Teenagers!

Enough said.

real estate racket

That's right. I said it. Real estate is a racket. They make you all sorts of promises in helping you sell your house, staging, painting cleaning, whatever. Guess what- it all comes out of your own pocket. Do we need a new roof we ask the agents? No, the house is priced accordingly knowing it needs a new roof. A very good thing you replaced the siding, the floors, the water heater, added a new deck, landscaped. Around $100,000. Great that you live on a greenbelt- a lot larger lot, privacy, that accounts for a lot. Bull shit! They are shady used car salesmen. Telling you anything they can to get you to sign away 15% of your house sale. That's right. I said it. 15%. They might tell you it might cost 8% total in closing but what they really mean is about 8% plus their fee of 6%. Not their fee of 6% plus 2% for a total of 8%. When do you find this out? After you get to closing, from the escrow company. Now mind you I already had a problem with the 6%. What are you doing to earn my money. Holding an open house- whoopdy doo- I can do that. Putting my house on the internet- la dee freaking da. Easy as pie in this day and age. I already felt ripped off by them and their percentage but now I feel royally screwed. They are walking away with $25K.. Know how much we are possible walking away with after 8 years and $110k in upgrades? $3k.. Yup, that's it. $3k. In order to sell our house we needed a new roof so are giving that to our buyer (something I mentioned in the beginning). People do not take into account if you have put in work, the neighborhood etc. they only look at square footage. We could have never done ANY work in our house and sold our house for the same amount and walked away with $100 at least. Note to self- never ever ever listen to agents, pay them an outrageous percentage or anything. Nothing they do is worth what they charge. They make tens of thousands with each sale and you walk away with nothing. The only positive about this entire experience is we are walking way with something. I cannot imagine after all this hassle having to write a check to the mortgage company. Although at this point I might as well. It is the same as walking away with practically nothing. It does nothing to help us financially.

I hate real estate. I hate real estate agents. What a freaking racket!

?!?!

How is it possible that I have an 8th grader? Which means in one year he is in highschool?!! WHAT?!!! This is just crazy- how are we old enough to have child this age? I vividly remember this age. Holy moly! Time goes soooooooooo fast. Just yesterday Trystan was starting 1st grade and now the twins are starting 1st grade. When Trystan was in 1st grade I found out I was pregnant with the twins. Cannot believe how old they are. I wish I could turn back time or at least slow it down.

always the mom

When there are 2 conflicting "appointments", or 3 or 4, depending on how many activities the kiddos have; why is always the mom who gets shafted? I have been a part of a book club for about 5 years now. It is with my twin mommies. We ALWAYS have our meetings on the second Wed of the month. That is all I ask for, one day a month. Tony plays basketball on Thursday nights, occasionally I have a conflict as well so we hire a sitter (expensive). But, Tony has been playing softball for work. My only request was as long as it is not on wed because I have book club. You guessed it, it is always on Wed. night. This wouldn't be an issue because Trystan can stay home with the twins. Well, for the last 4 months I have missed book club because of baseball practice, moving day and now of course football. His practice doesn't end until late so he can't watch the twins, mom who lives next door has plans so she can't watch the twins. Tony can't miss his game so he can't watch the twins. I am tired of having to pay for a sitter to go to book club when it would only be for an hour or so until Trystan gets home but at this point it is too late to find one as it is for tonight (my mom informed me just now she made other plans- when she was already planning on sitting). So of course, I, the mom miss out AGAIN. Why is it always the mom?

Say What?!

I just looked at my last 3 posts and they were all song titles. Say What?!
RANDOM! :)

bitter sweet

So, the first home Tony and I ever owned is now on the market. http://www.windermere.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=listing.listingDetailUpdated&listingID=67531012&paginate=true
We bought this house 8 years ago, about 6 months after we got married. The twins have only ever known this to be their home. Trystan has a fantastic neighborhood group of friends. He has walked with them every day to school for who knows how long. When I drive in from picking the twins up from school there is usually a contingent of 6-8 boys and girls in our driveway playing basketball or just hanging out. I love this house, I love the neighborhood. I will truely miss it and hope it brings as much happiness to the next family who owns it. Now let's just hope it moves quickly so we can begin the next chapter of our lives as a family in a new home to call our own.