Mesa, AZ - What a Waste of Time

We haven't been idle in Mesa. We actually bought a park model and lost it all with in 4 days. Strange process and really uncomfortable. Who would have thought that buying a new home could be so uncomfortable.

We had been looking, well, to be fair, I had been looking and Gary had been accompanying me on what he thought was an academic exercise, not connected to reality at all. I remember about 5 years ago, he had those same thoughts about my desire to go repelling in Moab, UT. He finally realized that I was serious when he strapped on the harness, donned his helmet and plunged over the cliff. Well, looking at houses at Val Vista, the resort where we’ve stayed for 4 winters was pretty much the same thing. He didn’t realize that I was serious until he was making an offer. He then plunged over the cliff.

Back to the looking. We looked at all the new spec park models here in Val Vista, we then headed over to the next resort which is also owned by Cal-Am, and looked at all the new models there. All were pretty standard except one in the next park which really took my eye. Beautiful home, very elegant with skylights, arched entryways, modern tan paint, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances. OH, yeah, they had knotty alder cabinets (???? need picture). Very nice. Very elegant. Very PRICEY. Oops. My style but not my price.

There was one other home which took my eye here in Val Vista but we would have to arrange an appointment and not just walk in like to all the models. But, finally, I was intrigued enough to do so and we walked over to meet with the sales agent. Now, the sales agents at Cal-Am are not real estate agents, they are strictly sales agents. Secondly, the sales agent for Val Vista had fallen out of a golf cart a few weeks ago, had broken her hip and was not available. The sales agents from other Cal Am resorts were filling in. Thus, we met with 3 different agents, neither of whom had ever seen this house before, had not taken the paperwork from the owner and really knew nothing about this house.

Usually, when you’re selling your home, you live in a state of excessive neatness: never getting out too much stuff, ready to stow stuff this in 30 minutes, always cleaning, ready to move out of the house any time. You all know the drill: always on edge. When we were selling out house, we staged it pretty thoroughly. We took down all the personal pictures, moved some furniture, boxed up lots of stuff, fixed some things around the house. We spend several days in the staging. Not in this case.
We walked in with the first sales agent, Cindy, and checked the house out, looking in every room and just giving the house a once-over. Funny, these owners must not have gotten the neatness memo: one of the twin beds was pretty rumpled, not really made, dirty dishes were out, papers were strewn around, furniture just placed higgledy piggledy. Not as staged a presentation as we might have expected. We had a few questions, the owners answered curtly and we left. Hmmm. Not the most pleasant experience.

Oh, yeah. The two owners stayed in the house while we looked it over. I"m not kidding - they both were right there. Yep, they could hear our every word and almost see our every action - these are 400 sq ft homes - they are small - and they were right there with us.

So, we took our time to think it over. We finally decided it intrigued us enough to ask for a second showing. With the owner in the rooms. We checked every cupboard, under the sinks, in the drawers - we looked at everything. We then thought about it and made an offer. Hmmm. A bit lower than they had wanted. They countered, we countered, they took our offer. We signed the paperwork, gave them an earnest check and all was fine.

When we went in for a walk-through with a sales agent, the owners again stayed in the home - again. When the agent, who had never seen the house, walked in, he expressed awe, told us that he understood why we wanted the house and told the owners what a awesome. house they had. Gee, thanks, buddy. The owners are already unhappy that they sold below what they wanted. Don’t make it worse.

Two days later we left Mesa and headed towards Palm Springs, our next stop. We changed our original schedule to be in Mesa on Feb 28 for the closing and stay in our new home for March while we painted and spruced it up.

2 days later, the owners cancelled the sale, with in the contract allowed 5 days.

Ah, well, back to our original travel plans.

There are lots of homes in the world - we’ll find one later.