The
realtor turned out to be a young, enthusiastic chap.
“Hi,
I’m Wally Flaherty,” he introduced himself as he crushed my hand in a bone-cracking
grip. He sat down behind his desk with
gusto and motioned to me to do the same on the other side. When I told
him the location of the #house, however, his enthusiasm slipped a few notches.
“I
won’t lie to you,” he said. “It might be hard getting a decent price
in that neighborhood.”
I agreed. “Knowing
what I know now, I wouldn’t buy a house in that neighborhood.”
“What price are you looking to sell at?”
“I’d like to get as much as I can because I’ve lost so much money on it. The price I bought the house for is recorded as being only thirty-nine thousand but I had a separate deal with the seller where I actually
paid fifty thousand. Back then I thought the house was worth it. Silly me.”
Wally nodded. “I
see. Well, let’s list
the features and bring up some comparable "properties in that neighborhood on
the computer. Then we’ll work on an
asking price, okay?”
I
wasn’t too hopeful. When trying to get the taxes lowered on 51 Manson Street, I'd researched a lot of comparable houses in Schemmerhorn. Most of them had been valued at a lot less than mine was.
Wally's computer-generated list confirmed my suspicions.
“Would a jacuzzi in the downstairs bathroom help?” I ventured.
Wally leaned his elbows
on the table and rested his chin on his hands.
“Maybe a little. Realistically, I don’t think you’ll get much over forty
thousand.”
“For the hell of it, let’s start the listing at fifty-nine nine," I suggested. "That’s a thousand dollars less than
the previous seller originally wanted. You never know.”
Wally obviously wasn't feeling my optimism as he said, "All right, I’ll send someone out to take a
picture for the listing photo. Do you want a For Sale sign outside the house?”
I shook my head, “No
way. I don’t want my tenants
to know it's on the market.
It might frighten them into moving out. Can't you just put a sign at the end of the street with your phone number on it?”
“I can but it really does help to have
a sign outside the actual property.”
I
shook my head again, and Wally held up his hands in defeat. “Fine. No sign.”
“And
tell your photographer not to say anything,” I added. “So. What
happens now?”
Wally explained. “For what we call an ‘economy listing,’ there’s a three hundred dollar fee,
payable at the time of listing. The
house will be in our computerized multiple listing
system for four months, and all realtors will have access to it.
Every couple of months I’ll send you a competitive market analysis
to give you an idea what’s happening with other properties in the area. When the four months is up, you’ll have
the option of renewing your listing for another hundred and fifty dollars, but if there’s
been no interest, we might need to talk about revising the sale price at that time.”
“So
we could go on indefinitely until someone buys the house or I take it
off the market?” I asked.
“Basically. You'll need to sign an agreement stating that we'll be acting as your agents.”
“And what
about commission?”
“At
fifty-nine thousand nine hundred dollars, the commission would be three percent
of the selling price.”
“Fair
enough. It'll be worth it just to get rid of the place.”
“I
hear you.” Wally sounded sympathetic as he showed me out of his office. “I’ve heard quite a few horror stories from #landlords in similar situations to yours.”
I walked to my car in a not-too-hopeful frame of mind, and I still had to find a "tenant for
the upstairs "apartment.
I called Giselle and implored her to rack her brains for any friends or relatives in need of housing.
"My
sister Barbara might be interested," she told me.
"I'll call you."
A
few days later, I called her again.
"Did you talk to your sister?"
"Yeah, she already found a place. I'll keep thinking, though," Giselle said. "Oh, and there was a guy hanging about this morning,
taking pictures of the house."
I acted surprised. “I hope that doesn’t mean the City’s revising the property taxes to put them up
again. Did you ask what he was
doing?”
“Nah. He seemed harmless and left after a while.”
Wally works fast, I thought as I put down the phone.
