(no subject)

[madbaker]

Some friends have given us a "walk-away" bid on the father-in-law's mobile home. As in, "We pay you x and you walk away from the place."

Let me explain - no, there is too much. Let me sum up.

The FIL was a pack rat. And he didn't believe in cleaning, apparently. To get this place in salable shape we not only have to muck out his stuff (I took 70 bags to Goodwill yesterday) but we also have to replace the carpets, stovetop, toilets, and at least one shower/tub.

Did I mention that we live an hour away? And the wife starts her final semester in school today.

The bid is lower than we'd really like - even taking the fix-it costs into account, if we accepted we'd be leaving money on the table versus what we could probably get on the open market. However, it gets it off our hands quicker, and more importantly, eliminates a huge amount of hassle.

That "however" is worth a great deal.

The wife is going to talk it over with her brother tonight. If everyone agrees, I think it would be a good deal all around and simplify many, many things.

Comments

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

They way I always see it is, time is money. So is convenience. How much would to pay to have both, or either?

It's like an equation...I think. Remember I'm a natural blonde when it comes to math...

"Math is hard." -Barbie

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

Yeah - the difficulty is that the equation is personal, and varies depending on circumstances.

My hassle tolerance level is reasonably low, as is my current spare time. I'm also gainfully employed so I can better afford to give up some cash in exchange for free time / hassle avoidance; which means that the marginal utility I derive from giving up a unit of money to obtain a unit of free time is shifted differently from someone with a different marginal utility curve.

This personal economics primer brought to you by an econ major, actually using said major in the finance field...

Re: "Math is hard." -Barbie

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Oooh...all those numbers! And then, they start throwing in letters, too! My caluclator doesn't have letters on it, except "C"...and when I hit that one, all the other numbers just go away...

I like that description of the time vs money continuum, however.

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

Reducing the hassle factor, and letting someone else deal with it may be worth the money. I hope the brother-in-law agrees. It would save a lot of work and such on your end.

[strmonkey.livejournal.com]

I have to add the same stuff. The hassel and the mental strain sometimes is worth the less money. Not having to clean and take more stuff to charity/dump runs might be worth it.
I hope the family can agree quickly and then you can go on w/your lives and deal with the horrible loss of a family member...

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a similar situation to what I was in when my father died. We filled one of those boxcar-type dumpsters. It took months to go through all the mess, and a professional cleaning company for a week.

Getting rid of the hassle is definitely worth a lot. Do you expect there are any hidden gems in the pile that the family wants to have? Can you write it into the sale that any family history things they come across, they give you?

[roswtr.livejournal.com]

Is the BIL willing to do the cleaning/fixing up in order to get a better price? If you two have been left with doing all the work in your copious amounts of spare time, then I think your wife is perfectly within her rights to use her Amazing Badgering Powers to help the BIL see it her way. :)

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

Well, the BIL is in Indiana (and likely to be deployed in the Marines in the next few months) so yeah, it's fallen on us. Which we expected.

I don't think that he'll object if the wife wants to take the offer; but I think it's important that they agree. Fortunately they get along. 8)

[tsgeisel.livejournal.com]

I just wrote (and erased) something that I ended with the lines "Ok, duh. You know all that."

Basically, I presume you've gotten all the sentimental stuff from there already, and now it's all trash and tchochkes? In that case it may well be simpler mentally as well, to just accept the offer.

But double check to make sure you're not missing some hidden treasure. Because this is the kind of situation you read about in the paper with the headline "Couple finds Renoir hidden in closet" or something like that...

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

One thing that I omitted in the parent entry is that the potential buyers are good friends and I generally see at least one of them weekly. So we don't fear them hosing us on something like that.

Point taken, though.