real estate craziness

I guess you can allude from my last post that the vaca was no vaca in the traditional sense. Here's the skinny. We went to WPB, FL to help the outlaws fix up their house so that they can sell it. I thought this would mean a few hours of painting a day; fix a broken screen here and there. You know simple stuff. However, the place was a little unkempt having been either unoccupied or filled with former friends who've now become vandals for the greater part of the last 6 years. 80% of the screen around the pool needed to be replaced. Two spots on the roof damaged from the last couple of hurricanes required repair. The whole place was just dirty and needed to be cleaned, disinfected and painted. I learned all of this a couple of weeks before arriving and thought that it could be done in two weeks by 4 or 5 people without too much pain and suffering...I was wrong.

I arrived at the beginning of the second week of the process; since with my new job, I only have one week of vaca accrued. Papa bear who was working on screen all week had accomplished about 30% of the re-screening (the entire job that a screen crew could have accomplished in about 4 hours). The house was clean on the inside and mostly painted. However, there was still a great deal of work left to be done.

Now, I'm as lazy as the next guy but I generally don't shy away from work. I was intending on going down there to get some work D U N, done. I really wanted to help these folks out, they deserve help. They deserve my help. So, I went to help...But, they did not really want help selling their house. I was surprised by the level of emotion that they encountered during this process.

No one wanted to organize or direct he work, no one wanted to really dig in and throw out the garbage, no one wanted to talk to each other about how this gargantuan task was going to be accomplished. As a result, little was done. Being the astute social observer that I am, I picked up on this phenomenon quickly and as I recognized the impending deadline I knew that I should take action. Ultimately this meant that I was putting a bullseye on my chest. I became the object of all score from all corners of the family including my "dearly loving wife".

But, I said, "Hey, I can take the heat. They need me on that wall. They want me on that wall....You can't handle the truth!" Heat taken! The result, occasional gratitude, some uncomfortable feelings, but the job was done within a reasonable time frame. I must say, when we left I thought the house looked great. Check out this pic.

So, if you are asking yourself, why did they sell the house in the first place? Well, when they left this house in FL 6 years ago, the considered selling it with the asking price of $120,000. This time the realtor suggested an asking price of $340,000, Cha-Ching. Not a bad profit for a five year investment. If you really want to see how crazy the real estate market is inFLl check out this little pic I snapped while there. Yes, that is a sign for a home valued at 1.3 million dollars and yes, it is in the median in front of a Target store. I just don't get it.

Well, I can see the logic of selling the house. I can see not being completely able to let go of it too. I'm just glad it's over.

Look for more Florida photos soon. Well, they are really just me playing with my new camera whenever I could get the chance.