Thursday, April 29, 2010

Lesson Learned... Maybe... Or was it a sign?

Well, here goes to counting my chickens before they are hatched.. And the fact I know NOTHING about real estate... Condo... What a joke... We put in our offer. It was accepted... Yay! You would think... Then the trouble began. Seems that Mr. Power of Attorney over his mother didn't have the authority to sell his mothers condo in Florida especially since they lived out of state (somewhere in Wisconsin- our old Realtor thought.) Mr. POA needed to have two signatures on a paper only had one.. Mr. POA needed to get into to court to see if the judge would allow him to sell the condo... Then Mr. POA said he was having trouble getting into court and stopped responding to calls... So we looked at the condo right next door... This was an awesome condo.. In so much better condition all we would have to do was change the carpet... So ok lets put in an offer... Well..... There was an additional fee listed.. A land lease fee on top of the fee that would be required for the maintenance. This fee was omitted from the first condo. Was it an oversight? Was it intentional deception? Needless to say I refused to pay the maintenance fee and a land lease fee for a condo in a great area (it really was a great area) because it was obvious by looking at the building that the maintenance work was not being done. There were hornets nests and wasps nests all in front of the doors and windows. The grass wasn't cut. I could just go on and on.. So I was ripped and pulled my offer from the table...
So back to square one... We looked at a few houses... It is amazing how different houses look in the listing to what the houses looked like in person... One house was listed as 2 possible 3 bedrooms... Yeah for squirrels maybe... It was so small.. The second house was beautiful.. Huge yard, large driveway. Looked like the picture of the outside that was listed... Oh wait haven't opened the door yet... Old Realtor (I will explain why I call him that) opens the door.. I didn't even want to go in... The inside looked NOTHING like in the pictures... First could help but notice the huge hole in the ceiling as you walked in... Not to forget the fact you could smell urine... The whole ceiling was cracked from the living down a hall and into the kitchen... Windows broken... It was beyond filthy. So sad sad me went home... Next day I was on realtor.com looking around.. Thought it was funny that the condo I wanted back in February (one that I never had mentioned) was listed figured they would have removed the listing by now since someone put a contract on it before I was able to go see it... So I was telling Frankie about this... Went into my future MIL's email to show Frankie that original Realtor was still sending mom emails.. Clicked into it.. BAM!! There it was in black and white (and color). The number 1 condo that I wanted back when we first started looking.. The one that someone else had put a contract on.. The one that someone else beat me too... So I called Original Realtor asked him if it was really back and the market and he said it was.. So I asked if we could see it.. He asked when would we be available.. I said we were available right then. He said he had to go to another town to show two properties but would be back in town in about two hours. So we set up the appointment.. When he met us at the condo he remembered who we were from Frankie's mom. AND he remembered how much we had wanted to see this condo before. That is why even though it was 830 PM he showed it to us.. Needless to say it now has an offer on it and hopefully will be under contract by tomorrow.
My favorite room...




So the lesson learned is not to say you have a property even if you put an offer on it and have it accepted... Sign was obviously the issues came up with the places we looked at and issues with the condo because the place we originally fell in love with was coming back to the market.

Ok... Old Realtor... Well.. We did more of the work than he did.. We told him what we were looking for and yet not 1 place did he email us... Original Realtor even though we had not talked to him in awhile continued to send us properties and emailed us the listing for the first property immediately when it became available.

So if you are looking for a Realtor in the St. Petersburg, Tampa,Clearwater Florida areas check out Peter P. Nemethy. He is definitely a gem and an asset to the Realtor community.

Frankie got a job.. Not the job he had the interview for when I last posted.. One that phone interviewed him 3 weeks before. They called him the day before he left for Florida to see if they could set up an interview. So they set one up for that Sunday. He is still in training but so far he loves it.. We are all currently at Frankie's brother's house (we had planned on being in the condo by the 27th (we were told we would close on that day.. That was the 3rd closing date we had received)



PS we have no idea why the buyers backed out of the condo.. Neither does the Realtor. Said it went all the way up to closing and then all of a sudden the people backed out... Is it meant to be???? Stay tuned..


"make sure you keep it between the navigational beacons."

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

New Condo, Moving and wedidng.

Wooo That is a lot... LOL... Well, Frankie and I had put an offer on a condo in Paradise over the weekend.. We heard yesterday from the realtor that the owner accepted our offer... YAY!!!! We will close in about 2 weeks.. But now the fun part.. Frankie leaves for Paradise on Friday (will be staying with his brother). :-( (Lola is not happy since her and the monkey are not leaving). Frankie has a job interview on Monday in the city next to Paradise. YAY! Hopefully, Monkey and Lola will get to move after the closing. But now, Frankie and Lola need to be in KY no more than 30 days before the wedding to apply for the license.. Then we need to be back here for the June 19th wedding... It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't a thousand mile distance between Paradise and here. Life is so rough.. LOL J/K. I am thrilled about the new condo.. It does need some work.. Just purely cosmetic (such as lots of paint).

Haven't decided if the carpet is staying. It is new but I would prefer tile flooring.
The yellow goes... The appliances will be changed also..
Thinking of black and stainless steel.

I can't believe we are down to 73 days before the wedding.. Yesterday we went and had photos taken of us as engagement pictures. I can't wait for them to come back. The photographer is a friend of ours and she is doing them for us for only the cost of prints. YAY!!!!
All that is left is food and flowers. We want to have a very laid back reception. Ideas we are running are Jerk Chicken, Cheeseburgers (Can't have a Jimmy Buffett/Tropical themed wedding with out these...), meatballs, pasta salad, potato salad, salad, etc.. We are not doing a cake.. Well we are but only for Frankie and I. Just 1 square Key Lime cake. We are doing cupcakes in different flavors for our friends and family.
I am sure my in laws will be glad when it is over.. Most of the decorations are in their living room (the rest are in our room).



"make sure you keep it between the navigational beacons." Have a GREAT Day!