The house has had four showings in the past week. That’s great traffic — more than it had last month.
My agent called me a few minutes ago. She said a lady contacted about doing a lease with option to buy at the end of six months. My agent thought the deal sounded fishy because
- The woman initially said that she is going through a divorce and would like to buy the house in October, no make that November, no wait… December, well maybe do a six-month lease with option.
- The woman supposedly was going to have cash from the divorce and would buy the house once she had the money.
And the grand-daddy of all reasons: The woman has never seen the house. Why do you make an offer on a house without seeing the interior?
Maybe I should give this woman the benefit of the doubt. Based upon my agent’s description of the conversation, the entire situation sounded fishy because the details kept changing to have a longer time frame. When I was going through a divorce, I knew the dates involved and had made arrangements. (I was also very lucky to have an amicable situation.)
My agent and I declined the offer. We did talk about the possibility of putting the house up for lease, but I’d rather not do that. Once someone gets into a house in a lease or rent situation, it is difficult to dislodge them if something goes wrong. It can take like six months or more.
Of course there comes a point where the monthly out-go is too high and I would have to do something. If I do lease the house, I would use a leasing company. The house would probably have to be rented/leased for a few years until the market comes back up. My agent said that there is a 17 month supply of houses in Knoxville right now. With so much inventory available, people will have to drastically cut house prices to sell.
Arg.
