Crazy Week

Wow. It seems I go weeks without no activity in REI, and then - BAM! - everything falls in my lap at once.

House #1

I talked with the wife again before leaving work last night for 15 minutes. She is a talker. She gave me a sob story of how the IRS intercepted her refund check to pay a debt when she was married before. She claimed she was going to give me the money for a downpayment. About 5 minutes after hanging up with her, I closed my office and she called again. This time I let VM pick it up as I had no intention of listening to her for another 15 minutes. When I talked to her before, I asked for her email address, so I can communicate non-essential things that way. I just don't have the patience to listen to someone whine about their problems again and again and again. Her VM just wanted to confirm my email address as their broker is still not able to send to the email address she has for me. When I got in today, I noticed she sent an email to my address fine, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

Anyway, I talked it more with my wife, and she'd rather sell the place than lease it. I mentioned to her the benefits of having a motivated buyer and doing a lease/option, but she still wasn't keen on the idea. I figured bumping the price up 10% for future market appreciation and then "giving them" a 5% discount. Basically, I'm jacking the price up 5%. I'll also jack the lease price up, but use $100 each month as a rent credit. I'm still trying to find out how to do all this and still not have it impede on Texas law. I may have to do two 6 mo. leases.

House #2

My wife and I looked over the contract, updated the fields we needed to, initialed it, signed it, and I faxed it to my agent first thing this morning. We'll see if the lady counters or rejects the offer. My wife wanted to just take her offer, but I didn't want it to go that easily. My counter is only about $1,750 higher than the woman's offer, which is still a nice buy, IMHO.

Deed Issue

I still have not received a call back from the title company in San Antonio, regarding the problem with the deed on House #2. I called on April 13th and talked to the lady who handles document filing and she said she was currently doing another account and mine would be next. I called again this past Monday and got her VM and left a message. Still no answer. Today, I'm going to call their office and talk to the woman's supervisor as I've been MORE than patient with this. It should have been taken care of months ago, yet I'm still having to follow up on it. My main concern now is that it would delay the closing.

Edit: Well, no sooner than I posted this blog entry I called the title company and asked to talk to a supervisor. I talked to another woman who said they are waiting to hear back from the courthouse. Why they couldn't have called me to let me know the status is beyond me. I told the lady that I would appreciate a call whenever they hear something as I have a potential buyer for the property and I don't want this to delay the closing. I always try to take people for face value, but sometimes I wonder if the squeeky wheel doesn't get the grease in most cases. I'll be checking this bullet item daily for now on.