Monday, August 24, 2015

Annoying

You know how sometimes you go to a funeral and during the eulogy while talking about the deceased someone will say, "and through it all she never complained, never asked why me? Not once." Or similarly they will say, "she never had a bad word to say about anybody."  

Not that I'm planning on dying any time soon but I can tell you that if anyone makes these remarks at my funeral she or he is either mistakenly speaking at the wrong funeral or lying.

While I like to think I'm a "glass half full" kind of gal, I definitely do complain and often the topic of my complaint is other people.

This post is proof.

If you have ever sold a home then you know what a pain it can be. Meeting with realtors (called Estate Agents in this country) making arrangements to be home or not to be home at certain times for showings and open houses (here in SA called show days), making sure the house is always in show condition, and more.

Now you might be wondering why I bring up this topic now when we don't own a home. Well that's the point. We rent a home here in SA and now our landlord needs to sell the home. Yes, the one that we are living in. 

The good news is that thanks to great foresight on the part of our relocation company, our lease was written in such a way that the new owner has to accept us as tenants and has to accept the agreed upon rental fees in our lease until the lease ends in 2018. So we aren't getting kicked out. The bad news is that all the annoying things about selling a home (see paragraph above) is now falling on us to handle. Or to be a bit more specific, falling on me to handle since I have the illustrious title of Senior Vice President of Household Operations. Like any job it's not all glamour.

When you're selling your own house you are motivated to sell. So you have to be out of the house for four hours on Saturday during a show day. No problem! Maybe this is the day a buyer will come and look. In my case, I really don't care if this house sells. My motivation is only to minimize my disruption so I guess if it sells the showings will stop but other than that I could care less. Plus in my humble opinion, but corroborated by Mr. Deep knower of all things financial, the house is priced way too high which means the fun will continue for a while.

And just in case you are thinking that I am overreacting I want to set the record straight as to how much of a pain this actually is.  If you are tapped to speak at my funeral one day, I want to be sure my side of the story is told. "Yes, she sometimes complained but her complaints were always very valid."

Since we found out the house was going on the market we (I) have had to:
1) meet the realtor and show him around
2) welcome the realtor back along with a photographer to take pictures
3) go all around the house to move things back to where they were prior to the photographer unplugging them, moving them, etc. You know from my last post that I don't like things out of order
4) schedule two on show days on two future Sundays when we can't be home
5) be home to meet a guy from the bank so he can measure the house and take his own photos
6) wonder if the guy from the bank is really from the bank or if he is instead a spy planting a bug in our house in the form of a pen or a clock (this is likely an unfounded concern it's just that I've been watching too much of a TV show called The Americans)
7) be home for a showing that then got moved to tomorrow
8) so be home for two showings tomorrow 

Annoying.

4 comments:

  1. You have no idea how much you have spoken from my heart! We ha a very brief phase of that very same thing until our owners changed their minds and weren't, after all, selling the house. This also happens quite a bit in SA. What you also get in SA, as an aside, is an owner letting you believe they want to rent the house, until such time as you tell them you are taking it, and then deciding, because by now they actually told their spouse of the plan, who is less than enamoured by the idea, that they want to sell instead so you better go find another house. Which is kind of hard to do because your look-see trip has ended and you are 8,000 miles away.

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  2. By the way, you're totally allowed to complain as long as you're funny. Which you are. Whenever I get bad reviews or comments on my blog or book saying I'm nothing but a privilege and whiney housewife, what that really tells me is that they don't get my humor. Great post!

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  3. If you live in a suburb that is popular with expats then the price being too high is a given.

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Hello and thank you for taking an interest in my blog. This blog tells the story of some big life changes. First, my husband and I have just moved to Geneva, Switzerland for a few months following a few years of living in Johannesburg, South Africa. The two places could not be more different. I'm excited to share our adventures, challenges and insights with you! My thoughts and opinions are my own.