Part Three: The showing

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Back to the house situation: (This happened two Saturdays ago)

Appts set: one at 11am and one at 1pm


It is 11am, and for the last 10 minutes, a car has been parked in front of this house. Promtly at 11, a lady gets out, and comes to the door. Aaron, the kids, and Captain, head out the door, and go set up the good faith deposit, and then go right over to F.R.'s office. I pick up a magazine, and pretend I have absolutely no cares in the world, (much harder than you would think!). All the windows are open, so when they go outside, I can hear them chatting about the home-- they love the big bedrooms, the openess, and the view. (DARN IT!)

They mention the house around the corner, (bigger than this one, also a short sell, and still has lakeview. Our prequal letter came a day after this one went on the market-- and it got a number of offers the *first day*. I learn that the house -- which was listed at $200,000, sold for $230,000. Aparently the couple checking out this house had put a bid on that one too, but they didn't get it.)

They soon leave to go view more homes. And now is where it gets interesting....

As they drive away, another two cars pull up.

I call Aaron and let him know that the people for the first showing have left. He says he will be right over to pick me up, and bring me over to the office to sign paperwork.

One of the ladies comes over to the second car and -- the windows are open, remember, so I can hear them-- says to the other, 'Well, it looks like they just walked up to the door and knocked. Let me go give that a try.'

She come to the door, and I open it. She asks if she and her client can come inside and see the home.  I tell her she needs an appointment.  She says she called for a 10 am appt., and I interupt her to ask her to repeat what she just said.  She now looks through her paperwork, scrolls down to where it is highlighted, and says she called the service, and asked for an *11* am appointment. 

Ya, and I'm a NASCAR driver. 

So I call her on it, and make it plain that I didn't recieve any notice.  She tries to play it off that somehow it is the owners' realtor fault that he didn't call me. I am then obliged to tell her that the realtor doesn't call me....it's the property manager who does.  I also feel obliged to tell her that my windows are open, and I heard her conversation with the other lady quite clearly, and I know she didn't try to make an appt.  She blushes, and leaves. 

Aaron pulls up,  I lock up the house, and we roar away to the office where we sign a TON of paperwork.  We get home, eat lunch, and get a call: We need to add signatures to two pages.  It is 12:35, and we rush back over to the office, and then back to the house.  We pull up at 12:50.  We wait, and wait.... but no one shows up. 


****** Later that weekend, we hear back from our realtor.  The owners' realtor wants us to sign a paper stating we will agree to not look at any homes for 90 days.  He threatens to not show the owners our bid unless we do so.  He also states that if (if!) he gets anymore offers, he will draw the banks attention to those offers and put their bids in first. 

Our realtor is awesome.  He tells the owners' realtor that we will not sign any such paper-- especially as the owners could forclose, and we would have signed our rights away.  (If it forclosed, and we had signed the paper, we would not be able to look for a new place to live-- even if we were required to leave here in less time than 90 days from signing the paper. How crazy is this guy?)

So after MUCH discussion, our realtor gets the point across: We are from L.A. (yes all of us-- that is where we all originally met).  We do not do business that way.  We are not going to be doormats for him to stomp on.  (YA!).  And FINIALLY this guy backs down.

So come Monday evening, the owners decide to.... drumroll, please!

 **They accept our bid**

Whew!  

Now we just have to wait for the bank to approve our bid too. 

As I look around this house I see spilled granola, colored pencils on the counter, books on the floor, and musical instruments in the living room.  As I look out my back door I see the lake, trees, and seagulls soaring over the lake.  Beautiful.  It is all beautiful.