Sale of Mom's House, 513 Alice St. SW

Monday Febuary 18, 2008: 11:30am

To my friends and casual reader, good morning.

My mom passed away back in December of 2006, and we have had here home up for sale since March or April of 2007. We tried to do the FSBO or sale by owner but with little or no success.

After some months of frustration with the soft market and candidates who whated the house but did not qualify. We had one contract that fell through the day before it was scheduled to close, really discouraging us further.

We then listed it with an agency in Bessemer but with little action on the house. After the 3 months expired, we changed to an 'over the mountain' agency that at the beginning showed lots of interest, then they too failed to have any success. We even gave them an extra month as they had some more promising buyers but that time has now expired with nothing to speak of as to success.

I was delivering some product for my company to a good account of mine in Bessemer and the buyer ask if I had sold mom's home. He said he and his wife worked for an agency in Helena, Al and they lived in McCalla, a suburb of Bessemer and were very familiar with the Bessemer market.

Jack and I met with both agents at mom's home and they had some great ideas in the marketing of mom's home and some ideas on improving some things that would make the house more presentable to walk throughs they might bring in showing it.

We signed the last form needed last Friday and the agent called me Saturday that she had a family to show the house to Sunday. My nephew Brock had been out at 513 that Saturday and Sunday and made some changes they suggested.

The agent's husband called me this morning, not 3 days after signing the papers, and she had a candidate that would like to make a proposal on the house. WoW! Plus, he said his wife had another family to show the house to today and they too looked promising.

Now we get to the nut of selling the house. The banks are closed today so they are going to their bank with the agent to see if they can get the needed loan to make this happen. He said his wife would not take this to the bank unless she was reasonably assured by what they told her that they would qualify as far as their money and credit history is concerned.

This is the first real contract we have had on the home with it being on the market just over a year. Keep all of us in your prayers that this happens. I thought sharing this good news was worth sharing.

Have a Blessed Day!

Jeff