Up and down again

Our dream has been to go full time in our RV. We've been working towards it (perhaps unknowingly at times) for about 10 years.

The last step has been to sell the house in San Diego.

We selected a realtor based on a neighbor's recommendation and the fact that he only took 2% commission. Most realtors take at least 21/2% and on a $400,000 sale that 1/2% adds up!

Enter David Kornbluth of Pledge Realty www.pledgerealtygroup.com

David's approach was somewhat different. He had the house appraised BEFORE putting it on the market, then listed it $500 below the appraisal. We were a little leery as the appraisal was $25K below what we'd seen on similar properties.

David also listed it with ZERO commission to other realtors which we assumed would mean nobody would be bringing clients from other agencies.

Our fears were soon washed away when we had the first open house and we had 6 offers straight away and only 1 below the asking price.

The one we chose was a "Flipper" who offered a cash deal and no realtor fees. That brought the effective selling price up to 427K. 27K above the listed price.

We were over the moon especially as he wanted to close in 10 days and did his own home inspection immediately and expressed delight in the condition of the house.

Unfortunately he then spent a week and a half asking all kinds of questions about a plumbing leak we'd had 7 years ago and finally backed out on a technicality the day he was due to sign the paperwork.

To say we were depressed is not an exaggeration.

David held another open house the next Sunday and we immediately had an offer for $427,500. This one would involve another realtor but he accepted 2% as commission and that would be as good as the cash offer we'd almost landed the week before. The way they work their commission is to find out what the seller wants then they add the cost of their commission to it and get the buyer to pay that total as the buying price.

The new buyer had a lot of cash and wanted to move in by August 1st. That gave us 21/2 weeks to finish the clean up and furniture sales we'd started frantically when we got the cash offer. 

The previous deadline was going to be really tight so we'd pre-arranged the disposal of a lot of furniture/motorcycles/vehicles. All we had left was some art stuff, a TV stand, sofa, bed and headboard and my Goldwing motorcycle that hadn't sold yet. Everything else we'd moved back into the house from the RV.

We signed the escrow papers and they wanted to close July 27th. We had a home inspection and termite inspection. The buyer didn't require any repairs based on the home inspection but the termite report showed termites and some rot in the patio structure and a little in the eaves of the house totaling about $3800 per the termite company. We agreed to pay for those.

I placed an ad on Criagslist for the Goldwing and after a few false starts a gentleman bought it for my asking price. He got a good deal I believe, The our friend Ken who had taken a lot of our stuff already and wanted my truck asked if we would give it up before the end of the month as his wife had lent her car to her daughter. So we ended up selling the motorcycle and truck in 2 days. We also got a nice dinner with Ken and Gloria and an invitation to a party next Saturday!!

We made a day by day calendar listing things we needed to do and what days we needed to do them. Then I got the printer/scanner out and we started scanning all our old photo albums that we don't want to lug around in the RV. The special ones will go to our daughter in UK when we ship a trunk of family mementos to her.

2 new tires for the motorhome an oil and filter change, chassis lube followed by re-balancing the tires on the Fiesta got us up to date on vehicle maintenance.

We're waiting for the buyer's finance company appraisal of the house and their confirmation that the loan is thru then we can get on the road.