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.”
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.
Sari Pearce at Realty Austin is adding Sea Eagle to the MLS service, for sale. She’s got three showings scheduled already. May the Force be with us. So say us all.
It’s time to clean the one carpet at Sea Eagle, in the bedroom we called the “toy room.”
Meet Sam from SC Proservices, above, tangled up in blue (with apologies to Bob Dylan) — about to haul the vacuum hose into the house and upstairs.
Late yesterday, Trey from DeAtley Tile & Stone cleaned and degreased the stained concrete flooring on the first floor of Sea Eagle. Today, he’s back to wax and polish the floor — above.
This was Jacquela’s craft room — left at the top of the stairs, painted a “spring green” that she selected with help from Hannah, daughter of a neighbor — light and nearly not there. Now, above, Cloral, in the corner, and Freddie, blue shirt, are painting it Aged Parchment to match everything else in the house — neutralizing Sea Eagle for showing to potential buyers.
The real estate agent — Sari Pearce — connected Steven with Jose Vences, landscaper. Today, Jose is at Sea Eagle cutting back the wild grasses that grew tall through the summer and then gray in winter; blowing and raking up all the leaves; pulling weeds; mowing the small front and back lawns. Everything seemed to collect on the surface of the pool, which Steven cleaned twice as Jose and the 30mph winds wreaked havoc.
Above, Jose threshes the tall grass at the hill next to the pool.
We’re painting our selves out of Sea Eagle, making the house neutral for potential buyers. We’re using Kelly Moore Aged Parchment, the prevailing color used in the majority of the house. It looks yellow in the photos. It’s actually a pale tan, like old paper.
Above, this was Steven’s office — soft gray with white trim. Now it is aged parchment. The stained cedar ceiling is untouched, still killer.
Steven observes: Jacquela describes this as "separating." She does not want to look at the photos. The emotion is difficult to explain. We built this house from picking out the lot and scraping the dirt -- with John Hagy, the builder, and Kai Geschke, the architect. We lived in this house for 12 years. The house feels and sounds different without us, without our "stuff." We invested ourselves into the floors and walls. This is where Jadin grew up, where Reboot curled under Steven's desk. We keep those memories. They are treasures.
