Chapter 8

With a couple of years under my belt at my job with the accounting firm, I finally made plans to move out of my parent's house. I had saved most of the salary that I had made in the past year, and that, along with me being a newly minted CPA, would go a long way with the bank.

I talked it over with my parents, and knowing how hard the housing market was in this area of the country, they were willing to help in my efforts to purchase my first home.

Before I even got started looking at houses, my folks and I went mortgage shopping, just to see what sort of a house I would be able to afford. As luck would have it, there happened to be a first time buyers program that the government was offering. I was able to afford, with my present salary, about a $300,000 mortgage. Mom and Dad were excited for me and my next move was to get with Sam and let her know my plans.

I had been really sneaky about all of this talk of a house. I hadn't said a word to Sam and I was almost certain I was going to pay the price for that indiscretion.

Sam had been offered a contract with our local school district and had been happily teaching second and third graders at one of the elementary schools. The day that I had taken off to visit the bank left me with some time on my hands, so I grabbed some of the local real estate ads and started looking around at what was available.

The places I saw, in my price range, were either very small houses or condominiums. From what I remembered from school, a condo was nice, but had drawbacks that a regular house did not. So I scrapped the idea of a condo and focused solely on houses.

Then lightning struck. A chance meeting with a friend at the local coffee shop opened some doors for me. Bill was working for a general contractor who owned a company that bought properties, renovated them and sold them. Bill had come upon a small 3-bedroom house that was for sale by the owners. His boss had evaluated it and thought that, although it didn't need many repairs, it wasn't something that he wanted to invest in. Bill told me where the house was (about three blocks from my folks) and off I went.

The couple selling this house home, and in the middle of packing their possessions, when I knocked on their door. I told them that I had heard they were interested in selling and that I might be interested in buying. I got the story from them about why they were moving. The big oil company that he worked for wanted to move him to Texas, and they were paying all of his moving expenses and wanted him there the beginning of the month (about two weeks away). They were quite concerned that the wife would have to stay behind in order to complete the sale of the house, as they had not listed the house with a realtor.

I found that they were asking $325,000 for a house that could easily sell in the $400,000 to $425,000 range. I told them that I had pre-qualified for a $300,000 loan, but I was sure that I could come up with the other $25,000 if they would give me the afternoon.

I hopped in my car, grabbed my cell phone and got on the phone with my Dad. Would he be willing to lend me the $25,000 for a house that was selling for so much below market? I told him I would be happy to make the payments if he could get a second mortgage on his house. He knew that I would have to make a fast move on this and called my Mom to the phone. She picked up an extension and after answering all of her questions, we came to an agreement. I would be able to borrow the $25,000 from them at no interest with a 5-year payback. They would loan me the money out of their savings account.

Being an accountant, I knew that they could give me most of that amount as a one-time gift without any penalties and would be able to reduce their income because of it. I had been doing their taxes for a couple of years now and this savings account was one that I had never considered my parents would ever tap into.

I went back to the house and asked the owners if they would remove the for-sale sign and if we could work up a contract. They said that they would like assistance in getting a contract and that they could have their attorney look it over before signing anything. They didn't have a realtor, and I wasn't sure how we should proceed, so I called Sam. She would know. By this time of day, school had let out and she was busy in her classroom preparing for the following day. I asked her if I could come over and talk with her and she agreed, as long as I brought her a milkshake.

With a quick stop at Dairy Queen, I was at her door about 15 minutes later, milkshake in hand.

"Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" she asked.

"Sam, so much has happened and I wanted to surprise you, and I need your advice, and..."

"Tom," she laughed, "slow down, catch your breath and then tell me your news."

"Here we go. I am thinking of buying a house." I blurted. She tilted her head, and a grin tugged at the corner of her mouth, so I hurried on. "As a matter of fact, I'm not only thinking of buying a house, but I have pre-qualified, arranged to borrow some additional money from my folks, and made an offer on a house just a few blocks from our parent's. I need your help figuring out how to do the contract without a realtor. This is moving so fast that I can't think straight!"

A frown replaced the grin. "Tom, do you mean to tell me that you have gotten a loan, borrowed money from your parents and found a house, all without a word to me? Is that what you're telling me?"

I tried to come up with some sort of smart remark that would cover up this obvious faux pas. I waited for the words to form in my head, rejected the first three things that came to mind, and simply replied, "Yes."

Her eyes lit up and she went from a frown to a smile that approached a near record 1500-watts. "I am so proud of you, I can't hardly stand it. You have jumped my expectations of you by at least a few years. Let's see what we can find on the Internet to help us with this sort of a contract."

Sam pulled the keyboard on her desk so that it was in front of her, launched the browser and started Googling my situation. I was simply amazed at this woman. Here I was thinking I was going to get my head handed to me and Sam pays me, for her, one of the nicest compliments I could get. I know that some might think that it seemed like a backhanded compliment, but I knew that she always wanted the very best for me and from me.

A couple of quick searches later and she was downloading a simple contract that would be valid in the State of California. We looked it over on her screen, read the instructions from the website, and made sure that we knew about all of the places that the instructions said needed to be filled in. We saved the file to her thumbnail drive (the very one that I had given her on her first day of school this year) and headed out to my car. Sam was definitely going along for this one.

A short time later we were sitting in the kitchen with the current owners of the house. I opened my laptop, plugged in the portable drive, opened up the document and started modifying the contract. Within a few minutes, we had a contract hammered out, ready for them to email to their attorney to approve.

I saved a copy of the document to both my hard drive and the portable one and handed them the drive. The owners had been in touch with their attorney and he was waiting for the agreement. The wife went over to their computer, hooked up the drive and quickly emailed the document to the attorney.

The next step we took was to email the document to my attorney, who I had contacted earlier.

A few tense minutes later the phone rang. The lawyer was on the line. He had looked over the contract and found one or two adjustments he thought the owners should make. Then he reminded them that the company agreement they had signed would make up for any loss that they incurred due to having to sell the house on short notice. After making the necessary changes, they hung up with the attorney and went into the other room to talk with each other for a moment.

While we were waiting, I got a call from my attorney, and discussed with him the changes presented by the sellers lawyer and he gave me the go ahead to proceed.

"What's going on?" I nervously whispered to Sam.

"Just wait and see, I think you might like what they are going to say."

The couple came back into the kitchen, got out a pitcher of iced tea and some glasses and returned to the table. "You two are such a cute couple, and we remember just how difficult it was for us to buy this, our first house," the husband said. "So we thought that we would only accept your offer if it is for $300,000 and not a penny more. We will take the company up on their offer to pay for any loss that we might incur. We also figured that since there was no realtor's commission to have to pay that this would be a good plan for both parties."

"B-but we..." I started just before the kick at my shins. Ok, I knew enough to shut my mouth when Sam was kicking.

"We will take you up on the offer," Sam said.

"Thank you," I added meekly.

We made the adjustments to the sales price of the house, called the bank, got approval to set things in motion and left.

When we got into the car I started to speak, but Sam stopped me.

"Do you realize how lucky you are? Just stop and think; if I hadn't been there with you it would have cost you an additional $25,000. I think you owe me a very nice dinner."

Learning when to keep my mouth shut, especially around Sam, was a priceless lesson I had learned. I was slowly being removed from the ranks of the clueless.

I dug into my ice cream sundae with vigor. The plan was set. The time to pounce was near. "My dear Miss Morse, what are your plans for the remainder of this afternoon? Is there anything you have planned that you can't put off or cancel?

"Nope. I'm all yours for the rest of the day, and the night if you so choose."

"Samantha, you have to stop getting ahead of yourself with those proclamations. Leave it to me. I am so sure that you will be happy I'm willing to make a bet."

"A bet, huh? I know what I'm willing to wager. What could you possibly have to top that?"

"A point of procedure, O Great "Blonde One". If both parties are to agree to a bet, is it absolutely necessary that the stakes are settled upon prior to the bet being placed? Can one or the other party to the bet reserve the item or items being wagered as long as it is agreeable with both parties? In other words, do you trust me?"

With a frown on her face, she said, "How can you say that? There is no other man who has seen more of me than you. There is no other man who I have done more with than you. I have spent more of my life with you than I have without you. Given that, how can you even ask, 'Do you trust me'?"