SELLING THE MOORHEAD MANSE UPDATE

Happy Labor Day! Hope you all had a safe and sane holiday. It was very quiet here in lovely suburban Caledonia. I thought I might just take a minute to update you on the progress of the marketing and sale of the Moorhead Manse.

As you know, we are in the midst of one of the deepest and longest buyers’ markets in many years. Precisely the time not to sell you home. Our real estate agent, Mary Kay McCleeve of Smith Diamond reality, has been doing a fantastic job of managing the marketing of the house. (I don’t get any discounts for advertising!) She has worked hard to get our house in front of as many people as possible. Each week (except one) there has been an open house.

There has been very little interest until last Sunday (27 August). A family came through and they were very interested. In fact, the husband wanted to sign papers on the spot. The wife wanted to sleep on it. (She should have been reminded to submit to her husband’s wisdom!) They are very motivated buyers, almost as motivated as we are!

Mary Kay followed up with them last week and they asked to come through the house for a second time this past Saturday. Unfortunately, they had a family issue and had to cancel that visit. But they asked to see it today. So we vacated the house today at 11:00 so they could spend some time in it. (Mia commented on how weird it is that we have this practice of selling one of the most important things we own to people we never even get to see!)

Anyway, we got to visit with Mary Kay afterwards and they are really interested. They hope to have their loan approved yet this week and she thinks they will make an offer. There are a couple of things I have to do to the house to make them really happy. I’m afraid my do-it-yourself skills might not measure up. If only OG could come up and help me out with them! I’m sure they would be easy for him! I need to hang a couple of bi-fold closet doors and fix something on the garage door.

I decided to share this entire process with the people at Shiloh. I’ve tried to be very open about how I feel and how difficult it has been for me to trust God with this. I thought it might be good for them to know that I struggle with commonplace things just like they do. Also, I wanted to give them the chance to see what God will do with our situation. Maybe it will help them some day when they have something similar. Now every time I talk to one of the Shiloh folks they anxiously ask how things are going with the sale. I think that’s a good thing!

The kids start school tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about that. I’ll get a lot more done during the day while they’re in school but I’ll miss seeing them around. If these folks don’t buy the house, keeping it in “showing condition” will be more difficult with them in school!

September 5 is my parents’ 54th wedding anniversary. Congratulations, Dad and Mom!