Talk about spin those plates or even as one door closes another one shuts. Whatever but the thoughts come about because we’ve just got back from the ancestral home and the trip raised a few issues.
Mrs Summerhouse keeps reminding me that we are lucky to have choices as we pass gracefully through our retirement years. True of course except that what may have seemed like an attractive option six years ago is starting, just starting, to feel more like a burden than a lucky option.
But those plates do need constant spinning. I thought that, in delegating the Colorado cabin project to the children, I had given this option a good old spin which would last a while. True, the financial side of things which remains my responsibility, has needed, and still needs, constant spinning.
For example, Tracy, the financial thingy, called me in the middle of our Derbyshire pub lunch on Friday wanting to discuss the deal she had lined up for us in terms of Equity Release. I did put her off for a few days but I presume she will be back. Until this side of this project is sorted it will remain a plate that needs my attention. Hopefully when this side of things is taken care of I can relax for a while and the plate will keep rotating courtesy of the children.
But, as I say, as one door etc. For the first few days of this trip this deal was not in any way concluded and so the possibility of selling the family home and therefore not needing any borrowing, remained a possibility.
There are one or two downsides to the ownership of this property that makes selling it quite an attractive option. The insurance is high on account of it being basically unoccupied and there are other services to be paid for; the drive down becomes increasingly tedious and my neighbour takes ‘our’ parking space (it isn’t ‘ours’ of course but it would be nice when we do visit, which hasn’t been very often over the last year, if we could park outside); the garden needs constant attention and the greenhouse which figured in a recent retirement blog requires a decision as to whether to renovate or demolish.
So yes a few problems. And then on this trip a leaflet came through the door offering, apparently, to buy our house, buy mind, not sell. The leaflet made it sound like the simplest thing in the world. I had never had such a thing come through the door, thousands of flyers from estate agents offering to sell our house, but not one like this offering to actually buy it. All we had to do was agree a price. Or so it seemed.
In my innocence I thought well maybe this is a sign. I’m a great believer in signs and portents guiding my life decisions which is a bit pathetic when you think about it broadly and even more so if, like me, you purport to be a control freak. What could be less in control?
Anyway when we got back to Leeds, where we have proper broadband connection (another slight downside to the Heanor house), I checked out the company, Expressoffers – sounds dodgy doesn’t it? – ‘offering’ to buy the house. Turns out they’re quite a common ‘service’ and an extremely dubious, nearly scam, under the heading, ‘we buy any house’. I checked this company’s ‘reviews’ on Trustpilot (I didn’t read the entry asking are Trustpilot reviews to be trusted? perhaps I should have). But I must have read at least 50 of what there was and here’s the interesting thing. Not one of the 5 star reviews mentioned actually buying or even selling their house.
The ‘reviews’ spoke of how helpful the operators were, how pleasant, how they made everything so clear and even she had a lovely face and a sweet smile, how honest they seemed on their video call, but not a single mention of a sale or even an offer. Now call me Mr Suspicious but that’s not what I’m looking for, they may have the face of a potato for all I care providing there is proof they actually buy ‘any’ house. Here, no proof of same.
I read a bit more and found that according to this advice on a website that 98% (or something like that) of these companies were scams or dishonest and helpfully listed how this happened – all plausible. Of course it’s quite possible that this website is in itself a scam, even though I got there via Which services. It was certainly reluctant to name the few honourable companies that it said existed.
There was a website that ‘named the 10 most honest companies’ or something like that but as these were all in the USA, not much help to me. In the end I thought to hell with this I don’t believe it. I should have known I suppose, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
So here’s the thing, the whole business of me selling the family home rested on a knife edge. Remove one of the plus points for selling, like ease of selling for a reasonable price, and the whole pack of cards, collapses.
It did set me to thinking about why the knife edge though. Why I should be having such difficulty making a definite decision about selling the family home? It’s been the house of my grandparents and parents for about 100 years (I haven’t checked the deeds but I think this about right), a long time anyway and part of me feels guilty about selling it on. We’ve kept it for nearly six years since my mother died and spent some money on it and made it nice, to our taste anyway, but somehow this doesn’t seem enough.
I tried explaining all this to my neighbour, he who does the garden and may or may not restore the greenhouse if I decide not to sell after all. He did not understand my dilemma. He’s been in his house for over 30 years and said I’d sell like a shot and move away but I can’t because they have to be near his wife’s aged mother. Gave me pause for thought that he could walk away so easily, or so he said, but maybe his situation is different to mine. He feels no obligation to his house oh, and he has a parking space. This plate just about hit the floor but for now I’ve rescued it. How long can I keep it spinning in the future?