Today we come to the exciting conclusion of the sale of my house, the new owners and how showing a little (or lot of, you decide) courtesy to the new owners on my part into entitlement on wife’s part.
Let me start near the end of the closing meeting and choosing a moveout date. While in the offer letter they had agreed to let me stay until my new house was completed, they reneged at the closing. I stated that I needed two weeks to pack, arrange for movers/storage and a place to stay. And the wife stated, “we trust that she will try to be out by the 8th (8 days after closing) but understand if she needs the two weeks” with an intense look that said you WILL be out by the 8th, right? I took until the 10th and quite frankly I was still rushed even with help.
But let’s talk about the 10 days between closing and moving. A few important pieces of information first 1- The house is situated on about 158 acres of land (lots of privacy), of which they bought 58 with the house, 2- In order to get this deal completed, I agreed to finance about $50K of the sale for 6 months (which is a whole other story) and 3- I had allowed them to store stuff in the building adjacent to the house free of charge while they got their shit together for their loan.
I also acknowledge that at the end of closing, I had become a “tenant” as it were until I moved out, but I still had rights and, more importantly, all the keys to the house and storage building 😁😁😁.
At the end of closing, wife states that she needs something from the building and that they would come by on Saturday. Ok no problem. Saturday rolls around and I wait until about 1 pm to find out when their coming. But I had errands and I figured if they hadn’t texted at that point, they weren’t coming. I also thought that if I were in their position, I would text early asking if a specific time frame would work, because that’s how I am (simple courtesy). I leave and an hour into my errands I receive a text – “We’re coming between 3:30 and 4:00”, not a request, a statement. I let them know that I don’t know if I’ll be back by then (as I had waited to run my errands) and they asked me to leave the storage key somewhere so that on Sunday they could get into their stuff. Ok no problem, they’ve decided to come Sunday instead, right? Nope! I pull up and there they are walking around the property. Now I ask, wouldn’t you be annoyed? If your whole purpose was to get something from storage, why would you come if you couldn’t get in? I shake if off, hand them the storage key and go inside as I was already annoyed from the closing the day before and this just added to it.
Then comes Sunday and I’m at my sister’s house for the day and another text comes in. (Paraphrasing) Coming by to do some things at the barn, husband will be there this week to do some things on the property. Are there any days good during the week so we can get some painting estimates? Let me state I know this is their property, but I have 10 days to get all that I need to get done and I do not need them coming and going at will, it’s disruptive. Which of course I tell them and ask that they not make daily visits since the horses weren’t there and to give me a schedule of needed visits that did not require entering the house.
Now, my realtor, Jeanene, has been looped in because I had a feeling that they were going to be difficult, and I was correct.
Wife continues texting that she needed to prep the barn for the arrival of the horses (which basic prep doesn’t take but a few hours at best) as agreed upon (no, I agreed to let you move the horses and bring in necessities until I moved out) and that I didn’t have to be available for the paint quotes, she was being considerate in asking and that visiting the property was to prepare for moving the horses (again does not require a lot of prep) and to do things around the property, which she deemed not disruptive because it’s outside. Remember back to when I said I lived on a lot of land that affords me a tremendous amount of privacy? People roaming on the land at will is disruptive, especially with a neurotic dog. At this point, I turned it over to my realtor because they were not respecting my space for the last 10 days I was there and figured they could do what they wanted to when they wanted to, like cut up downed trees in the fields that are not causing a problem. Not disruptive at all 🙄.
To wind up this long tale, we came to an uneasy truce and the planned daily visits were nixed until the horses arrived and then only for feeding. No paint quotes or unnecessary outdoor work. At some point they had gravel dropped off for the path to the barn and came back late the next day to spread it because scheduling that to happen at the same time was apparently too hard to manage. All of which you can see from the main living space as it’s a wall of windows – but that’s not disruptive. And then they came a third day in a row to bring the horses, filling the troughs off of my water bill, but of course no acknowledgement of that.
The wife texted me a few times later in the week to announce she would be arriving at certain times to do this or that and I just didn’t respond because it’s not like she was asking if she could come by, she was stating it, so I did feel like it required a response 🤷🏼♀️😆😆.
As the moving day got closer, wife contacts her realtor because I wasn’t responding to her texts and wanting to know if I was still going to leave the list of information I had created about the house and where it would be. Their realtor contacts Jeanene who calls me for the skinny, laughing when I explain why I stopped responding and if I’m being honest, I also stopped responding because I was done being nice.
I told Jeanene I would email the information about keys and paperwork to her to forward on, which of course she was fine with. I also told her that the nice three-page list of house quirks had been reduced to one page of necessary information because their constant abuse of my good nature had reached its limit and they could figure out the quirks on their own. I’m always willing to go the extra mile until you take advantage of me and all bets are off. Entitled behavior is ugly at its core.
I’ve said it before, I couldn’t have made this story up if I tried.
And that is how my last ten days my beloved home (Insert dramatic sigh here 🤣🤣🤣).
Moral of the story – A little courtesy really does go a long way with me. And lack of it turns me into an unhelpful bitch 🤪🤪.
My Lemons My Lemonade 