Compare and Contrast

There are ads on the news channels touting online home sales - you register and for 2% of the sale you can sell your house, like, in a day.

I have also been hearing older people tell me how one generation back buyers just knocked on your door, assumed your loan, signed some papers at the bank, boom, they owned your house.

I was unfortunately born in the time between past and future, and here in the here and now selling a home is miserable. I have 22 pages of contracts to initial and sign. 

I unearthed all of Mom's files regarding the house, and you know how long her contract was? One page.

More misery on top: selling the house severs one of my last ties to Mom. I'm sad, thumbing through her files and seeing the garden map she drew, along with all the warranties I need to get to the buyers. And all the checks and receipts, none of which are interesting only that they are in her handwriting. 

It makes me want to buy a cheap house and flip it so I can see what this is like without all the emotional baggage.

Comments

[KC]

Sorry this is being a huge bear, and an emotional one at that. (Auuuugh.)

(a *one page* contract?!!!)

There is a site where you can get custom-printed fabric, which means you could get a gardening apron with your mom's handwriting and garden map on it, if you wanted to. (usually people print recipe cards on tea towels, but there are options...)

I suspect it's still a giant pain in the neck without the emotional baggage. Have only bought a house, once, though, so I do not know how *much* of a pain in the neck. (it was a pain in the neck; all the inspections and the things the inspections turned up and that we had to negotiate with the owners and then all the rest of the things to juggle and deal with in addition to moving. But it was less of a pain in the neck, I am sure, than it would be to both buy a house *and* sell it!)

[TheQueen]

KC - the nice thing though is that in this market a seller can say "I am selling this house with no inspection, as is," which is what I'm doing. So at least I don't have that hassle.

And I did keep mom's original map. It's amazing how much this is bringing up mom's memories. I realized today It's been moms house or mine for almost fifty years. Half a century. Seems impossible but true.