Monday, October 17, 2011

What to do when you're selling a house and the buyers inspector is an idiot

So we are selling the Austin house. It just doesn't seem like much sense to keep it at this point, considering we could spend every night at the Driskill for the amount we are paying for a "weekend house."

After some time on the market, and finding a good selling price (at first we were way too high), we found a buyer. Negotiations took longer than I'd hope, but we finally settled on a price that we could both live with. Then the fun started.

We signed the contract on a Friday and by Saturday she had her inspector out there. Excellent. Let me first start by telling you it was Jerry Schmidt with SunView Inspections. That's important to know, as I don't want any of you all to fall into this trap with him.

So guy shows up Saturday morning and starts the inspection. I get a call shortly after from my realtor. He's locked himself out of the garage and can't get in, so he is leaving without completing the inspection. What genius did was short the GFCI outlets on the outside of the house to "test" them. This caused all the breakers to trip including the garage door. Since the breaker was tripped the remote didn't work. Now, I only have one access into the garage, and it's from the outside of the house. Therefore, if you cannot use the remote to get in the house, you need a key, which he did not have. My puzzlement came when he 1) did not make sure he could get into the garage after tripping said breakers and 2) what he said to me next. Which was, "well there is usually a latch that you can flip to get into the garage, and you don't have that." Well of course I don't! If I did, that means that anyone could get into the garage simply by shorting the outlets. Why would that make sense?!?!

So I was in DC and told my realtor that I had said garage keys but if he wanted in before the week was out he would have to get a locksmith out there. And that's just what he did. Now, if the inspector wanted to do this test, he should have told me in advance that he would need the keys. Or 2, and probably smarter, would have been to realize that he couldn't do the test because he didn't have keys to get into the garage. Ugh. Idiot.

So a few days later her gets back into the garage and the house and submits the report to the buyer.
Apparently he found a "live" wire under the house that was "spliced" and "missing plate covers." This was odd considering the wiring in the house was completely redone and there were no active wires left. But I called the electrician and had him go out there. He saw some wires and said "no, they are not active." So now we have a he said, she said. The buyer believes her inspector even though I have a real electrician and a city inspector (from when the fire occurred) saying that these wires are not live. Keep in mind, said inspector provides no pictures or locations as to where this wire is. Just a short 2 sentence note to make my life hell.

So my realtor meets with her inspector this morning and they both look at the "live" wire. The inspector says that he gets a "weird" reading when he measures it one way, but then no reading when it is measured the other way. He's "not sure." So now he's created a firestorm with his "I'm not sure" measuring.

5 hours later my realtor meets with the electrician... again. They find the wire and measure it. Yep, NOT active. They decide to remove it just to appease the inspector who appeases the buyer. The electrician says "your inspector either has an old tool, the batteries are dying, or he doesn't know what he is doing" I'm going with the third.

Oh, and one final note. When I showed up on Friday the two back doors were completely unlocked. Yep, the inspector didn't lock them! If you are in my house, I expect a level of professionalism and respect. You did not respect my house or my stuff enough to lock up after you left. And to that, I am most appalled.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

I just finished my second Army Ten Miler... And I'm getting married in 13 days!

This was a rough year, with the wedding only 13 days away, I haven't trained that much at all. In fact I've only done one 5 mile run all season. So I knew this was going to be a difficult run.

We started off by getting dropped off 2 miles from the start. We wanted to get closer, obviousy, but the roads closed at 7 instead of 7:30 like they told us. Plus, we were running late so we had to "jog" part of the way there. I say "jog," because the boys were jogging, but I was at my running pace. We got to the start at 7:45 and took a quick bathroom break before getting in line by 7:50. This year Jeremy and I were able to start together, but that only lasted for about 1/100th of a mile. He took off quickly, while I just tried to catch my breath.

Here is a breakdown of my miles. The first two were awesome for me, but then I started to hurt. Around mile 4 I started to hurt bad. My left hip and knee started to hurt and I didn't want push it. Even so I was pretty happy just to finish.

Mile 1 : 9:02 (8:06 max)
Mile 2 : 9:22
Mile 3 : 10:45
Mile 4 : 11:02
Mile 5 : 12:32
Mile 6 : 14:18
Mile 7 : 12:53
Mile 8 : 13:34
Mile 9 : 13:21
Mile 10 : 13:15

Overall : 10.18 miles in 2:02:19

Last year I did 1:45, but I also trained a LOT more. So I'm proud that I can still walk!

Now just 13 more days and it's wedding day!