Wednesday, March 31, 2010

For Sale By Owner

Trying to sell a house sucks.  I don't like it.  I'd like to hire a realtor and let him or her do all the work, but it makes no sense to sell a house for less than you paid for it, and then give someone 6% of the selling price.  I'm selling something, and I have to pay for it?  That's not what I learned in first grade.  Here's a story problem for you:

Andy has one house.  Sally gives Andy $160,000 for that house.  What does Sally have now?  What does Andy have now?

Answer:  Sally has a house, with a super-low interest rate and a $8,000 check from the government in her pocket.  Andy has negative $9,714, because the selling price was equal to what he owed on his mortgage and he had to pay a realtor.  Andy can now buy a new house with a super low interest rate, only he has to come up with a 20% down payment that he thought was going to come from the proceeds of the sale of his old house.  Andy also gets no money from the government because he is not a first time homebuyer, nor had he lived in his old house for five years.  Andy bought a house at the worst time in the history of the country to buy a house, and for that he gets nothing.  This is not the American Dream I was told owning a house would be.

I'm not angry.  I'm just amazed at just how awesomely bad my luck was.  It's a strange feeling having a sign in front of your house.  Every time I look out the window and see a car drive by, I wonder if they're judging me.  Are they wondering why we're selling?  Are they assuming that we're behind on our mortgage?  Do they like our choice of paint and/or landscaping? 

When someone comes in the house, it's even stranger.  They start making comments about how they'd put the TV somewhere else, or how they'd turn Jonah's room into a study.  What, is my son's room not good enough for you?  You really think the TV would look better over there?  You'll be dealing with a lot more glare from the window, buddy!

The best part of showing our house to people is Jonah's reaction.  He has to show the people his new Hi Ho Cherry-o game.  He wants them to watch him dunk on his basketball hoop.  He announces what every room is, and sometimes what goes on in that room.  He'll say "Jonah's Room!" or "Kitchen!  Eat!"  The best was Sunday when he yelled "POOP!" when we showed them the bathroom.  Ironic, because he's never pooped in there.  He thinks it's cute to sit on his potty chair, make a face like he just ate a lemon, grunt, and then say "done!"  Somehow he thinks this little charade warrants a fruit snack.  It doesn't.

Anyways, we've shown the house to I think three or four different people now.  We only got one call back about it, and that guy tried to get us to go lower than we were willing to go.  We counter offered, but then we never heard back from him.  If you know anyone looking for a house in the North Albany area, send 'em my way!

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Weight Loss Journal Day 8

Not much happening on the Body Modification Project.  Haven't been able to go running at lunch yet this week due to heavy rains and meetings, but I'm hoping to squeeze one in today. 

Weight Per Wii:  248 lbs (-1)
The Good:  I'd say the good is maintaining my weight without going running.
The Bad:  Tried to do a strength workout on the Wii yesterday morning.  Basically it was all situps and pushups.  After 10 minutes I felt like I'd been in the ring with Kane and the Undertaker.
The Ugly:  Absolutely killed the free cookies and Pepsi at our meeting the other day.  Destoyed them.  You just don't put a can of Pepsi in a bucket of ice in front of me.  You put a chocolate chip cookie next to it and you might lose your hand if you don't get out of the way quick enough

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