideout. After viewing the pictures you will need to use
your back button to return to here.
| A little drop of "Ol' Man River" with us always |