I cut all my hair off.

This is my new look. It's summertime.....and I was getting frustrated with my hair.

But wait, there's more!

I get an e-mail this morning from the seller's lender. They still do not have the document they need.

Now, I'm in panic mode. The Title Company is closed. So, I look up the owner of the title company in the tax records. I drive over to her and show her the e-mail. We drive back to the title office together and fax over the requested document.

They get it and they still think it's wrong. It turns out that they didn't identify the buyer's signature as really being his signature....it's just sort of a scribble. So we had to fax over a passport and some other document to verify the signature was indeed correct.

It's over. Dracula is finally dead.

The Rest of the Story

Ok, for those of you who don't know the beginning of the story, read HERE.

We get the second buyer to replace the first one. Now we need the title company to generate a HUD statement to submit to the seller's lender to approve the short sale. As we begin researching unpaid taxes and unpaid HOA fees, we discover that the HOA had started to foreclose on the property. We were totally blindsided by it. Thankfully, it was a very simple thing to correct but it ate up a week of our time. I wasn't able to get a HUD statement to the lender until the following week and even then they wanted us to send them support for our numbers.

The law office that was hired by the HOA would bill us every time we called them and asked for written back up, so the number they gave us kept changing. That would then affect the HUD statement and we couldn't keep doing this. It seemed that the law office didn't want to work with us. In hindsight, they just didn't believe we were going to be able to pull this off, so they didn't care. They really had no interest in sabotaging the close of this sale. They had nothing to gain by acquiring this condo.

After some revisions and corrections, we were able to get the documents to the seller to sign in Pennsylvania Thursday afternoon. A notary had to be arranged to meet him and he then fedexed the documents at 6:00 to arrive Friday for close. We had to close on Friday the 30th, there was no more time after that. The title company was swamped with closings; they wanted to push us to the very end of the day.

We finally close at 3:30 and at 4:15 I deposit my commission check in the bank and begin planning my evening celebration. At 5:00 I get a call from the seller's lender that they didn't receive a necessary document and the deal isn't final. Now, I'm back into panic mode. I can't get anyone at the title company to answer the phone. I e-mail, leave voice messages, etc. Finally, at 5:45, I get a call that everything is taken care of. It's done.

I swear, this is how it's been for 6 months. I am so glad this deal closed.

And so it begins.

We are having an afternoon shower. I've been waiting for them to begin. They usually start in June, so they come a few days early.

This truly is one of my favorite things. I've always loved them but I love them more in my new place. Something about being in an old home with wood floors, high ceilings and big windows with the rain falling all around. I feel energetic in a sense. Hard to explain.

Unfortunately, I am going to have to get out in this rain and meet someone at a property. Still, I welcome the rain and will enjoy it all month long.

I wonder if my goodies are going to arrive today....? Today would be a great day to get goodies.

Remember the Condo story? Tomorrow is do or die. I'll post the completion when I know how it ends.

Real or not Real?

Ok, this looks very real to me but for obvious reasons, you begin to wonder if it is or not.

You decide...

Morning

As many of my loyal readers and lurkers know about me is that I'm not a morning person. I usually don't rise until about 9 or 9:30. But this morning, for some reason, I wanted to get started with my day around 6:30. I decided to take a morning walk. I have a certain path I take when I walk because it's timed to exactly 30 minutes to and from my house.

I have to admit, I do love morning walks. I just wish that I remembered that as I struggle to rise in the a.m. There is something so special about mornings. For one thing it's quiet. And the animals seem to be having so much fun; it's almost as though they are celebrating the fact they made it through the night without becoming someone's dinner.

There is one particular house I pass that has 3 cats and the owner of the cats, a guy, sits on his patio every morning and feeds them. I don't know if he is a single guy or not but it made me think of the humorous YouTube video with the engineers that my sister had posted on her blog. If you are so inclined to view the video, you may do so by going HERE.

Ok, well that's about all I have to post at the moment.

Peace out.

Goosebumps

This video give me goosebumps. (I found the report on CNN and then found this on YouTube). Enjoy!

Google, you made my morning.

Google people, you are just so cool!

I went to Google's home page page to do my morning search on some meaningless and random search and saw the lovely Doodle by Grace Moon. I can't believe she is only in the 6th grade! I suspect this is going to be one-day thing with their logo, so if you read this post tomorrow, you might miss it.

The question that Google proposed to kids across america was "what if". They were supposed to finish the sentence and make a Google Doodle to fit the question. I sorted through the finalists drawings to what else had been submitted. (The link takes you to a map. Click on any specific icon and it will pull up the drawings). I particularly liked this one, not just the drawing but the humorous quip above it as well:

Strange Dream

Ok, I have to share this dream, it was so bizarre and funny and complete. It's one of those dreams that have a beginning and an end.

I dreamed that I lived in a 1 bedroom loft type apartment that was adjacent to Wortham Center, where the Houston Grand Opera lives. In my dream, the apartment actually shared the same hall which allowed free access to the opera. Though, it was not commonplace for anyone to sneak in and watch the opera.

However, I do believe that since I lived in the building and perhaps because I paid to be living in the building that it gave me some free license to do as I wished.

So, on this particular night an opera was playing. I don't know which one or what it was about and I decided that I just wanted to pop in and see some of it. I could hear it through my walls but I wanted to see what they looked like.

So, I pop in to watch it while wearing my pajamas. Now my pajamas were a button down top and pants and were a orange/pink floral print. Very pajama like. So, I go into the theater and I walk about 1/3 of the way down the isle and stand there and watch for about 5 or 10 minutes and then I leave the theater.

Then after a little while, I come back and do it again. And then the third time I do it, intermission starts. Now, on this third time, I'm not wearing the pajama bottoms, just the top. So, intermission starts and I'm standing with this oversized floral pajama top and my underwear.

As, I turn to leave, this woman sitting in one of the seats flags me over to talk to her. She is wearing a hat with a feather and a jacket with a fur collar. She is agitated and she tells me that her husband, Mr. Haselkof, the composor of this opera is livid at me and is at that moment calling security. In my mind, I'm thinking, oh, she is mistaking me for some homeless person wandering into the opera to sneak a peek. She doesn't understand that I actually live here. But I chat with her for a minute and explain that I'll get everything straightened out; then I proceed to exit back into the hallway where I see a security guard standing there waiting motioning for me to approach him.

I waive at the Security Guard and proceed to explain that I live in the building. Then approaches Mr. Haselkof who is clearly very agitated and wants me arrested for my behavior. He is convinced that I am some degenerate. So, I try to explain that I live in the building and that I appreciate opera but he's not listening.

I also apologize profusely for my bad judgement. And I promise that he will not see me the rest of the evening or ever again. I acknowledged that my behavior was in bad form and that it wouldn't happen again.

So he keeps telling the security guard to arrest me that I do not have the caliber to be in this theater. But the security guard sees it differently and tells him that he thinks I do appreciate the opera and the music. I pipe in that I actually was taking violin lessons just a couple of years ago. I mention that I was just visiting with his wife and had a lovely little chat with her.

Finally, Mr. Haselkof calms down and softens up. He agrees that I do love the opera and I do appreciate music and that I am not some wandering homeless person sneaking into the theater as a break from the streets. Realizing his error in judging my character he gives me a very sweet hug. I say good night and head back to my room.

And on my way back to my room, as I'm walking down the hall, I keep thinking, what if I went back one more time. Which I didn't do.

The rains a comin'

Every year I look forward to the same things. I don't begin my years with January, I begin them with October. October to me represents a new beginning because that was when the school year began. Well, technically it began in August. But the school years always began in Fall and October, to me, is a true fall month. I'm sure in some states September feels like fall but not here.

So when October comes around I begin to look forward to coming events. First, daylight savings time! We get to fall back an hour. I love that.

And then there's Thanksgiving, my absolute favorite day of the whole year. I will never spend Thanksgiving alone. I don't care where I have to be or who it's with, I will spend this day with people. Preferably people I like. I see this as a very low key sort of holiday. There is no pressure to exchange gifts and yet it is about reflecting on our good fortune and sharing with others around us. It's just a really really great holiday. And I even love to hear the football in the background on this day.

After Thanksgiving, comes Christmas. Christmas is not that big to me HOWEVER, flying to spend it with my sister (a.k.a. Sunwolfie) IS A BIG DEAL. This is becoming our thing. I fly up there for a week and we don't do anything but needlework and watch movies. Her husband, H, is so funny because every now and than he'll pop in and ask "Are you guys going to go out and do anything?"....

So when I get back home I begin looking forward to the Super Bowl party and begin hunting one down. I know a couple since 1993 and I have attended almost every single super bowl party they've hosted. I think I missed one or maybe 2. Not sure. They have the best parties. They actually hire people to help with their parties.

So after the Superbowl, that's about it for a few months.

Then as May and June approach I begin to look forward to the thunderstorms! I love them. June is my favorite because we get a storm every day for about an hour. It usually arrives by about 2:00. In my office now, I can't see cloud formation. I just know it's coming. And of course, I become obsessed with Accuweather and their Hurricane section.

Early early this morning, we had a thunderstorm roll in. Lightning everywhere. Little pellets of hell clicking against the window. Me warm and cozy and dry under the covers. I love summer showers.

Then at some point in July the rain sort of tapers down and in August I'm ready for the hot weather to pass and move on to Fall and the new season line up on ABC.

Roby

A couple years back, I took violin lessons. My teacher was Roby Deaton. I feel so blessed to have had him as my teacher. I can't explain what a wonderful soul this person has.

Anyway, he loves hiking in Colorado. One day he began seeking out music that expressed how he felt about the beautiful mountains but couldn't find anything that measured up. So, he wrote several pieces and compiled a CD. Below is my absolute favorite piece, called Pikes Peak. He actually taught me this piece and I can play it on my violin, too, just not was well as he. :)

I have a story to tell

I'll try to keep this interesting so that you can keep up with what's happening but this is probably the craziest transaction I've ever done and it's not over yet.

I have client who has a stunning condo that he is about to go into foreclosure on. He saw the handwriting on the wall last summer and contacted me to help him move it. As time drew on and it looked like it wasn't going to sell, we moved in the "Short Sale" direction.

For those of you who don't know what a short sale is, read HERE.

So, in October, we put the property on the market for sale $150,000 less than he bought it for. For 2 months, we didn't get any bites. So, I just started encouraging everyone and their dog to just put in an offer and not worry if it was too low. I got 3 and we took the cash deal that was right in the middle.

So, on December 20th, the seller accepted the offer, signed off on it and then we submitted it to the seller's lender to see if they would accept the short sale. We were told the person assigned to the account was Misty.

After 2 weeks of hearing nothing, I call Misty for a response. No return call. Three days go by, still no return call. So, then I start calling into the voice mail vortex and start talking to random people to find out what the story is.

The first person tells me they can't talk to me because I don't have authorization from the owner of the property for them to talk to me abou this account. So I go to my client and have him write a letter to the lender so they can talk to me. I fax it and jump back into the vortex until I get some random person on the phone. They can't find the fax. And if I hang up and call back in, I get a different person. And even if they give me their extension, the chances of it being available when I do call back in are slim. One person was kind enough to stay on the line with me while I faxed it directly to her.

She confirmed that she got it. So then when I tried to proceed to talk to her, she told me I had to confirm the account with the owner's social security number, which I did not have. So, I had to hang up the phone and call back with his SS#.

So, I go back into the random vortex.

Now, I have to explain that if one calls and doesn't have an extension to call into, then one gets sent to a menu. None of the menu options worked for me, so I would repeatedly hit the "0" button until I knew I was being transferred to a representative. That's how one gets into the voice mail vortex. And one usually stays in the vortex for 12, 15, 20, 45 minutes until some random person answers the phone.

Finally, with authorization and SS# in hand, someone told me who the account was assigned to. His name was Jim.

After 2 days of calling and playing phone tag, I finally speak to Jim. Jim tells me he is not assigned to the file but that Misty is. I tell him she doesn't return calls. He schedules an appraisal on the property and tells me to keep trying to reach Misty.

I can't get Misty on the phone. I try and try and try. I fax Misty and she doesn't call. So I call randomly and am able to at least get confirmation that the property appraised for less than our offer. In this case, that's a very good thing. It tells the lender that they are getting more money than it's worth.

I did finally get her on the phone once, in January; she actually answered her phone. She needed me to refax everything to her. She couldn't find our documents. I never got her again after that. I began trying to contact her manager or supervisor. But I kept getting blocked.

So then, out of the blue, late February, I received a call from a brand new agent who had been assigned to the file. She needed documents refaxed to her. She said not to worry, we should be closing by March 30.

March 30 comes and goes. She needs documents refaxed. By early April the buyer is starting to show signs that he is impatient. I tell the lender who tells me to tell him to hang in there a few more days. I fax and call this lender almost daily.

May 8, the lender calls and tells us that they accept the offer and we can close at the end of the month. I notify the buyer. The buyer tells us circumstances have changed and that he cannot close on the condo.

Earlier in April, the lender told me that if they accepted the offer and the buyer walks that it is still possible to move forward if we get an identical offer.

So, I throw salt over my shoulder and I put the condo back on the market on Thursday. Today, 48 hours later, I have 2....repeat 2 ..... identical offers as the first one submitted back in December. The only change that has to be made on the lender's part is the name has to be changed. Nothing else is different.

I'll keep you all posted.

Update on Company Image - For Timmy :)

Ok, so where are we now on our logo design and stuff.

The logo has been selected and the colors have been tweaked. I'm happy with the result :) The next step was to select the stationary which I thought was going to be easy 'till I walked in and saw the choices printed out. Then I had to have 2 sets of sample business cards created to pass around for feedback. I knew which one I wanted but I needed reinforcement.

My signs are printed. I love they way they look. I have a magnet for my car but I'm not using it 'till the website is up but I may change my mind and go ahead and start using it.

Ok, so now they are working on the website. There was some confusion regarding text. I thought they understood that I was hiring them to include the text; you know, tell my story. They thought I had the text. So, they are graciously helping me with the text. I am assuming some text but I need them to tell my story.

Yesterday they sent me sample tag lines. I think I had about 12 or so to choose from. The obvious one sort of just jumped out at me. I love it. So, I've selected the tag line.

Next week, my agents are going to meet and discuss marketing strategies for them and for the company. I'm very excited about this. I want to see my agents grow and succeed.

I am very pleased with the design for my business cards. I am excited now about doing some very simple things like sending cards to people that I meet. For example I went to a network meeting today and met a woman before taking my seat. After we all took our seats, she was presented an award for being an outstanding member of the group. As soon as I got back to my office, I sent her a really nice card telling her it was nice meeting her and congratulating her for her award; and I included my business card, in case she forgot who I was. Before having my company design, I didn't do that as much. Now, I want to find every excuse possible to give them out.

I'm very proud and excited about my business.

Cleaning House

I fired a client today. I'm still a little shaken by it. I was going to do it by e-mail but friends and associates encouraged me to do it over the phone and then send a nice note in the mail as a follow up. It had to be done. He was becoming very abusive towards me. I'm so glad it's over.

On other news; not going to Italy. Things became too complicated..... I'm really disappointed.

Sorry I haven't been around lately, I've been rather distracted with work and all.

Will post later.