Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2009. That day we went over to our friend's house. She and her daughter had a parakeet. Mattie never was up close and personal with a pet bird before and I think it actually frightened him. The bird's beak and feet were sharp and I could appreciate Mattie's caution. However, he was a trooper and I am so happy I captured this memory.
Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.
- Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 33,411,461
- Number of people who died from the virus: 598,762
Today we closed on our new house purchase in Oakton, VA. I really would love to know how buyers feel in general during the closing process. All I know is our realtor and mortgage lender were stunned by our reactions. They brought us champagne and a bottle of bourbon for the new house. While they felt like celebrating, both Peter and I did not. In fact, their jovial spirit was down right annoying and bordering on unprofessional for us. I truly feel this way as we had stacks and stacks of paperwork to read through, understand, and sign. Peter has been asking our mortgage lender to outline the process for us, so we knew what to expect every step of the way. Instead, she managed us on a need to know basis. Not a great personality match with us.
We were in the closing meeting with a lawyer (who moderated the process), our mortgage lender, our realtor, the seller's realtor, and the sellers themselves. I am NOT exaggerating on the amount of paperwork we had to sift through. The seller literally had about four documents, and we had too many to count. What I resented was not having access to this paperwork before today (mind you in the meeting the mortgage lender then said "I could have given you copies before the meeting." My retort was that would have been helpful and Peter said that is why I asked you to walk us through the process!). By the end of the 90 minute process, I was so livid that I got up to use the restroom. While getting up, I announced that they were lucky I held it together today, because all the boards I serve on know me. If you hand me extensive documents to read on the spot, I won't do it! Typically if you do this to me, I will refuse to address these documents and this could be the end of a meeting.
It wasn't just me who was upset with the process, so was Peter. We felt it was handled unprofessionally and we also did not like the sellers in the meeting with us, while we are trying hard to sift through documents and sign them. It seems like a waste of their time to be there, when they could have left after they signed their own documents. After this official closing, we then went back to the house with the sellers and they showed us around the property.
I have come to the conclusion that things look a lot better when the house is staged. As I looked at the condition of the house today, I was stunned to realize that the whole thing needs to be painted from top to bottom inside. I was hoping not to do this, but we have no other choice, along with tackling some bathroom renovations. Because the house is in a more suburban area, the cicadas were everywhere. The owners had an outside garbage bin in the backyard that was filled with dead cicadas. The smell was hateful, so Peter and I addressed that immediately, as it smelled worse than a dead rat.
At the end of the day, we are NOT your typical home buyer and if you treat us as such, you are going to be disappointed. We are moving into a house so that we can bring my parents to the East coast. Every buyer has a different reason for purchasing a house and I think it behooves an agent and those working with a buyer to understand the reasoning and circumstances. Because this does impact a buyer's perspective, thoughts, and feelings. Needless to say, Peter and I felt misunderstood today and by 2pm, we were both HIGHLY agitated, stressed out, anxious, and for me, angry. So much so that we both couldn't eat today. I know full well when this type of anxiety strikes, the only thing to do is walk. Therefore, we got back to DC, picked up Sunny and walked the National Mall. These folks today have NO appreciation for how I feel. As we are moving from a place we lived in for 25 years, a place we raised Mattie, and a place that holds these memories. The sellers maybe saying good-bye to their house, but their children are still alive. Their children are the memories. For Peter and me, the place holds the memories, because unfortunately Mattie isn't here to build new ones.
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