The Great Authorization Race
Monday, July 15th, 2024 10:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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77F and sunny this morning, on it's way up to 90F this afternoon, but expecting thunderstorms this evening.
No word from the lawyer this morning, which isn't the greatest way to start the week!
How fast he acts in getting those forms emailed to my siblings, and how fast they respond, determines whether or not the sale closes this week.
Meanwhile, I need to pay PNC their $780.00 tomorrow... which at least is payday.
But it'd be nice to know if I'm getting that 5K before August 1st.
And ComEd pulls the plug on Melody Manor next Wednesday morning, if the deal hasn't closed.
Stopped at the house on the way to work.
Prowly had eaten the food from the day before.
I ran the hot water, left him new moist food, topped off his dry food, refreshed his water, and set the thermostat to 70 from it's default of 73.
Like yesterday, it was a hot sunny day that turned stormy after dark, with another tornado warning around 8:30PM.
Kevin was the first to say he'd gotten the email, around noon today, and he set straight about to taking care of them.
But it turned out that these docs the lawyer sent to my siblings all needed to be goddam notarized!
He didn't say anything about that on Friday, and if he had, I'd have made sure everybody was prepared for that extra, fairly inconvenient step today!
I texted Mr. Taylor to say that the notarizations may be cause for delay.
And he texted back that he'd compensate anybody who had to spend extra money, or lose time at work... over Venmo, Zelle, or with a check.
It was a bit touch and go, texting back and forth with Colleen, Sheila, and Brian, to figure things out, especially because one document required an extra witness to sign, and it couldn't be a family member.
It was also concerning that Tim wasn't texting, until I remembered that he'd blocked that group chat after having a fight with Kevin, back in April... and thanks to that, I'd forgotten to remind him about all this, last night!
I called Tim and reminded him, so he got kind of a late start on things, and I had to update him separately about notaries and compensations and such.
Kevin was the first one to confirm he'd printed, signed, witnessed, notarized, and mailed the documents back to the lawyer on Lake Street, here in Aurora.
Four to go!
Colleen was the second one to confirm docs in the mail, a few hours later.
After that, surprisingly Brian was the third to confirm!
I was really impressed with how well Brian handled the whole thing today!
It was lucky that he has Mondays off. But Karen had them printed at work, and brought them home on her lunch break.
Brian then took them to the DeKalb Public Library to be notarized and witnessed, and then dropped them off at the Post Office, with a single stamp... as it's only going from DeKalb to Aurora.
He didn't spend a single dime!
Three down!.. two to go!
Sheila was next, around 7PM CDT (5PM her time).
That left only Tim... who was being difficult to reach all day.
He finally said he'd have to do it in the morning.
So that was a bit of a disappointment, but if he overnights it, it'll get to the lawyer the same time as Colleen & Sheila's docs.
Colleen & Sheila had to pay for notarization and shipping, to get it back here faster, so I got their Venmo information.
I texted Mr. Taylor with their, and Brian's Venmo's... and the amounts.
Colleen was $52.00... Sheila was $76.00... and I told him that Brian was $48.50... even though Brian had not spent a dime.
Mr. Taylor texted me screen shots of their Venmo profiles so I could confirm he had the right ones, and he did.
And then he sent them all the money immediately.
I confirmed for him they all got their money.
The three of them were all very impressed with how quickly he'd compensated them.
But that's the kind of guy he is!
I'm gonna try to get Tim to overnight his stuff in the morning, by reassuring him he'll be compensated within the hour for whatever it costs.
Mr. Taylor may even venmo him the money beforehand!
I'm hoping he'll do it and that everybody's documents get to the Lake Street law office on Wednesday... which is the same day the City Transfer Stamp should clear.
If that's the case, then this invalid TODI crisis will not have delayed the closing by a single day!
I was very happy about how everybody rose to the occasion today!
I think Tim would've gotten it done today too, if he'd still been on that group text... and gotten the reminder last night... and been in on the chat all day today.
But the reason he blocked that group thread is because of some bullshit that went down between him and Kevin back in April, that was triggered by Dylan's disappearance, and addled behavior when he showed up in DeKalb out of nowhere.
That whole mess has really stuck with Tim ever since, to the point he was still getting a bit emotional about it on Friday night, when him, Brian, and I, had a drunk, late night conference call.
Normally I would've talked to him again on Saturday night, with Colleen, but Pokemon GoFest was going on, so Colleen & I didn't bother roping Tim into all that insider-poke'ball talk.
Right at the end of shift, as I said, there was a tornado warning, and a storm moving in.
It was pouring as I ran to my car after clocking out, and visibility was low for the first half of the drive.
But by the time I got to the parking garage, the rain had mostly let up.
As I walked back to the tower, with my backpack, thunder could be heard, and the sky was still flashing with lightning... but the rain had stopped.
Alexa had like seven NOAA warnings for me when I got into the flat.
I'm sure Prowly rode out that storm inside the house.
He probably also rode out todays 90F heat inside the house.
I haven't seen him since last Monday, but he's been back every day, just like I have.
He's got it pretty good right now, with food, light, central air, and a queen sized bed to snooze on!
The heat and storms will subside before the sale closes, and I'm hoping the rest of the summer is a little milder and less inclement.
He's got every porch in the neighborhood to duck under if it rains, and small game to eat, so the only real challenge for him, between now and October will be the heat.
But maybe it wont' be that hot.
Natalie, meanwhile has been getting plenty of water!
This summer's been way rainier than last year.
We had a long dry spell last summer, when she was still getting established... which required me to have the bubbler going on a timer every night.
This year no bubbler... but I don't think a week's gone by since she came back to life where it hasn't rained.
Rainy springs and summers also boost the small game population... and leave drinking water in random places for outdoor cats.
So, perhaps the cosmos is working with me here, to keep them safe when I can't.
My whole mindset is different, now that I know the TODI was never valid, and that that's why the refinance failed last year.
I think Tom, my first lawyer, hired to deal with BMO, before either the refinance, or the foreclosure... should have caught that the TODI was not valid... if he was worth his salt, as a real estate lawyer!
If he had... there would've been a pathway to keeping the house!
I only went for the refinance, because he was so inept, and getting nowhere!
I mean... what else can a guy like me, who's so ignorant, do, but hire a lawyer to advise him and speak to the bank on his behalf?
But this whole experience has taught me that lawyers... can get away with doing absolutely nothing... and still take all your money.
They have no incentive to do their jobs!
So, in that sense... losing the house was inevitable... because no lawyer I could afford would've done anything to affect the situation.
But knowing with hindsight, that losing the house was inevitable... I am thankful that I avoided a total disaster!
I only avoided total disaster thanks to a bunch of lucky breaks, the first of which was my own realization that I wasn't gonna prevail over BMO's foreclosure suit.
I'd convinced myself I could prevail... but had the lucky instinct to call Mr. Taylor early enough on... that I finally got the truth my defense lawyers weren't telling me!
The second lucky break was Terry taking Yvette!
The third lucky break was getting hired to work maintenance at Potawatomi, at the end of May, with a five buck raise!
My fourth lucky break was to snag this studio apartment!
Nothing else at all was available for July 1st!.. and this place didn't need to be either!
You could count Snoop's departure to a new life on Watson Street, as a fifth lucky break?
And even the delay in the closing's been kind of a lucky break... giving me extra time to get stuff out of the house and into storage... after realizing there's a possibility I could get the place back.
Mr. Taylor himself, was a very lucky person to find!
The whole misadventure with Mr. King, and the asshole he sent for the walk through, offered a glimpse at how badly it really could've gone... either with the wrong buyer, or if the place had been auctioned by the bank!
The possibility of it being bulldozed was very high!... either because morons like King's man would've just made a knee jerk assessment that it was beyond saving... or because some auction bidder spent way too much to get it, and couldn't afford to save it.
Taylor spent the money to send in professional 3rd party inspectors, who confirmed the place was sound, and worth renovating!
It certainly helped that, because of the experience with King, I wound up selling to Taylor for a lot less than I'd originally been asking.
But Taylor's been very magnanimous about offering to get me 5K when I asked for only 3K... and paying my siblings back immediately today, without asking for receipts or anything.
He's not a cheepskate!.. he knows how to spend money to make money, and that a magnanimous reputation also pays dividends.
His outfit is named, Offer Heroes... which is directly in opposition to what King's man said to me on his walk through, which was, I'm not some kind of hero, or knight in shining armor coming to save you... we need to be clear on that! People get really upset with that, so I have to be honest about it! But this house is gonna cost so much to save, I think it should be bulldozed!
King's man thinks he can get some kind of edge by being, "honest," about how he... doesn't know how to deal with an old house, other than to bulldoze it... So just sell it to me at a loss, and take it up the ass, please!
And that guy is 95% of the buyers in the foreclosure game right now!
Taylor knows the houses... knows the neighborhood demographics... does the research... has the numbers... only works with the sharpest... dropping whoever screws up... like the title company who failed to anticipate the City Transfer Stamp, and didn't catch the invalidity of the TODI!
His own people caught the TODI problem, and he dropped that title company later the same day, after it was confirmed!
To salvage the problem, he found a local real estate lawyer half a mile from me!.. so that I'd have an easy time getting to his office last Friday.
And that young guy's proven to be pretty competent so far!
Those are all the lucky breaks I've caught since April, to prevent a total calamity... so I do think the cosmos has been trying it's best to help me through a situation it knew... long before I did... was nearly hopeless.
The stellar performance of my siblings today... I would not classify as lucky.
That's something we've cultivated among ourselves, over the years since Mom died in early 2015, and I moved home to have Dad's back.
I mean... we've never been estranged from one another, but we had all spread out across the country to start very different lives.
And there was infighting, as there remains today.
But after Mom's death, we learned how to set aside our differences and get on the same page for a family crisis.
They did kinda scramble and flounder this year, after Dad had been buried... when the only crisis left was mine with BMO and the house.
Like, It's your house now. Figure it out! I'm sure it'll be fine! We're trying to deal with our own problems.
And I won't fault them for that, because nobody really understood what the stakes were, or how intractable the problem really was.
I did figure it out... ultimately unearthing the revalation that the house still belongs to all six of us equally.
And with me already in a new apartment... and the dog safe, and the shit safe in storage (thanks to Colleen) and everything else...
And with a clear goal today... to sign and notarize authorizations for me to finish dealing with it... they were all back on board to help!
But I do think this highlights the importance, for the sake of the family... including all their kids, and the kid their kids are having, or will have... that I get that house back!
There does need to be this headquarters in the middle of the country... with all it's history and memories.
And it does have the power to hold future generations together... which is important because... families are safety nets for their members!
That house should stay in the family... and it will have a far better chance of being the generational touchstone and legacy I'm talking about... if it does get a fresh renovation all at once, this year!
I could have, half-ass, fixed her up okay!.. over the next 20 years until I died... with everybody still thinking it was about to collapse the minute I died.
Or... I could do what's happening now, which is vacate the place entirely... and, if I buy it back... essentially pay a team to renovate the fuck out of it, while I wait, living up in a studio on the 11th floor, two miles away... and while Prowly... Melody Manor's sole occupant right now... hangs out under porches in the neighborhood and bides his time for a summer.
Like with everything else in this twisted tale, that could all turn out to be wishful thinking.
But it's thinking worthy of such wishfulness.
And with one or two more lucky breaks... it's realistic!
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