ibeachalot's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm surrounded by IDIOTS! Yes, you see a new layout. As much as I adored my yellow flower, I felt I needed a change. I searched and searched until I found this one. As soon as I saw the tulips, I said, "This is me!" When I saw the text appear, saying, "This is me!" I knew it was fate. And all that crap. I'm still trying to work out some bugs with it and make it my own, so bear with me. My new chat box seems to be down more than it's up, but they do offer hundreds of smilies. You know me and smilies... Onto my weekend. Saturday, I spent the day patching holes in the walls and transferring garage sale debris from Griffin's room to the garage in preparation for our meeting with a new realty agent yesterday. More on that in a bit. I didn't get nearly as much done as I was hoping Saturday. I gave Kevin a "honey-do" list, something I've never done in all our eighteen years together. He completed it all like a good boy. My other kids were so good, I wanted to spend time with them, so I didn't get alot of other house~related things done. We actually went out to dinner, despite my recent promise that I refused to ever do so again, and had a great time. Sunday, I got up early (naturally) and began cleaning the house, despite the pounding sinus headache that made its presence known as soon and I leapt out of bed. I got everything done except painting the holes I had patched Saturday, mainly because someone's Goddamned golf cart was parked blocking the fire cabinet in which we keep all our paint and painting supplies. I could go on and on about my resentment towards that heap o'shit, but I'll spare you. Onto our meeting with the Realtor. Oh. My. God. Am I the only normal person left on earth? Now, don't get me wrong, this guy was very nice. He seemed like he knew what he was doing, for the most part. But there were a few things about him that didn't set well with me, even more so than the previous agent with whom we'd met. Professionally, there were a few things about him that we simply can't work with. He does charge a discounted commission, which is good, but for as little profit as we're obviously going to be making on this place... it simply isn't enough. If our house sells for $160,000, we'd still have to fork over an $8,800 commission. This agent doesn't believe in leaving flyers for people. His theory is that if people get all their information from a flyer, they won't have any reason to call him. I disagree. First of all... if someone is interested in a home, and knows what the house has to offer and can afford the property, they will call the agent, if they're truly interested in seeing and ultimately buying the home. If not, then what good would a call to the agent be anyway? I for one, won't call about a home unless I know the price. I won't waste my time or the listing agent's time, if the house is $50,000 over my budget. I know alot of people who feel that way. Most people prefer to "shop" without the pressure of a salesman breathing down their neck. He even admitted this is true, citing the example of car sales. So why would he not be in favor of flyers being displayed? I realize the first 50 flyers will go to my nosey, idiotic neighbors, so they can stand around their tire piles and oil~stained driveways saying, "Thar fucken crah~zy thankin' they can git that moo~uch for that plahce!" The next batch of flyers would go to the serious buyer and the even more idiotic neighbors who can't remember whether or not they took a flyer. I think it's money well spent, personally. Another thing that I didn't care for with this agent, was his pricing system. "After your home is on the market with no offers for fourteen days, we drop the price. Not a little... substantially. Like by $5,000 or more. After that, we drop another $5,000 after another fourteen days." Uh, sorry pal. We can't afford to drop our already ridiculously low asking price by $10,000 after only a month. Now, I don't profess to know real estate. I studied for the real estate exam several years ago, but once I got to the chapter on math, I dropped the study guide like it was covered with flaming snot. I know a tad about real estate, but certainly not what this guy probably knows, so I don't want to come across as a know~it~all. However, I know one thing... We can't give this house away and afford our new one!!! I realize that we can't expect John Q. Buyer to fund our new housing adventure, but I also think that if people look around, they aren't going to find a better house than ours for the money. Okay, now onto what irked me about this guy personally... he walked in the door wearing a pair of dress slacks and a brightly colored casual polo shirt. I'm aware I don't exactly ride the fashion train myself, but this was a blatant fashion error. I could've overlooked this until... I saw the hat. I knew from his pictures that he wore a cowboy hat. What I didn't know, was that he obviously owns only one. His hat was filthy. It was white with black fingerprints all over it. This left an unfavorable impression on me. But I could've overlooked this until... I saw the tatoo. Now, listen. This was not meant to offend any tatoo~wearers out there. Everyone here knows how I feel about them and you have to admit... it isn't the most professional thing in the world to see a fifty~something~year~old man walk in your door with a rose garden printed in ink on his forearm. I could have overlooked it until... I heard him talk. When he spoke real estate, he made some sense, but when he and Kevin got to talking about things other than business, I was instantly turned off. This man is an admitted alcoholic and drug user! He's in favor of legalizing marijuana!! He thinks it's ridiculous to fill our jails with casual users and should instead build treatment centers to help the poor casual user or legalize it all together. Oh, please... At this point I had to leave the room. I was afraid I would say something I would regret. He's a big believer in people doing whatever they please on their own time. I sure hope I'm not driving down the street with my three children when Mr. Casual User crosses the center divider and hits me, because he's too stoned to see the yellow lines. How could I possibly do business with a person like this? I can't believe the quacks we've been dealing with! One is a user, the other hates Jews! AUUUGGHHH!!! I haven't heard back from Tim yet, but maybe he's our last hope. Another option we may have is to list the house ourselves and ask my SIL, who just got her real estate license, if we could pay her to do all the paperwork. She lives in Los Angeles, otherwise I'd have her do it all. I'm so disllusioned. Aren't there any normal people around anymore? 8:36 a.m. - 2003-06-30 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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