The Smoke House

Off and on for the past year I've been working with a really nice woman in search of a home for her family. We met on a sign call - I had a listing in Oakdale - that's a Glendale subdivision with homes built in the mid-80s by Contingental. Nice community - no HOA. But that property was not quite right for her so I committed to trying to find something else. We looked at a few - got a feel for what she liked - and found a short sale that was nice. Unfortunately, it wasn't nice enough. It took a couple of months or so for the seller's lender to sort through the offer. Then the lender asked for more money. We countered their counter - but it really wasn't worth it to the buyer so we cancelled the contract. We lost touch for a little while - she still got my newsletter but the motivation to buy had sore of waned. Then we started looking again and boom - there it was. THE house. Nice neighborhood. Not too far from current house. Interesting floorplan (a bi-level, with the kitchen and main living area upstairs), nice yard. But the feature that made the buyer laugh out loud was a smoke house - not the kind that you smoke a pipe in, but where you smoke fish and meat. This is something the buyer has now and loves - so it made it an easy "yes" for her. Then, wouldn't you know - it is bank-owned and a multiple-offer situation. We made the best offer we could - a little over asking price - and the bank accepted. Hurray. Or so we thought. Next step is home inspection. We'd expected a few issues - assumed they'd be "cosmetic" - but were not expecting mold. Mold is a four-letter word when it comes to house purchases. I am not a mold expert. I do know that there are different types of mold - some no big deal, others not so good. This mold looked to be the not-so-good kind. The house had been vacant for some time. There had been leakage from the a/c air handler. The eaves were rotten in places. The patio cover was rotten in places. The list goes on. Anyway - we cancelled the contract. We continue to look. They know what they want. They're realistic as to what they can find for their price. All we have to do is find it and get our offer in before somebody else does. The inventory is shrinking so the search is not as easy as it once was. Hold a good thought.