August 11, 2004

Closing Time

Our closing has been delayed a day. Some minor work we agreed to do before the house was turned over is being done today and until the workers release a certificate saying the job is done, no closing. All the houses I've bought and sold in California have always had some back and forth between buyer and seller so this is no big deal. The system here is fair to both sides and is basically a series of inspection/response/inspection/response. In my experience the speed and ease of closing a deal in LA depends mainly on the party thats need to move the most. So if you are a seller and you are dying to move you'll do whatever the buyer asks without fuss. But if you are a buyer who needs to move you'll forgo asking for the picayune in order to get in the door. If neither of you care, it's a negotiation, but LA being LA it's always mellow.

My experiences in New York have been much more chaotic with multiple added layers of bureaucratic drivel often involving lawyers, co-op boards, city inspectors, extra taxes and fees, and so on. After you've bought an sold in New York a couple of times you become so hardened to the process that buying somewhere else is so easy as to feel wrong. The first time I bought in CA after having just experienced the process in Manhattan I was actually paranoid someone was trying to pull a fast one.

Anyway, it's almost done, I'm using the phones while they are still connected to do some last minute business...

Also I'm happy that many of the plants will have a good home with the Hacketts.

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posted at 11:21 AM by raul

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