BOW Life Goes On #10/Shelter Island
In Leonard Goodman’s Buick driving to Shelter Island, by Mitchell’s instance Marsha now in the front seat.
“I’ll call you in the morning at… Give me some time to see what else may be available and I’ll call you in your room at, say, ‘eleven.”
“As soon as we check in we’re going to call Alice, uh, our broker to see what happened at the house today.”
Glancing at Marsha. “I’ll also check to see if that last house is still available.”
Cooling on both the house and ‘especially’ Leonard.
“Like the house, don’t like the price…” Mitchell said from the rear seat “... so we’ll see about that.”
****
Checking into Shelter Inn,…
“You’re in room 422…” the desk manager said handing him two keys along with two 4X4 message slips. “…and you’ve two calls, Mister Lipensky.”
Taking the keys and the message slips…
One was an ‘urgent’ from Alice, the other an ‘urgent’ from a ‘Sophie Chen’ of ‘Century 21, San Diego’ along with her phone number.
Unlocking the door to room 422, quickly looking about the beautifully appointed hotel room and a fast glance out the window. “Great view.” Marsha said. “I’m calling Alice!”
“It’s after seven there.”
“I’ll call her at home.” Sitting on the edge of the bed, dialing ‘O’, Marsha gave the hotel operator Alice’s home number in Schaumberg, Illinois.
Hoping she’d be home, the phone rang four times before being picked up.
“Marcie!” Alice shouted sounding rather breathless. “Your timing’s great!”
“What’s wrong? How come you’re out of breath?”
“I just pulled in and heard the phone ringing and, hoping it was you or Mitch, ran to get it.”
“Hoping it was ‘us’, why?”
“First off, we must have had seventy brokers through today and had our first offer at about four-thirty…”
Looking at Mitchell, “We had an offer on the house today.”
“We had an offer on the house today?”
Sitting on the edge of the bed directly alongside Marsha so he could listen to the phone also.
“That Mitchell?”
“Yeah, he wanted to know if we had an offer on the house today.”
“Yeah, you had an offer today at about four-thirty and that’s when I called you, but…” catching her breath, “that’s why I just got in?”
“We had an offer at four thirty and that’s why you just got in at, uh, seven ten?”
“Yeah. I just left your house because we have two more offers.”
“ ‘Three offers’? Mitchie, we’ve had three offers on the house!”
“Yeah, I heard. So… Let me talk to Alice!” Taking the phone, but holding it at an angle so Marsha might hear.
“What kind of offers? What are they offering to pay?” he asked excitedly. “So what do we do now, Alice?”
“You have a pencil and paper?”
“Marcie, check the desk to see if there’s paper and a pencil.”
Rushing to the desk, opening the drawer there was a 5X7 pad of hotel letterhead paper.
“Okay, got it. Now what?”
Having given it thought, or possibly had three offers at the same time for the same house before.
“Write these three names…” Alice said “...one on top of the other leaving room between…. ‘Weinstein’ …. ‘Bowers’ …. ‘Limberger’.”
“ ‘Weinstein’ …. ‘Bowers’ …. ‘Limberger’.” Marsha repeating the names to Alice.
“Okay...” Alice said “... under ‘Weinstein’ write ‘one-hundred-five-thousand’…”
“Under ‘Weinstein...” motioning to Marsha to write “...write one hundred-five-thousand!”
Dawning on him.“They offered ‘one hundred, five thousand dollars’?”
Looking up, Marsha’s mouth dropped open.
“Yes. But wait, there’s more…” Alice said “...still with Weinstein… They are pre-approved and will come in with all cash, but want a thirty day closing.”
Motioning for Marsha to write.
Writing beneath Weinstein : ‘pre-approved... all cash… ‘Thirty days’! How can we be out in thirty days!”
Shrugging his shoulders, questioning Alice . “How can we be out in thirty days?”
“Yeah,” Marsha repeated. “how can we be out in thirty days?”
“Yeah, I thought that would be a problem… Okay let’s go to ‘Bowers’. They’re not pre-approved yet but their home sold about a week ago. I looked into the sale and it looks very strong, so the Bowers look really good and they offered one-hundred-two-thousand, but can live with the ninety day closing. They actually want a ninety day closing.”
Looking at Marsha. Parroting Alice: “ Bowers; one-hundred-two-thousand… ninety day closing… Not pre-approved yet."
“ ‘Limberger’… You ready for this?” Not waiting for an answer, Alice continued. “Limberger offered one ten, are coming in with twenty per-cent down but want a thirty day closing also.”
Uh-oh! “ ‘Limberger’,” Mitchell repeated, looking at Marsha. “One hundred- ‘ten’-thousand dollars.”
Looking up “...Holy shit!” blinking her eyes a number of times. “Holy shit!”
“Yeah, ‘holy shit’ you bet! But Limberger wants thirty days also.”
“You and Marsha want to think about it and get back to me?”
“Give us a minute, will you, Alice.”
Holding his hand over the phone’s mouthpiece. “So, what do you think?”
“Jesus, Mitchie, ‘one-hundred-ten-thousand dollars’! You think we can be out in a month?”
“Marcie, it’s not getting out of our place, it’s getting to… ‘where’?. I’ll tell you, though, if we can’t get into whatever we buy here in thirty days, the extra ten grand will sure give us a hell of a nice vacation until we do.”
“Hold on.” Digging through her purse, finding the sales brochure for the home in El Cajon. “Damn...” she said, “...they want ninety days.”
“Well, there’s always tomorrow and we may get lucky, but if not…”
Repeating, “ ‘The extra ten grand will sure give us a hell of a nice vacation until we do’.”
Nodding agreement, “Okay, Alice...” Mitchell said, “...we’ll go with the Limbergers… What do we do now?”
Get down to the closest Western Union and send a telegram to my attention accepting the Limberger offer and giving me permission to complete the sale and get the paperwork started.”
“That’s what you want us to say: we ‘accept’ the Limberger offer and we give Alice Meade permission to complete the sale?”
“Yes, that’ll be fine.”
“Where should we have the telegram sent; your home or office?”
“It’s seven-thirty here now and there’s not much I can do tonight, so you might as well have it wired to the office.”
“Soon as we hang up, Marcie and I’ll find a Western Union office and get the telegram out immediately”
“You sure of this now? No changing your minds!”
“We’re sure!” Looking at Marsha, “We’re sure about this, aren’t we?”
“Yes! Absolutely sure!”
“Yes! Marsha says we’re ‘absolutely’ sure.”
“Good, I’ll call the buyer’s broker and tell her ’it’s a deal’.”
“Great! Thanks’ Alice, you did a really good job.”
“Have you talked to Sophie yet?”
“No, we were going to call her after we get hold of Western Union.”
“Did you see any property you liked enough to make an offer on with that Forest Olsen guy?”
“One place, but did not make an offer.”
“Okay. I’ll call the other broker on your place and let her know that we have a deal and that I’ll see her tomorrow with your confirmation.”
“Who’s this Sophie?”
“She lived in Chicago at that time, and we went through our real estate courses together and kind of kept in touch.
“Then a few years later she moved to Southern California and called me with her number once she settled in and we haven’t talked since.
“Then I thought of Sophie after you kids took off and… What a coincidence, she’s working out of San Diego and when I told her about you guys and your family, Sophie said that she ‘has’ your new home and that you should call her a soon as possible.”
“She ‘has our new home’?”
“That’s what she says, Mitch."
“I couldn’t get in touch with you until you checked into where you’re staying. So call Sophie, and I’m sure she’ll get you and Marcie to a Western Union.”
“Then show us our ‘new’ home, huh?” Marsha said sarcastically.
“That’s what she told me. Sophie’s a pretty good gal and she knows her business, Marcie.”
Okay Alice, we’ll call her soon as we hang up.”
Dropping the phone onto the cradle, Mitchell took a deep breath…
“ ‘One hundred and ten thousand dollars’!”
“The other call…”
“The other call?”
“Yes, the call from that Century 21 broker.”
“ Think we should call now?”
“That’s what Alice said. Sure, why not, it’s only five-thirty.”
Local calls dialed directly.
Dialing the number…
Picked up on the first ring: “ ‘Century twenty-One; Sophie Chen’.”
“Hi…” Mrs., Miss? “...Miss Chen. You called us. This is Mitchell Lipensky.”
“Mister Lipensky! ‘Great’! I’ve been waiting for your call.”
“ ‘You’ve been waiting for my call’?” He questioned. “I didn’t know that I was even going to call until just now.”
Getting right to the point: “Have you made an offer on a house yet?”
“No, but we’re working with another…”
“Yes, Iknow, I’ve got your new home!”
“Excuse me!”
“Mr. Lipensky, I said that I have your new home.”
Looking at Marsha. “She says ‘she’s got our new home’!”
“How?”
“Yes…” Sophie said confidently “...I know ‘exactly’ what you’re looking for, and I have your new home!”
Next BOW Life Goes On#11
