Buying and selling houses

We are in the midst of a serious recession. I guess we all know that, but some of us are in a position to experience the effects more than others. Just try to sell your house now. We followed the advice of our real estate agent and asked $429,900 for our house. We had it sold in less than 6 days! We didn't even have to hold an open house or place an ad in the paper. As soon as it was listed we had people knocking on the door or calling on the phone. They came in the midst of a rain storm to see the house. Someone offered us considerably less than that, so we came down to $420K and they agreed. We had a sale! Or so we thought. When the appraiser came, he said our house was only worth $375K. Since it was an FHA loan they were obtaining, they were not allowed to pay any more than that. There are other considerations, however, and so there is negotiating room, and we agreed on a sale--finally!

But the city of Carson requires a city inspector to give the house clearance before we can close escrow. This is the city's way of sticking it to any citizens who may have improved their property without paying the city for a permit. We had a beautiful grape arbor over a cement patio outside our living room sliding door. I deliberately built it free standing so it would not be an attachment to the house because I knew this would require a building permit. Come to find out that if it is not attached, then it must be at least 6 feet away from the building! Our hot tub in the cramped space of the back yard was not 6 feet away from the building, and because of the lack of space, could not ever be 6 feet away! Both of these luxuries had to go. Our loving son, Bobby, took time from his busy schedule and flew out here from Memphis to help us comply with these Nazi rules of our beloved city. All the time he was tearing out the arbor I was resenting the fact that the city could be so hard nosed about this when it's corrupt government has not one, but two former mayors in jail! The current administration is so childish and petty in their in-fighting that we are the laughing stock of the local newspaper.

We rented a dumpster, filled it with the debris from this and the garage workbench that also was condemned. The plumber who came to strap our water heater to the wall and properly affix the drain, admired our hot tub, so we gave it to him. Today the city inspector approved the property--even without greasing her palm! So one more hurdle is cleared. Sometimes I wonder if we will live to relax in our new quarters. We are buying the home of our daughter and son-in-law in the city of Lakewood, and they already bought a home in Havasu City, AZ on the brink of retirement. Exciting times are these, but at our age we cherish good old boring evenings at home.