Altoona, IA - Who Am I

The title opinion came through on our real estate sale today and we found out that Nancy Ferguson is NOT of good character:

        Nancy J. Ferguson has a $5000 judgement against her in the case of Town Financial vs Nancy Ferguson in 2003

        Nancy Ann Ferguson filed bankruptcy in January of 2007.

My name is very clearly Nancy M. Ferguson and that is how I sign. Well, the lawyers only know that some low-life named Nancy Ferguson has a few financial problems and I have to get someone who knows me to tell the world that I am not this Nancy Ferguson.

Doing some more research on this issue, I have found out that identity theft is in back of this new requirement. In the past, when lawyers were preparing a title opinion, they called the county clerks, asked the Social Security number, the address, the birth date and could confirm who every one was. Now, however, county clerks are restricted as to what information they can give out and certainly cannot give out social security numbers. As a result, about 60% of title opinions now have someone in the ownership having to prove who they are.

Several years ago, my sister-in-law had to prove who she and this year it is my turn.

Then we got the inspection on the house. Only 2 minor problems and both were safety issues: creosote in the chimney and a garage door opener which does not have a reverse function such that the motor will reverse if something is caught under the door.

Funny thing that garage door problem: Gary and his sisters had the same problem when they were selling Lug’s home. The little safety sensors at the bottom of the door rails were missing. Luckily, the real estate agent had seen this, had looked up and had noticed that they were up in the ceiling by the motor facing each other. And we all knew why: Lug said ‘I don’t need those’ and the installer, knowing that sensors were required for the motor to work, had put them up by the motor. Gary took them down, installed them at the bottom of the rails and all was ok.

In our garage, our motor was too old to have the sensors so we either had to install a new motor which was connected to sensors or give the new owner some compensation to pay for these.

As to the creosote, we had a sweep come in, check it all out and tell us that we did not need a cleaning. We now have the certificate from a licensed sweep and have forwarded this on to the buyer.

2 small problems that were easily solved. I had a co-worker once who said every problem could be solved: some with time and some with money. These two problems took money, luckily not too much.