Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Are You Hungry?

or
My Imaginary Ace in the Hole


I keep imagining what it would take to wipe out all the debt I've accumulated during The Great Real Estate Sell-Off of 2008. There are several possibilities. A winning lottery ticket. Or some wealthy Floridian who realized the value to be found in this market and wanted to snap up a lovely lot in the Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina with lake access. Or, God forbid, my mother's death. Those are the only events I'm aware of that could occur to drop enough instant cash into my lap to wipe out this debt in "one fell swoop."

I am aware of the odds of winning the lottery. Please don't lecture me. I'm not dumb. I'm just idealistic. Or a dreamer. Pick your favorite adjective. I buy my MegaMillions ticket twice a week, $1 each time. The odds are poor, but they're greater than zero. And that money's gonna go somewhere, so it might as well go into my bank account.

Mother is 95. She's going to die sometime. I'm not wishing it on her. I'm just fantasizing about being out of debt when it happens. Don't tell me I'm a bad daughter for wishing to be out of this inordinate amount of debt.

Now, about that property in North Carolina. Yesterday I went to my realtor's home page to look at the listing, thinking maybe I'd do a little supplemental marketing myself—maybe an ad in Southern Living or, at the very least, on CraigsList. I couldn't find my listing. I remembered an e-mail from him in December saying he was going to have knee surgery so he was transferring his listings to one of his fellow agents. I went onto realtor.com and searched all property in Jackson county that's listed at $375,000. It's not there.

Holy cow. This ol' boy let my listing expire and didn't ask if I wanted to renew. Yes, he told me last year that nothing was moving in the area. But there's always the chance that it will move. There's the chance of a 10% commission for him and a sale for me. Would he just throw that away without telling me when he knows I want to sell the property?

I think there are mountain ways of doing things that I'm just not up on!

Rest assured that I quickly zipped off an e-mail to him yesterday letting him know that I want the property listed for sale. Right away.

3 comments:

Jill said...

Oh I thought you were going to keep the property now that you are closer and can visit with the babies.

Anonymous said...

Mountain people like to just not make money? This sort of thing slays me. I hope he is shamed into putting it on the top of his list.

Jan Crews said...

Jill, if I'm not going to be able to afford my own house until my g'kids are teenagers, I don't think I'm going to be able to afford a vacation cottage until they're married and I have g'g'kids and then I won't be able to drive up to the mountains.

I think it's a lost cause.