Chapter 6

Parking next to the realtor I get out, shake her hand, and introduce myself. She is a rather attractive woman as well, a bit on the older side, maybe early to mid-thirties. With her heels, she is a bit taller than me, and she is wearing a nice white blouse with a professional skirt that accentuates her figure.

With a nod and a polite smile, she says, “you can call me Janine, Mr. Hawthorne. Forgive me for asking, but you are a bit younger than I was expecting, are you sure you can afford the rent on this home?”

“Oh, yes, the rent shouldn’t be a problem I was actually wondering why it was lower than expected, I’ve done a little research and it is within fairly normal ranges for renting a home of this expense, but that is assuming it doesn’t have amenities, that this home has, such as the pool and land. I guess I’m worried that there might be something wrong with the property or that there may be some larger expenses that aren’t covered by the rent.”

“Oh, no. The home was almost completely rebuilt just last year, unfortunately, the landowner's wife passed away before they could move in and he chose to stay at his home in the city. When it was put up for rent three months ago we had it inspected and everything was in working order, most of it being brand new. There shouldn’t be any large expenses outside your rent, the landowner has offered to include utilities, with the agreement that if you should go over a specific amount, which will be detailed in the rental agreement, you will be charged the difference. He will also continue to pay for the gardener to ensure that the lawn and garden are maintained. The pool testing is automated and someone comes by once a month to make sure it is working properly and to replace chemical cartridges if necessary. Ultimately, he would like the house to be occupied soon so he was willing to lower the rent and cover those things in order to draw more interest.”

“I see, that seems reasonable, should we take a look inside?”

“Of course,” she says as she walks up to the porch and unlocks the front door.

As we walk in I ask, “do you know if the owner is interested in selling?”

She looks at me, a bit surprised by my question, “that is a bit more complicated, while the home is only listed as being on forty acres that is for the same reason that the rent was lowered. He actually owns a little over six hundred and forty acres surrounding the house and, from what I understand, the land has been in his family for several generations so I’m not sure how he would feel about selling.”

“That is rather troubling, I’m sure that would significantly increase the price assuming he would even sell. Perhaps I could explain my thought process and you could tell me what you think or would recommend,” I say, and look to her for confirmation. She gives me a nod so I continue, “I don’t currently have enough to buy the house, especially knowing how much land is attached now. I was planning on paying six months rent in advance so that I could move in as soon as possible and I could use that time to get a feel for the house. I should have had enough to buy it in roughly a month so if I fell in love with the place by then, I would look into purchasing the house in full. However, given this new information and the likelihood that he will not wish to sell I may have to look into another house. Which is rather disappointing, because, I quite like this place, so far, it is very beautiful.” I look over at her wistfully. “Sorry I rambled a bit there, what do you think, how much would you estimate the house and land to be worth and do you think he would be interested if I were offering to pay in cash?”

She looks startled by my declaration and it takes her a moment to respond. “I would have to talk to the landowner before I could tell you whether he’d be willing to sell, but, if he were, the house with the land could be valued at anywhere from one to three million dollars.”

I’m not really shocked, land prices here in Texas are usually a couple thousand dollars or more per acre, the land alone is probably worth at least one-point-two million dollars. I’m not sure why but part of me really wants to buy it, another part of me isn’t sure it is worth it. The part of me that wants to buy seems to be winning though, I wonder if my intuition skill is playing a role at all. That thought stops me in my tracks, while I’ve only used the skill for gambling so far, nothing in its description stated that that was all it was good for. Perhaps there is more to this place, or maybe I might need the land in the future. I’m not sure but that leaned me even more towards buying it, I’ll trust my gut for now. “If you could, ask him if he would be willing to sell it to me for one million dollars in full by the end of next month, at the latest.” Maybe I'll make a visit to Vegas this weekend, I bet I could win big there and it would be far less noticeable than it would be here. “As for the rent, I’d like to go ahead with it, and if he agrees with the sell he can consider the fifteen thousand, for six months rent, a bonus.” Fifteen thousand would be rather inconsequential compared to the potentially million dollar purchase. “There were a couple of rooms I had been concerned about but having seen them in person they seem fine, I think the photos just played tricks on my eyes. I assumed you’ll need to talk to the owner before coming to an agreement with me?” By the time I finish talking she has regained her composure, although there was a hint of surprise when I mentioned buying the place for one million. I’m not sure where my confidence has come from all of a sudden. My best guess is that I’m thinking so much, about the money and how I might make it, that I’m not paying overly much attention to the actual conversation, just thinking out loud.

Over the next several minutes we continue to talk about the rental agreement, I mention my desire to move in rather soon and my willingness to pay up-front. After we talked she asked me to follow her back to her office where we could fill out some of the paperwork and she would contact the landlord on the way to discuss what we’d talked about and to see if he would be willing to meet us at her office. We arrive twenty minutes later, unfortunately, the landlord is busy and won’t be able to join us, but he is okay with me renting his home and agreed to let me start moving in tomorrow pending a background check, that, Janine says, could be done in minutes but could, potentially, take up to twenty-four hours. She starts the background check and I look over the rental agreement, it is fairly basic and includes everything we discussed with, as far as I can tell, no obvious issues. A few minutes into my reading Janine receives an email with my background check, and she starts to look it over as I finish. We talk a bit longer, her asking about my credit and employment, and me mentioning my recent financial windfall, without going into too much detail.

“Okay,” she says as I sign the rental agreement. “I’ll email this to the landlord and contact you for payment when he signs later today and we can set a time for me to bring you the keys tomorrow.” We stand up to shake hands as I thank her for her help.

Over the next three days, I continued my usual routine with a few exceptions. I moved into the rental house. I got furniture for the living room, a couple of nice beds for my room and the two spare bedrooms. I bought a couple of tv’s, one for my room and one for the living room. I also got a new computer and the accompanying accouterments, monitor, mouse, mouse pad, keyboard, and headset all sitting on a nice computer desk. I finished the email negotiations with the car dealerships. I ended up getting the Corvette and a Jeep Wrangler. There for a bit, I was leaning toward the BWM, but one dealership had a used Corvette fitting practically all my specifications for only seventy-two thousand dollars and it only had eight thousand miles on it. I was able to get a used Jeep Wrangler Sahara for twenty-seven thousand and it also only had just under eight thousand miles. After sales tax, I ended up spending just over one-hundred and five thousand dollars on the two vehicles which is about as much as I had originally expected I would pay just for the Corvette. Luckily I made out pretty well at the casino those three days and as of today, even after paying six months of rent and buying the two cars, I’ve made nearly twelve thousand dollars. I also bought a plane ticket to Las Vegas and made hotel reservations, I decided that was probably my best bet for getting the money for the house rather quickly and if the owner decides not to sell I’ll have a nice little nest egg saved up when I do decide on a house. I also gave Amanda a call, I ended up inviting her to go to Vegas with me. It’s a bit extreme for a first date but I wanted to see her again soon and had already decided to go to Vegas so I took a risk, surprisingly she accepted.