My Money is on the Leprechaun

I finally had time to process what I wanted to do with the Grayson Valley house. To back up a teensy bit: in 2007, we bought this house with business partner Jack. Marty Sunshine and I put in half of the down payment. Jack put down the other half. Jack bailed on us about a year ago, not asking for his down payment back or his half of the equity. Nothing. Nada. This bothers me in some ways, but that is for another blog.

Last year (after Jack bailed and we found out he had not managed this place in any way, shape or form and it now had a LOT of deferred maintenance), Marty and I took care of the pressing issues and sunk part of our tax return into making the place the rock star of a house it deserves to be. For that, we were rewarded with top-of-the-market rent. We also refinanced and are now cash flowing a very nice sum every month (Jack refused to refinance). So, the house is now doing what we intended it to do all along. 

However, for some reason our tenant wants to buy the house. There was never a conversation with us about selling the home and the first I heard about this was at the end of January when rent was already a month late. So, I don't know if the tenant was told by Kirby's folks last year that we would sell her the home. I don't know if a leprechaun riding on a blue and orange water buffalo came to her in a dream and said she should purchase this home. But now she is hell-bent on buying this place and won't let up.

I am really not ready to sell. I like this house. It is in an appreciating neighborhood. Though we bought at the wrong time, it it worth slightly more than we paid for it. This morning I sent Luigi and his Broker, Ray, an e-mail. I gave them my price--which wasn't realistic. I said if I were to sell it right now, the sale would be as-is, we use Attorney Flip and everyone pays their own costs. I said these terms were not negotiable.

Though that should turn off any reasonable person, I don't want to loose the tenant if they aren't willing to hand over what in March of 2014 would be considered an obscene amount for this home. Crazy as she has proven may be, she and her husband have good jobs and a vacant home costs me money. So, I offered if the tenant was not in a position to buy it for my price, if they would like to renew when their lease is up, I will offer $200 off their first month's rent as long as someone can do a walk-through on the property and make sure it is still in great condition. The $200 I would be loosing (which is still less than what I am cash flowing) is a small price to pay not to have a vacancy and turn over the property.