A troubled proposition.

.
.
My broker called today and suggested that the sale is seeming quite unlikely. The work needed, from a rough quote, could be from $500 to $4,000, and that is just to open a space for further inspection, as well as doing a few required by inspection fixes. The actual quote will cost another $50. Nothing I had not seen coming miles away and already been considering. And, yes, I do have a plan.

The current owners, most likely, will not be able to sell their house without those fixes, at a minimum the need to open a space to allow for a full inspection. What had been lax has become draconian, as far as home sales, inspections, financing, and such. The mood, reality, and financial situation of more and more people do not favor a quick sale, perhaps any kind of sale. So...

If they can allow another month to slip by, bring half of the cost in cash, and perhaps do some of the work with me, I think we can salvage this deal. I have one caveat. If the inspection once the opening is created happens and there is a further outlay required, I will have to be exempt from my half of the payment. At that point, it becomes impossible for me to help more or to lose more. I will be discussing this with my broker this morning, and have it relayed to the owners for a decision.

Barring that, the deal is dead. I will not fork out, or even risk, more than what I am offering, soft as that is. If nothing else, it would put them one step closer to an actual sale, if the inspection ends up worse than expected. On my part, it will mean I did not merely get cold feet. All I will risk, at this point, is some sweat equity, as some are wont to call it. Perhaps that IS sweat off my brow, but it is something I would gladly shed, even if only to help another. Or more precisely, intentionally to help another with no gain to myself. That is never a bad thing. What you lose here, in a good cause, you store where it is important. Though that I have a potential stake in this makes that moot, I think. Then again, God has His own calculator and tabulation tables. Sorry, but I am not privy to those.

Oh, I also need to call the IRS. It seems that the V.A., knowing I am 100% permanent and total in their disability, still needs IRS vindications of some sort or other. So, a phone call, some fibbing (not about my tax situation or for financial gain, mind you), and a chat should deal with that. All, of course, under the notion that this will mean anything in the end.

Well, is that not how life is though? It seems to be happening more often and more harshly now. The banks are going under and the government is doing what it can to help them to do so. It is all a sham, but it always has been, since we failed the first test. We simply have not improved and are not likely to improve, collectively or singly. I suppose we could just up and quit, but... I am not seeing that as any kind of solution. Even God sort of frowns on that. So, on we go, through the nether of our own decay, fault, folly, and seeming irrelevance. I think, in the end, that is our lot. Blind, foolish, lusty, and hungry, we learn.

Live long and prosper.