The final stretch in selling our house comes with anticipation and excitement, sadness and relief, but also grubby money issues in Daydreaming on the Porch

The past few weeks have been quite interesting and eye-opening, as well as tumultuous.  We had two serious offers on the house fall through because we are selling it as is, but one of them wanted us to reduce the price considerably, to avoid having to pay for the repairs directly. They cloaked this by having a “due diligence” section in the contract, whereby they could have all kinds of biased inspections done in a given period of time (10 days) to give them both an out and reasons to ask us for concessions.  

In the interest of full disclosure, we had a thorough inspection done prior to these offers and, now, the listing on the open market. We’ve done a lot of repairs ourselves and felt the first prospective buyers, who were very serious, and with whom we made offers and counter-offers, were being unreasonable.  One thing I’ve had confirmed about the very rich or well-off:  they will try to nickel and dime you to save a few bucks.  It’s rather unsavory so far and makes me wish we were selling a more modest property, but all three of us siblings are dependent on this house sale for retirement savings, particularly my brother and I. Even if I only live a few more years, I’m still in need of retirement assets. At my age, mortality is always a big question. 

The house as of today is on the open market and getting a flood of inquiries, as I had thought it would.  The process could be dragged out and there are potential pitfalls but I’m hoping it can be over with fairly quickly.  I am SO ready at this point to move on.  We have a very good real estate agent.

I am settled in my new apartment and love it. Now if only we can find someone to buy it who doesn’t live in a $3 million house with luxury cars lining the driveway and wants another house “toy” in addition to the five they already have (our first interested buyers).

This whole process is very sad and emotional for me, because, as you know, the house we are selling is where I not only lived for many years, but where I took care of my mother who had dementia in her last years. I am hoping for someone to buy this house who will fix it up, and come to love and cherish it as I and my mother did when we lived there..

Last updated April 24, 2022