Phone rang before 8 am. First workday after the Memorial Day break.
“Um, hi, is this Steve? Hi, Steve. I’m the assistant to the vp at Huuuuuuuge and Biiiiiiiiiig Realty here in Austin and he asked me to call you because I see that your house at Sea Eagle is no longer listed on the MLS and are you still going to sell it and …
Five calls like this. Every hour. Till about 8 pm.
“Do you have a buyer? If so, please call Joe Longton at Kuper Sotheby.”
Steven installed nine new lighbulbs at Sea Eagle today. A vacant house apparently kills fluorescents.
Jacquela and Steven discussed and researched for weeks what to do about selling Sea Eagle. Two days ago, we opted to terminate the sales agreement with the existing agent and agency.
Today, we signed a new agreement with Joe Longton at Kuper Sotheby. He reports selling $13 million in real estate between January 2016 and today.
Let’s just say the agent tasked with selling Sea Eagle failed.
Today, Jacquela and Steven terminated the agreement, with cause — failure to generate an offer after more than 50 showings of the house; failure to close a sale of the house since the agreement was signed 8 Mar. 2016; failure to sell the house while listed on MLS and as a pocket listing exclusive to the agency.
We used Texas Association of Realtors form 1410. Steven had the foresight to write this into paragraph 15 of the sales contract, after determining that the standard agreement offered little or no protection to the seller — us — and every protection to the agency.
Steven took a break. His first 30-mile ride on a bike. Ever.
It’s fawning season in Northwest Austin. The deer are hungry, walking the streets and yards during the day — not just in the early morning, not just in the evening.
This five-foot tall specimen walked around the house, into the back yard, started eating, and stared at Steven for several minutes.
Jacquela and her friend and coworker Bridget have a thing for Renaissance Faires.
Off we went in the horse-drawn cart from the 21st Century, traveling the time tunnel of asphalt and concrete roads to south of Dallas.
Steven wore his kilt, showing off the legs he is sculpting with longer bike rides.
Jacquela was fetching.
Steven’s desktop computer stopped reading the memory card in Steven’s camera — whether the card was inserted into the card reader or cabled to a USB port.
Which explains part of why there have been no new postings.
Over the weekend, Steven removed drivers, re-installed drivers, removed drivers, installed new drivers, opened the case to check all cables, dived deep into Windows 10 settings.
No joy.
Today, Amazon delivered the new USB/SATA drive card, and the new external drive reader that comes complete with three USB 3.0 ports. Fifteen minutes of surgery later, everything is installed, the power light is on, the ports are working.
And Steven can go back to blogging …
UPDATE: 16 May 2016. The re-fi is done. Funded.
Wells Fargo approved all the paperwork late last week after nearly two months of submittals; the online loan tracker is clearly a work in progress.
Today, Jacquela and Steven went to close at the title company, refinancing the loan we used to purchase Emerald Hill. At a lower interest rate. Interest + principal, not just interest. Yet a slightly smaller monthly payment.
Now we wait 72 hours for the “right to cancel” to expire.
This brings us full circle; more than two decades ago, Wells Fargo approved the loan used to purchase our first home in Culver City, CA.
Post card arrived in today’s mail. The future looms again for Jacquela and Steven.
Post card offers driver’s ed to Jadin.
It’s a little early. She’s only 14.x. But …
