Perfect Timing

So around the end of February, my brother and I put my aunt's condo up for sale. Nice 55+ community, 2 BR/1 BA, overlooking a little lake, very comfortable place. Two or three years ago the comps were selling around $95 - $100K. Now, they're down around $55K, so we price it at $45K to move it quickly, because there's a definite season down here. Put something up after April and all the 'snow birds' have gone home. A house could sit and have no one even sniff it out again until they return in October. We were happy, then, that the first offer came in after a week or so. How much does he offer? $30K. Um. No. So much for happy.

No bites since then, so about 2 weeks ago, we drop it to $39.9K. Still no offers. Brother and sister-in-law go visit dad last week, clean out the rest of the stuff in the place, arrange for the carpets to get cleaned this week, basically making sure there's nothing at all in the place. Still no offers. Brother and SIL go home last week, DH and I fly in this week. We spend a day going through all the stuff that they moved from condo to dad's house, then arrange to meet the realtor today in person (we've been doing all the sale stuff by phone and email; I thought it would be nice to meet her in person and say hello). I also wanted to let her know that we had stopped making mortgage payments and HOA payments, and at some point, the house would get transferred from my brother and me to the bank.

We're eating breakfast this morning around 10:00 when my phone rings, and it's the realtor. I see her name flash on my cell, and figure she's just confirming our meeting. Yes, she was.... but only to make sure that we don't cancel on her because she had a buyer! Full price, cash sale. They had seen it yesterday, thought about it over night, then made the offer this morning. So between 10:00 and 3:00 when we met her, she had done all the paperwork, gotten their deposit and had them sign the forms, arranged for a title company, ordered the home inspection, and got escrow started. When we met with her, I signed what I needed to be signed, she scanned and faxed the docs to my brother in NY, and he got them back to her by 5:00. Done deal! (Well, mostly done... the home inspection will get done some time next week, but the place is in good shape, so we're not really worried.)

As we were signing the papers, I got to the date field and asked what the date was... May 6. May 6 is Aunt Irene's birthday. She would have been 76 today. I was feeling bad that we were going to have her house - her home, the place she lived over 12 happy years, the place where "her" egrets would come up to her patio to greet her during morning coffee - foreclosed upon. Now it won't have to meet an inglorious end. Happy birthday, Aunt Irene. I miss you.