Saga Conclusion

As I mentioned, I figured out that the woman sitting in front of me in the class I took was, in fact, the same woman from whom I was attempting to buy the house. This revelation came about as we were dismissed for lunch on day 1 and I happened to glance at her screen which had her name displayed there in Graphic Art glory.

I returned from lunch a little early (after calling my realtor to clue her in on the discovery). I hoped to find my classmate there alone, which I did. I told her who I was and we spoke some about the house. It was clear she loves the property. It was going to be her dream home that she lived in for the rest of her life. But the divorce changed those plans and she’s having a rough time with the whole thing.

Later that evening, I received an email from my realtor saying the seller (wife) would not sign the amendment regarding the garage door repair. Her stand was that we were getting a good enough deal as it was. So she refused to sign.

I went back to class the second day feeling like I was going to battle. This was also the day we were supposed to sign papers. I had responded to my realtor to tell the wife we wouldn’t close till she signed the amendment. Our realtor had offered to just give us $500 for the garage door repair, which in the end, she did. [Note: It had been revealed that the garage door repair had been prepaid for $500 and had not been done, so the contractor was supposed to reimburse the sellers that amount.]

On the phone, just before class started, my realtor informed me that she’d just gotten off the phone with the selling agent. She advised me to tread lightly with the woman as she is not holding up well emotionally and we’d be lucky to get her to sign the closing papers at all. She was scheduled to sign at lunch and we were going in later in the afternoon. The husband had apparently already signed all the papers back in May and wasn’t even in the state.

I spoke with the woman again as we broke for lunch, just before she was supposed to drive over to the title company’s office. Each time I interacted with her, I really felt that she was in a lot of emotional pain. She’s my age. And I really wish we’d have met under better circumstances. I told her that. I wanted her to understand that I knew it was hard on her to sell this beautiful house where she had built her life.

In the end, we decided that neither a secretary desk nor a garage door was worth losing the property over.

We’ve bought and sold houses in the past. The process is usually a pleasant one for all parties involved. So this situation was different. We are ecstatic to be the new owners of this beautiful property. But I, at least, can’t help feeling a little bad that our joy comes at such great expense for someone else.

So there you have it…. The rest of the story.