Desperation

At the end of yesterday's post, I left you in the parking lot of our realtor's office.  Brett and I were hot, sweaty, dirty (climbing all those steep hills) and discouraged.  We drove our rental car to Sacramento where we located my temporary housing complex.  Starting this coming Saturday, it will be my home-away-from-home until we can be together, in our own place, in the Sacramento area.  We sat on the terrace of an Italian restaurant, ate pizza, guzzled ice tea and talked about the afternoon. 

After discussing the highs and lows of the properties, the mis-information on listings, and the inability of Google maps and Google Earth to give us a really accurate picture of terrain, Brett brought up the log house we liked so much.  That property was relatively flat, with a barn, an arena, and two pastures.  Other than the rotting wood and the out-of-touch-with-reality owner, it was perfect.  Remember it?

We had a couple of hours to kill before our flight home so we drove up to El Dorado and cruised by the property.  It was a beautiful drive and the land was as well organized as we remembered.  Brett parked the car on the shoulder of the narrow road and walked along the street-side fencing.  It was dusk and the house was dark.  When we previewed the house last month, the owner told us that the water and gas were turned off.  The house did not look lived it; most of the furniture was gone and there were cobwebs on the windows. 

One of Brett's concerns about the house is a cement walkway that runs along the side of the house (the left side of the house in the picture).  The cement is poured too high against the house and it didn't appear to have a way for water to flow off.  It is also the area with the most wood damage. Brett wanted to take a look at the cement and see if it could be "fixed."  The gate was ajar so we slipped inside.  Brett strode purposefully across the front lawn towards the cement area.  I followed, with less purpose, so a flickering from the inside of the house caught my attention.  A TV was on.  I told Brett and we high-tailed it back out the gate.  Either someone was sitting in the dark house watching TV or the TV was on for security purposes.  We didn't stick around to find out. 

This morning I talked to the realtor that is helping us with our new home search.  He advised us to not act out of desperation.  He reminded me that this house is priced higher than the awesome kitchen house on the hill.  It should be priced significantly less based on its lack of view, dark log interior, inspection issues, etc.  The owner is not willing to be reasonable.  He reminded me that we are dealing with an out-of-touch, unreasonable owner and it would not be wise to buy an overpriced home with lots of issues.  He assured me that the right place will come along; that our place will sell; that it will all work out and that we don't need to make choices based on desperation.  Excellent advice.