And Away We Go

So, the Cake Eater Pad went up on the market yesterday.

We already are scheduled for two showings today.

If they think I'm going to leave the house while people walk through, they're kidding themselves.

In fact, I believe I'm going to try and hinder the showings. Would that be bad of me? I don't know. One little thing I can do to spoil it is to turn on the dishwasher while people are walking through. We have this problem wherein once you turn it on, the pipes in the wall rattle loudly. This really isn't all that surprising: it's just one more problem with the place that needs fixing, but it's bound to be expensive. No one's touched the plumbing in that wall for years, and there's no access panel to get at it, either. The husband informs me you can hear the rattling all the way down in the basement, too.

As much as I'm not fond of our current landlord, I have this feeling I should try and warn potential buyers off. Just in case some poor schlub decides this place is a good deal and is unaware of just how much works needs to be done.

Neither am I fond of this real estate agent. He's a big ball of cheese. "Hey, How ya doin'?" He seems more suited to be selling used cars than houses. And he's already tried to test our good will. According to the terms of our lease, if the landlord wants access to our apartment, they have to give us twenty-four hours notice. Well, the guy's secretary called us yesterday to schedule a showing at 10 this morning and she called at 9:50 a.m. While pushing it, that's fine and legal and I have no problems with it. The agent himself, though, called to schedule a showing for this afternoon well past the twenty-four hour cutoff. The husband politely informed him, "twenty-four hours means twenty-four hours." I know the guy will try to push it again, and we have plans to coordinate with the downstairs neighbors to block any and all attempts---across the board---that violate the 24-hour rule.

Oh, and did I mention that the downstairs neighbors are FREAKED OUT about this? Not good. Apparently, Tweedledumb just left a message on their voice mail. He didn't talk to them directly to explain the situation and he really didn't take into account that because they're not American and have no experience with home sales here, they didn't know what this meant. The husband had to calm them down because they were afraid they were going to have to pack it up and move right away. Sigh.

So, there's my ethical dilemma for the day. Should I mess with them? Any ideas, kids?

UPDATE: I should have anticipated that real estate agents themselves would be the first ones to walk through this property.

A guy just walked through, seemed surprised to see me in the kitchen and then started grilling me about the property. First question out of his mouth: "How long have you lived here?" "Five years," I replied. His eyes lit up like a tree at Christmas.

Then he proceeded to ask questions about all the problems the house has and I answered them. I don't know whether I turned him off, but he wasn't too interested in looking around after our chat, so who knows?

I sincerely hope I'm not going to get in trouble with GWH and Tweedledumb.

UPDATE II: Just looked out at the front lawn, and there is a big yellow line that was spray painted across the icy front yard. The husband and I think this is right where our nicely tree root-corrupted sewer line is.

If they think they can replace a sewer line in January, they're nuts. And if they think they're going to do it while we're still living here, they're nuts. I'm not going without water and indoor plumbing for weeks on end.

Not gonna happen.

Posted by Kathy at January 5, 2005 09:58 AM