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Monday, December 10, 2012

On Leaving America - Part 33 A



Part 33 A


The end is here?


More added tension  . . . stress. I am not good with money and have been given some very bad advice by expensive experts on investments. Someone interest in our house and made the traditional way-to-low first offer. We will make some kind of counter offer. 

             In order to agree to do this back and forth thing there are papers that must be signed. Almost a dozen papers, sometimes printed out in size ten font. 'Boiler plate things,' we are told. Basic rules, details such as: House inspectors will be not be required on weekends but will complete inspection of said house within a specified period of ten days after he is hired. Basic rules of engagement. We get brief descriptions of them as I am required to sign, my wife as well. It would take fifteen minutes to read any one of them, some are printed front and back. There would be many questions. “What does this mean?” Legal terms written in lawyerese.
 
            “There were once only a couple papers that had to be signed when I started years ago,” our agent tells me. But that was then, and now we have all this. Sign here, and here and here, then just initial at these other places,” she is pointing with a pencil. There are large plus marks someone wrote into the margins beside various paragraphs. “Sign here, the upper right hand corner,” I am told. Wife will initial the left corner, and prospective buyer will get two quarters below. Specific Terms, Purchase & Sale agreement, Optional Clauses Addendum to Purchase and Sale Agreement, Financing and General Terms Agreement.
It seems that it should be a simple thing, the land is specified, the boundaries long decided recorded in courthouse books. There are numerous small fees, forty bucks . . . a hundred forty . . .  “Initial here,” she points again. I do, and pass the paper to my wife also signs. Ten pages. This is just one person selling to another. 

             They tell you to forget about selling house yourself. And they, whoever they are, are probably right. We have not desire to, even with a good lawyer. But I bet you could save a lot of money. We will pay $10,000 for this agent to sell our house for us. She will handle the marketing, and the papers. $8,000 just to get, ‘listed.’ This means that other agents will know our place is for sale. Seems like a fairly simple thing with internet. My wife was shopping houses in Sweden from her desk here in Seattle. A For-Sale sign has been put up in our yard. I’ll bet I signed something giving them permission to do that, and also agreed that I would not be responsible for any injuries that occurred during the installment.The ten grand gets split up between the selling realtor, the realtor for the buyer and what ever part that goes to the companies they work for-probably the largest part.

This must be boring. Most of you have been there, done that. If you are planning on making a last move, I recommend you do in your sixties.

Scroll down to part B     Possibly more interesting . . . or not.

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