almost makes me feel like I’m being stalked
So this is very weird…
Many moons ago we were just driving around town and happened to see a cute brick home for sale by owner. I knew it was probably unaffordable for us, but I was really curious anyway (we’re always looking for deals, too, you never know what might happen), so a few days later I called and left the guy a voice mail asking about the house.
A few days after that, the guy called and it ended up being a conversation about me, and who we are, what we do, etc. I don’t know why I kept answering his questions, but he found out more about us than I did about the house. And the real kicker? He refused to tell me the price he was asking for the house. Refused! Said he’d rather we come look at it first, could we do that this weekend? No, I told him for the fortieth time, we’re not serious right now, we’re just looking around. Because, to be honest, I want to know the asking price up front because I don’t want to fall in love with something and then find out I can’t afford it, amongst other reasons. I don’t even remember everything he did tell me about the house, just that I knew they weren’t living it anymore, they’d already moved an hour north of here.
When I got off the phone and told Steve about the conversation, he rolled his eyes and said something about “people in this stupid town, gotta know everything about you.” He seems convinced that there are actually people here who would refuse to sell a house to someone who isn’t a “native” or that they don’t like. Me? I’d be like, oh, you want to buy this house? Please, take it, and I don’t ever want to see it again!
Okay, so that was weird, but then two weeks later? That guy called me back! He wanted to know if we were going to come look at the house and I had to explain for the forty first time that we weren’t that serious. However, my non-confrontational personality caused me to just do the typical: try to get out of the conversation as quickly as possible instead of saying something like, “no, I don’t want to look at the house until I know if it’s in our price range or not.” Of course, that would have been a bit dumb, since he asked what our price range was during the first conversation and I wouldn’t tell him. Haha, that’s because I don’t know. There are too many variables to consider.
I was completely weirded out that he called back about it, though, and I kind of remember posting about this then, but can’t seem to find that post. So anyway, time goes by and I’m messing around on realtor.com again. Sometimes I just look (when I feel the need to depress myself :P). I saw the house, he’d finally listed it with a realtor. He was asking in the $214,000 range (price reduced!!) and I just started laughing. Especially when I saw the pictures of the inside. Of course, I ALWAYS think EVERY house is overpriced but I hated the interior of this house, too. The outside is nice, but inside… eh, it looks like it walked out of the 60’s.
Fast forward many months up to the beginning of this past week. We’re talking at least two months but probably more like four since I’d last talked to the guy. We were in bed, hadn’t been there long. Granted, it was kind of early but we’d had a long day and all three of us were wiped out, I think it was a little after 9.30pm. My cell phone vibrates - it had been ringing all day and I’d turned off the ringer finally - I don’t recognize the number, so I answer it.
Val: hello?
Man: Hello, Valerie, how are you?
Val: Uh, just fine, how are you? *Looks at Steve like, who is this guy?*
Man: Is Steve available?
Val: Yeah, he’s right here.
I gave the phone to Steve and laid back listening to his end of the conversation. After a few minutes I realized… it’s that same guy!
He was calling to see if we were interested in his house! What the heck!? I mean, this can’t possibly be normal behavior. It seems to me that we’d already told him not once, but twice we weren’t really that interested and we’d never come to look at it so why is he calling us after 9.30pm on a Sunday? It was just one of those “wtf” moments, you know?
Steve had pretty much the same conversation with him I’d had before and it’s funny because, you may have noticed, this guy never talked to Steve before. I was the one who’d called and the one who was called the second time. Steve really had nothing to do with any of this, so why would this guy ask for him? Craziness!
No dude, I’m not interested in your house, as cute as it is on the outside and though it be larger than this one… Unless you have a gold mine in the basement, that is, because you’re just asking way too much money.
I wonder if this guy thinks he has some great power of persuasion that if he gets us over to look at the house, we’ll already be sold or something. Or if he’s just that desperate to sell. There is a lot in this town for sale, a lot in nearby areas, too. And everyone is asking a ton of money, and stuff is not selling. I just took a look on realtor.com again, and I didn’t find that house that I’ve been talking about the whole time but I did find at least six others that are in the $200k to $900k (yes, $900k in this town if you can believe that) that have been for sale for at least eight months. So… that’s gotta say something.
