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“Structural?”
“I’m not sure about that, but it’s likely that there will need to be some rewiring done, and with a house this old, a new boiler and energy-efficient windows probably wouldn’t hurt.” When we reach the kitchen, I turn to face him and look in his direction but not directly at him. “The good news is it does have a library with a fireplace, and they updated one of the four bathrooms.”
Jeez, that’s a lot of bathrooms, and this is a whole lot of house for one single man, so with some deductive reasoning I come to the conclusion that he’s married. And his wife (Betty) is the kind of woman who wears dresses most days and bakes homemade sourdough bread that he obviously doesn’t eat because carbs. And they have four kids, all boys, because there is no way that he would be able to produce a female. And the only reason his wife is not here right now is that she’s heavily pregnant with their fifth child, also a boy, so he is taking on the task of looking for a new house for the two of them and their brood of boys that will live wild in the forest outside from sunup to sundown every day.
And with the image of his happy little family in my mind, I once more have a fully functioning brain. Or I hope so, anyway.
“Are you ready to see the rest?” I ask but don’t give him a chance to answer before I spin in my high-heeled boots and hoof it up the stairs to the second floor.
And because I’m a professional and in my head he’s married to Betty, I make it through the rest of the showing and the next two houses that we look at without making a fool out of myself.
Chapter 3:
Lavender Hill or Bust
Genevieve
Reading over the email I just received from the Realtor that is selling the house on Lavender Hill, I frown at the screen of my laptop. You’d think that the owners would be thrilled to have an offer for their full asking price with no contingencies, but apparently not. Or that’s the way it seems, given the counteroffer they made, asking Wyatt to pay the title and transfer fees for the property. Something the buyer never pays.
“What’s going on?” Mom asks, coming around the corner with a cup of coffee in one hand and a cookie in the other.
“I just got the counteroffer for the house on Lavender Hill, and I think I need to call the Realtor.”
“What was their counteroffer?”
“They agreed to Wyatt’s offer, which was full asking, as you know, but they want him to pay the title and transfer fees. They also want twenty thousand dollars in earnest money.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yep, it’s right here.” I point at the document on my screen.
“That’s odd.” She walks over and stands behind my chair. “I wonder if that was a mistake.”
“I don’t know. That’s why I need to call their Realtor; do you know her?” I point at the name Linda Moss at the bottom of the document.
“I’ve seen a few of her signs around town, but I don’t know her. I think she just started working in the area.” She takes a bite of her cookie and mumbles around the crumbs. “Call her. I’d like to hear what she says.”
I pick up my phone, dial Linda’s number, and listen to it ring once before she answers with a chirpy “Hello, this is Linda.”
“Hi, Linda, this is Genevieve from Fenwick Realtor Group. I just received your counteroffer for the house on Lavender Hill and have a couple of questions.”
“Of course. How can I help?”
“I wanted to confirm that you’re asking my buyer to pay for the title and transfer fees and that they want twenty thousand dollars in earnest money.”
“Yes, that’s correct,” she says, and Mom’s eyes widen.
“The seller normally pays those fees,” I tell her, in case she just started out in real estate and doesn’t know.
“Yes, I know.” She clears her throat, and I hear her move around. “I know it’s very unprofessional to share a client’s private information, but I think it might be important in this situation.”
“All right.” I look at Mom, who is staring at my phone.
“The owner of the home on Lavender Hill recently passed away, and the property was left to his two children.”
“Okay.”
“The daughter is very determined to sell the home, while the son . . .” She pauses. “Let’s just say he is not on the same page as his sister and would like to keep the house for himself.”
