We, DW & I listed our house for sale with a competent Realtor on a Wednesday. The listing hit the MLS on Thursday. We had potential buyers (PB's) looking at the house Thursday evening. No offers. Friday another PB looked at the place and made an offer for the full price provided we throw in the $$$ concession that was offered in the listing. I wasn't about to paint and re-carpet which may not be to the tastes of PB's. On Saturday another PB came to look and made an offer for the full price and did not want the $$$ concession. We accepted the offer.

On Sunday our Realtor took my DW out to look at homes for us to move to. (I'm homebound & disabled) She fell in love with one that she saw. We made an offer. After 36+ years of marriage, if I can't trust her by now to know my "tastes", not to mention trust with our $$$$, I'd surely be classified a major fool! There was a counter offer. We countered back making the offer "in cash." They accepted. We got the place for below the listed price. Saved a nice little piece of change.

I think I might have posted about this once before.

It is now 30 or 40 days later, I forget, but we are in our new home and there are no boxes to be unpacked (we moved last Sunday) and are fairly settled in to our new nest; bought some new stuff that was delivered on time, had some real mail and junk mail in our new mail box when we first pulled up! And the best part is we still have a nice hunk $$$ left over on the deal(s)! How "sweet it is," as Jackie Gleason(?) was famous for saying. We sold high and bought low and the surprising thing about it all is that, IMHO, we actually moved up in location, location, location to a newer home in excellent condition with more square footage. All this within L.A. County! Is that crazy or what?

To qualify this "success" story, we did buy a manufactured home (not mobile) and sold a town home. But the DW managed to arrange a job transfer only minutes from where we now live and there are many more conveniences within a "stone throw" from the house that she is absolutely ecstatic about! And as one of the resident mortgage brokers on this board is fond of saying, "if the DW ain't happy, there ain't nobody going to be happy." Truer words were never spoken!

And to further qualify this story, I have to admit that our Realtor just happened to be a relative, our son. And it is also fortunate that he has strong relationships with several mortgage brokers/bankers to help to arrange "things" for the buyers of our old place and the sellers of our new place. And everybody is happy! He worked for us in the selling of our old place and worked with the Realtor representing the people who we were buying from.

I really dreaded getting into this but he kept saying, "Don't worry, Dad." Uh, huh, I kept thinking. He seems to have forgotten that I've known him a lot longer than he knows himself. His "report card" from me until this point in time has had too many, "Awww, sh*t's" compared to, "Atta-boy's." And I'm not supposed to worry???? I have to admit that there were several times during this process of selling a home and buying a new one where I would wake up around 1 or 2am and not be able to fall back to sleep. Though I have gone through this process of buying/selling a home many times due to military service and civilian job transfers, I think this has been the most stressful. And that was with people I hired that I really didn't know. I was young and stupid, to be honest, me thinking, "They know what they are doing." And again, I'm not supposed to worry????

Since becoming a MF member and lurker/occasional contributor to this board, I've always had and still HIGHLY recommend what the Pro's on this board "preach," almost on a daily basis. Do your "homework" on the people you are hiring to do the job you want done. So very often I see complaints on this board about, "my Realtor didn't do this," "my mortgage broker/banker didn't do that," or "my new home contracoractor......." Heck, I didn't even trust the, "fruit of my...". Never mind!

I hope somewhere in this missive that there are lessons to be learned by those who may be contemplating or in the process of buying or selling a home. Do your, "due diligence" when hiring the people you want to work for YOU in what is probably the most important financial transaction in your life -- YOUR HOME(S)!

Best regards,
Duane

Duane, what a lovely success story. I couldn't be happier for you.

In Los Angeles, even! Wow...wow...wow.

Thank you, Catherine. I was pretty amazed myself but I hope the greater message I was trying to convey did not get "lost" by appearing to be bragging because our Realtor also happened to be our son, therefore the reason for my "success."

What I had hoped to convey with my post was to emphasize the importance of vetting the people you hire to work for you, particularly when I said our son had a few more, "Aww sh*ts," going for him than, "Atta-boys," on my score card for him.

It irks me when folks come to TMF board and complain about their GFE's, etc. being out of whack when they hire the "best liar," as Dave is fond of saying, and they had problems at the closing. It also bugs me when people like yourself and Dave (from the Broker side) or Elizabeth (the Realtor side) and others who contribute to the board, offering FREE professional advice, often get criticized.

Since becoming a MF member I've learned a whole heck of a lot from the contributors to this board. I've learned the difference between a FRM, ARM's and Interest Only (I/O) mortgages and all the variations of them. Over the last 5-7 years (coupled with what I have learned here) our son has guided us through 4 re-fi's, going all the way through a 30 FRM down to an I/O. Saved a nice hunk of $$$ all through the process. But I was also able to monitor his every move because of what I learned on this board.

And once again, I am not bragging! People have to simply understand that there is no "one size fits all" mortgage plan in today's marketplace. The "Lending Tree's" and "DiTech's," etc. are fine for some people but, IMHO, are not the way to go. If I had only known 35+ years ago how my family's life would change over those years, UNEXPECTEDLY, (i.e., job transfers, deaths in the family, career changes, etc.) how I would have enjoyed the flexibility of today's mortgage marketplace with the help of a competent team of Realtor/Broker that I hired to work for me. Sure, it may cost a little more but they work for me and not some "boiler plate" back room operation.

My job #1 as a consumer of products or services is to educate myself on what I want to happen for me. If I fail to do that and things don't work out, I have only one person to blame, the person I see in the mirror every morning when I shave my face!

Oh, oh!! My "soap box" just broke!

Best regards,
Duane