Something Silly Happened to Me

[Valandil]

OK - I was THINKING about putting this in the 'Temporary Venting' thread (which is not really all that 'temporary'), but it didn't really make me upset. So I just thought I'd start a new thread where we can tell about crazy things that happen, but that don't really belong in 'Venting' or 'Happy' threads.

To make a short story long; the house next door to mine has been in the same family since it was built - over 100 years ago. The lady who owned it recently passed away at the age of 82, and her three adult children could come up with no fair way to split up the value other than to sell it and divide the money (it's a big house - with 3 separate units, on a much oversized lot - 45' x 160' - enormous by urban standards - but we hear the inside is in bad shape - so we don't know if it will end up a total 'gut job' or if it will be a 'tear down' and get replaced with a mondo 6-unit condo building or something).

Anyway, it went up for sale last Wednesday. The realtor's people came by and put up a big 'FOR SALE' sign... in our yard!!! My wife called me at work and asked, "Is there something I should know? Why do we have a 'For Sale' sign in our front yard?" Well - I called the realtor and told him about the mistake. He was quite apologetic and seemed more than a little angry - and they got the sign moved right away.

Meanwhile though, our neighbors on both sides had seen it also (both those in the house for sale and the other side - the latter didn't know what to think!). Then, I only found out Saturday that they had taken a picture... of our house right after putting up the sign and had posted it on their web site! The neighbors gave me a print-out, so I've been showing it around.

Heard yesterday that the house had sold already (4 days on the market!) - it was priced to sell - and they even were able to take an offer a bit over the list price (but still low - if the oldest sister, who was also the executor, would have been willing to be more patient, I feel they could have gotten quite a lot more!).

It was quite funny about the mistake though. They had a LOT of people looking at the place and I wonder now how many of them came because of the photo of our house (which has new siding, and looks quite striking, if I say so myself!).