since you brought my attention to it…I had to look it up. Obviously I don’t follow tennis:)
No word back from Seller and I’m assuming it’s getting pretty late wherever he is located.
Seller did not accept my offer. He countered back but I can’t take the counter offer because I’m worried that the market is going to soften in the next 6 months. It cannot sustain at current levels in the neighborhood.
Trustee wants to stay out on the market for another week or so. If I haven’t found something by then I’ll take another stab at it
Oh, too bad. It looked like a few small properties hit the market today but they’re most likely too small for your interests.
What a bummer. I understand why the trustee may be hesitant to accept the first offer… Let it steep for a while. I am worried about the market, too. We are gearing up to sell the old place, and one realtor wanted a major renovation project. Like bringing it all up to a new construction looks. We laughed. 
NRE- love the brick work in that waterfront house!! That garden entry way, I think, and the main fireplace with the dark brick are lovely
Flip #7
I sent an email to the listing agent that always plays games. The house in Wooded Area (C h a r l e s) is not my first choice. It just has way too many challenges. But, since his listing says ‘Bring All Offers’ and he hasn’t even bothered to contact me… I thought I would send him an email asking if he would like to write up an offer for X.
Property has been on the market for over 60 days. At that point a Seller should just take whatever they can get. We will see
Flip #7
OK, this gets stranger by the minute. The listing agent (same one as Tivoli who is trying to Lease to Own) responded immediately to my email. His answer… a short 'Maybe $915k". What the hey??? He’s listed at $895k with confidential remarks “Bring All Offers”. And… he is insisting on $20k more than the asking price? Just do not get this guy’s pricing strategies.
He’s under the impression that $895k is going to create a frenzy of multiple offers. Well… it’s been on the market for 60 days and there is no frenzy of offers
LOL. A short “Maybe $Myprice” reply will suffice. B-)
I think we should call it The Knotty Pine house. The Knotty Pine house in the Overgrown Bushes area. 
The Knotty Pines House has some serious issues. The sunken knotty pine family room addition was built below grade, with the exterior base plates below the adjoining exterior walkway. I have no idea how it ever passed inspection. Plus, I want to raise the floor to make it level with the original house. So, the walls have to be torn out, new stem wall foundation built around the addition and floor raised up.
Then, in the back yard is a huge huge tree hanging over the back alley and the whole yard. Hanging over the power lines also. I’m afraid the whole thing has to be removed (and the tree police will probably stop the whole project) in order to build a decent 2 car garage off alley in the back of the house. I am ignorant of the cost to tear out such a huge tree, let alone trying to get the stump out enough to build a foundation in the area. I’m guessing at least $5,000
So the Bee Hive House is now the Knotty Pines House?? I want to make sure I didn’t miss something.
No, Bee Hive seller countered too high so we’re all waiting to see what happens in the next couple of weeks re any other offers.
Knotty Pines was an earlier not so great potential house that we’re all hoping has been sitting on the market so long that it’s become a bargain. Apparently the agent doesn’t agree.
I am all for hugging trees, but there is a reason we own 2 chainsaws (disposed of the other 2). I think $5K would be a good starting point. The stump must be taken out by excavation - it can’t be simply ground to below grade and then poured over with concrete. Well, some folks do that… And that can cause issues down the road when the leftover root wood rots. The size of the rootball to be taken out can be estimated by googling the type of tree. If the tree is allowed to remain next to the new structure, all sorts of issues can happen. We have seen a house on a slab that was broken in half by a ginormous Douglas fir growing next to the house. The house was built next to the tree (not the tree planted near it - judging by the size of the tree). I know CB knows all of that!
I do not have any good knowledge of trees or tree roots. That is why I’m scared. Familiar with roots intruding into sewer lines, but I do not have experience with pulling out big trees.
Unless you want to count the time the guy ruined my tree on Flip 1 when I hired him to “trim” the tree:)
Just get several estimates for the tree work. I had a small job and the first estimate was $1700, the second estimate was $450, and the third estimate was $2300! Crazy! I went with Mr. $450 and they took only 1 1/2 hours from start to finish.
However, I talked to Mr. $450 about a possible future tree removal and said to him, “that would probably cost around $10,000” and he said, “yeah, if you’re lucky”. [the tree is question is huge, hovers over three properties, and most importantly they would have to do everything by hand since they couldn’t get a crane or truck anywhere near it]. I love trees but they keep me up at night sometimes.
I was also advised that I should check that any tree person has insurance, and call their insurance for verification, and call again on the day of service to make sure they are still covered. It’s one of the most dangerous jobs so insurance is expensive for them.
Agree that trees are potential HUGE issues. I made sure the tree folks we hired had insurance, good referrals, in good status with BBB and were experienced. They removed the 3 trees in our front yard and stumped them so that we can grow something else there instead if having a rotting stump.
Also tree roots can cause shifting and damage pipes, foundations and more, both when they’re growing and after the tree is cut down and they are dead and rotting.
There is a house about half a mile from me that transferred ownership around three years ago. The property was overrun with huge, giant trees. Over time, the owner has hired folks to cut down the huge ones as far as possible and then – by hand – has been digging up the remaining stump and the roots. There was one spot that must have been twenty feet across that he dug up – again, by hand!! – in order to excavate the roots. I tip my hand to this industrious homeowner!!
The house now looks much more open and clean without all those ginormous trees hiding it.
Back to chicken house. This transaction is very strange. Remember that, suddenly, without any communication, I saw that the property went into contract. I had made an offer through the listing agent. I finally called him u p to ask what happened with my offer. He said the Seller suddenly decided to take another offer that was $40k higher than my offer.
I patiently waited about a month and it never closed escrow. I ran into the listing agent and asked him how it was going and he said that the transaction was ‘out of his control’ and the buyer was communicating directly with the seller and he had no idea when the escrow would close. It is now 60 days since it went into contract. The listing agent took his sign down, but the escrow has never closed (I’m watching it like a hawk to see who got the property). It is the strangest thing. Obviously it is a cash buyer, but ??? you would think the Seller would want to get it closed.
Contingencies waiting to be lifted??