Spring 2010

In the spring of 2010, a new listing popped up on the lake. A familiar address. It was the cottage with the out of town owner and previously frozen pipes.

So, we decided what the heck, we would call the agent. Wow. We've dealt with a lot of real estate agents over the years, and even held licenses ourselves for a while. This one was a winner for sure. He didn't even know the name of the town, he called it something completely else. And he didn't want to show it to us, he wanted us to come in two weeks when he had an open house. We almost didn't go after that call.  But we did in the end.

And it was cute. And small. And had no basement, no garage and a wood stove. And foundation problems. Big ones. And smelled like mold. And wouldn't qualify for a mortgage, even though the agent thought it would. And...well, you get it.

But it was cute. So we filed it away in the "think about it" file.  And went to another open about a month later, and asked if the agent would see if the seller would do an owner hold instead of a mortgage. And he blew us off, and messed around, and generally turned us off of the property.

We noticed the place from the year before was knocked down now, just like the a-frame a few years ago.

We decided to save enough to buy a place without a mortgage. And kept an eye on the pre-foreclosure. And as 2010 faded into 2011, we saw the sign disappear from the one bedroom bad-agent place with the foundation problems and out of town owner. A propane tank appeared, and a riding lawn mower too. Must have been sold...