Real Estate Hell

So we put an offer in on duplex. It was countered, at the same time another offer for the same place was countered. The other people had looked at the house and put their offer in the next day. Kate and I took a week and did a lot of research on the house and the costs of the various repairs we were aware of. To date the house has had 5 offers including ours and the one that went in at the same time as ours.

The other offers were either too low or they were pulled after the home inspection. So I suspect the other people don't really know what they're getting into but offered more than us. All of this is reasonable in my mind, here's where it gets hairy.

So our agent is pitching our offer. Among his weapons is a list of homes that sold in the area for the same price, roughly, that we were offering. The sellers agent took them out of our agent's hand, said 'Bullshit!' and threw the papers in the garbage. An interesting technique. In the same discussion our agent asked how long they were giving the other people interested to do a home inspection and get financing, something we have a legal right to know, the agent refused to tell us stating 'I can make it 100 days and I don't have to tell you.' Okay, aside from that technically being against the rules I'm actually fine with it. It sucks for the seller because we're going to find another house and when this offer falls through because the buyers are too zealous our offer will be off the table. Oh well I guess that's why the house has been on the market for so long and all these offers are falling through, a mentally unstable agent. Now it gets worse.

We still like the place and we were given a counter offer that had a clause that if the other people didn't buy the house we would get it. We didn't like the price nor would I ever sign an offer without knowing how long the other people had to get the inspection and financing done, am I a moron? This agent must think so. So we send back our own counter proposal. This is the part that angers me, it seems he didn't even bother showing his client our second offer, that is illegal, or against real estate code or whatever. But what can we do? We've given up on the house and are filing an official complaint, hopefully the guy gets fired but we really have nothing left to gain from this endeavour.

We have already gained very valuable insight, we're well prepared to access the potential costs of another home and we are well aware of how nasty people in this business can be, although I'm assured this was a unique situation. I don't think Kate is on the same page yet but I am fully prepared to play hardball on the next house. People get real estate agents to do their dirty work and I'm not letting my kind hearted nature be taken advantage of. I am beginning to understand very well the common phrase 'It's not personal, it's just business' translated that means, 'I want to screw you but I feel bad so I'm going to lie to myself about how it's not my fault'. It's funny we accept that in the business world, but when some kid says he has a gun because society makes him we don't give a rat's ass.

Speaking of rats, ours are doing well. They seem more confident that we intend no harm, DoubleV actually leapt (is leapt a word? blogspot says no but I'm leaving it in anyway) onto me yesterday and climbed up to my shoulder. Of course upon finding no food up there he returned to the table he was on. The cats seem to be getting along better too, Brewski is calming down and hissing much less. A few days alone with Jedi seems to have softened him up a bit. He's not all the way there yet but it's promising.

I start classes again on Sept 8th and we lost our first softball game of the fall season 12-11. I hit a home run in my first at bat, my second of the year I think. I actually went 3 for 3 Monday with 2 RBIs.

Last weekend we were up at Scott's in Kingston where I helped him build a fence. It was quite enjoyable work actually, even when it rained on us. I look forward to a time when I have many such projects, hopefully soon in Montreal although it's been a rocky road so far.

So that's pretty much the crap I've done over the past week or so.