‘Real estate is fun!’ I thought, as I accepted a signed offer a mere two days after my first open house. Six groups had gone through and half of them had shown interest. One woman came back the same day, again the following day and then — just like that — I was presented with nearly a full offer. She and her husband, a doctor, were pre-approved for the financing, didn’t have a home to sell, and she even asked for the plants I have hanging over one of the loft walls, which I took as a sign of affinity and good taste. Ahem. ‘How fortunate I was to have found the right buyers so quickly!’ thought I.
Fast forward one month and I am updating the paperwork to put the house back on the market. I won’t go into the details of what happened because it’s infuriating to contemplate (and might get me sued), but suffice it to say our wonderful buyers turned out to be incompetent at best, and negligent, if not criminal, at their worst. In the end I took a small hit on the earnest money just to be rid of them, despite our signed contract, satisfied contingencies and the month of time wasted. Some people are just schmucks.
The upside, if there is one, is that my realtor rocked throughout this whole fiasco, bending over backward to accommodate their ineptness, and calling them out when necessary. If we get a normal buyer the logistics should be a piece of cake. I’ve also had positive feedback from the few people who have seen it, and general consensus seems to be it’s a good buy. It’s just unfortunate that there happen to be 2,404 other condos on the market in the Madison area right now. That’s the not-so-fun part of real estate.
So, that said, there will be an open house at my condo this Sunday, July 27, from 1-3. If you have friends, family, coworkers, acquaintances, people you don’t know at all, etc. who are in the market for a sunny, arty, multi-lofted condo, please send ‘em my way!