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Tuesday, October 15, 2013

It's alive

Our dreams were starting to feel like they might not happen. Then I spoke to Heidi today.  Beautiful land... we might have found you a mother.  Stay tuned and enjoy the sunny weather everyone

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Listing again...

A lot of conversation has happened and we took it upon ourselves to make a much better video with some footage that Ryan took and pictures we had over the years. We also decided to lower the price and offer a way better commission to Buyers Reps than our John L. Scott Realtor did.  Note to Donna:  when we talked to other realtors and told them that you only offerred 2-2.5% to other Realtors but were talking 7% for yourself, the universal response was that you are selfish. Maybe that is something you can take with you.

On another note, we always thought that your "video tour" was just lazy as it was simply a slideshow of still images. It only took me 5 minutes to make our first video on my phone and took Ryan a little longer to shoot his. In this day of YouTube, I don't think there is a valid reason for not actually having a tour video. Especially if it is one of the big "marketing" selling points. Just my two cents. Take it for what it is.

Here is our new video. 

The listing price will be $93,500 with a 3.5% commission to buyers reps. That still gives us room to negotiate, pay a decent commission and get out of the property what we have put in.




Enjoy!!

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

We have terminated our agreement with John L. Scott

There you are. Sometimes it is not ok to ask questions.

I made a video of our property while we I was up there the other day. Here it is:

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Well that was fun... NOT Beware of overly emotional Real Estate Agents

Today is the 15th.  Today, after several unreturned phone calls on Sunday and Monday from our agent (Donna Roberts ) to their real estate agent (Tesha J. Perry).. we magically received a Recission form.  At this point... "whatever" was our reaction.

They rescinded their offer, but only after their agent had to be schooled by ours as to the fact that they had a signed contract with us and couldn't just "pass" on our property over the phone or in an email. Like we asked them to prom or something and they got a better offer so they tried breaking up with us over a text.  Stupid.. Tesha at several points, got personally upset (at least that was what her tone said in her emails that I read) at the negotiations and then she stopped answering her phone and ignored our agents attempts to work through the sticking points.  I haven't been around a lot of agents but the unprofessional attitude of their agent was a real turnoff for us.  Tesha doesn't seem to have a website in which I can post a review, so I decided to put one here on my blog.

This experience has made me rethink selling this property at all and that's too bad because we have to sell it in order to build our house.  Here's what went down from our side:

Our property went on the market for $97,500 with a full disclosure already filled out by us.  These people (The Mitchells) called our agent and were very excited. They went to see the land and were still excited so they found themselves an agent. Our agent spoke to the lady (Mrs. Mitchell) and was told that they understood that there had been no PERC and that we weren't sure about the well. "They budgeted for it" our agent told us.  Then came their offer.  I can't find the form because there was a lot of mail but I believe their initial offer was $85,000.  Almost $13,000 below our listing price of $97,500.  We countered with $93,500. THEN it was revealed that the buyers "forgot" to add in their offer that they had wanted us to pay both sides of the closing costs and their agent wanted to put that in there... too late.  At that point I was kind of over it with these "Mitchells".  Offer $3,000 less than appraised value and for the privilege of getting their offer, we should be thrilled to pay for their closing costs as well??  Nice.

We held firm at $93,500 and figured they would probably say "No Thanks". They accepted and there started 20 days of Due Dilligence.  Our eyes and ears on the ground (Hi Mike) didn't report seeing any activity on the property which we found kind of weird since they seemed to be in this major rush to get started.  12 days into their 20 days of Feasibility, Ryan and I got an email from Donna. The day before (??) she had received a demand from the buyer that we pay for a PERC test to be done on the property. We received this information and literally 15 minutes later we were on the phone with Donna and agreed to do this. We drove to her office and signed the form and met with her. We received some advice about how to protect ourselves.  Since the buyer knew even before they got their agent that there was no PERC test, this was a surprise.  Ryan and I have purchased two land parcels in the last 3 years and neither of them had PERC tests, so we were not aware that this was something that we had to have done. It certainly wasn't omitted just to piss off our buyers or their overly emotional agent. We hadn't gotten around to doing one before we decided to build our house elsewhere. No offense. It's kind of funny how offended their agent got. Tesha, maybe you should start taking tranquilizers if you can't control yourself. seriously gal... not cool.

Why did Tesha get so upset?  Well... the buyer never put down a single cent of earnest $.  Ryan and I, in our two land deals, put down earnest $ when we made the offer. The Mitchells didn't want to risk their money and, at our realtors suggestion, our response to their demand that we have a PERC test done AND to extend the feasibility period to accommodate the PERC results... we asked them to put their earnest money down and to release it when the PERC passed.  Oh boy, Tesha got her panties in a wad over that one.

What we didn't understand is that apparently "The Mitchells" were in over their heads and their realtor wasn't very good at hiding it.  Day one, we would have been happy to pay for the PERC test. Day 12, it seemed like they were looking for ways to delay the process.  Day 14, with Tesha's "emotional" response and then outright avoiding our realtor to negotiate the release of the earnest money it became obvious that for whatever reason they didn't want the property anymore.  Maybe they couldn't borrow enough money. Maybe they didn't like our agent. Maybe they changed their minds. Whatever the reason.. they didn't have to get weird. They had 20 days and there was no reason to start making demands and then become outraged that we had a counter demand.  Too much drama. Too much childish emotion. I put in a call to Mrs. Mitchell today to try and just talk to her without the drama of her agent clouding the waters. Unreturned. At least I tried to treat her like a person. It seems clear that some wires may have gotten crossed this week. Lesson learned... maybe you get the agent that you deserve.

Good luck "Mitchells"  Good riddance Tesha J. Perry.  We did everything that you asked of us and were happy to do so. I am sorry that we expected your "clients" to be serious and whatever that was, it seemed like if it wasn't the PERC test, it would have been something else, something minor,  The fact remains that our property is really nice and we wish that my job hadn't taken us elsewhere but it did. Sorry.  I hope that your unprofessional actions catch up with you Tesha J. Perry. Your profession is largely based on reputation and as far as I saw from your own emails... maybe being a real estate agent isn't your calling.

That said.. the PERC was done today and it's looking like it will approve with no hiccups.  I got a solid answer about our well.  It is a typical well found in the rural areas of Clark County.  Chances are that current codes won't allow it to be used. So our property doesn't have a well. We bought it that way and Ryan is pretty adamant that we aren't drilling a well just to sell it. That could change but that's how it is for now.




Wednesday, May 1, 2013

SOLD!! (?) We'll know in 18 days

After two weeks listed and a tough, nail biting negotiation... we have accepted an offer for the property.

The money will put us dead even for what we paid and money we spent on the parcel.  We will be able to zero out our line of credit and have enough money to start building Phase I of the house next spring in Kalama.

Cross your fingers that their DD finishes.  We have been very transparent in regards to everything we know about the property. It is as we bought it, with a lot more sunlight and a lot less blackberries.

Have a great day everyone!!

Monday, April 8, 2013

Ready to list... for the most part

Ryan and I cut as much of those trees as our yard (and several other people's woodpiles) could handle. What is left is a small log and a larger one on the west side of the property. Consider that a gift of firewood from us to the next owners.  :)

Here it is folks, freshly mowed and ready to list.

In a nutshell (standing on the north boundary)
The east is bounded by a driveway


The north boundary is also a driveway with Hughes road in the distance.
The east side of the plot.

Right tree is on the lower end, left tree in the middle of the plot.
The well has been there a long time. The people before us dug a small pond for the Artesian Spring to flow into. Lots of birds and frogs there.




The well. Shallow dug and like a lot of plots out here, not certified. The water is very good though.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Cleanup

It finally stopped raining!!

The blackberries kind of took over the pond and the willow tree last year, so Ryan and I rented a 20 yard container from H&H ($250 for a week. MUCH CHEAPER than Triangle Resources who acted like we were bothering them when we asked how much [$220 for 2 days] ).

The empty container. Russ the driver was really nice  :)


We spent a total of about 6 hours and filled the whole thing!! It was getting dark when we left but these are the photos that Ryan took when we were done.

The tree to the south of the pond.

View from the west towards the NE. The felled trees are on the left and the power pole is visible next to our car.


We will be going back up this Sunday to buck up the rest of the felled trees and get them out of there. Looking for a Real Estate agent. Excited to hand this land off to someone to build their dream home on.  It really is a nice piece of land and we are sad that we aren't moving here.

TTFN

Paige and Ryan

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Feb 2013 update

We pulled the trigger on the Kalama idea.

Only 10 min. from the boat, we had to. So we will not be moving to Washougal and are going to be listing this property. We've been devoting our limited non-work time towards cutting up the felled trees and donating the firewood to various people who need the wood. Our neighbor, Mike, is keeping the lawn in tact and will be bringing up a yard debris dumpster to collect the various scraps before listing.

Washougal would have been a wonderful place to live and we hope to find a buyer for our plot. We were unable to find anything comparable in Kalama but we found something that will work with just a little redesign.

Wish us luck! We will create a new blog when we are ready to dig. Slated as always, Spribg 2014