Adventures in House-Selling, part. III.

I'm fairly certain my gravestone will read, "Death by laid-back attorney," because I swear that guy is going to kill me.

On August 2, 2012, the day after we signed our half of the contract that states we are willing to sell our house to a particular buyer for a certain cost and closing date, I first contacted an attorney. After all, we needed someone to handle all of the legal aspects of the sale, and the first step in that regard is to enter an attorney review period. In theory, that is three business days where attorneys start representing both the buyer and the seller debate the finer points of the contract. In other words, they both reject it as written and make their own requirements as to how things should read. This could take weeks. In theory, that should be fairly straightforward. In fact, our attorney told me he would send out an email to me that very afternoon, regarding whatever he needed to put in writing at that time.

Can you hear the crickets chirping and the tumbleweeds blowing while absolutely nothing happened?

Over the weekend, I texted our realtor to ask if everything was going as intended, since we had heard nothing about what was taking place between attorneys. I received a response that this was common, and the attorneys are going back and forth and doing what they need to do. In other words, calm down. Things are progressing even if you don't see it happening. Okay, I'll just sit here and take deep, cleansing breaths while trying not to worry.

This morning, I decided to go ahead and give our attorney a call, just to make sure. I figured I could chalk it up to never having sold a house before, so I honestly did not know what to expect. Our attorney basically read back the notes from when I talked to him four days ago and informed me he still did not know who the other attorney was. Nothing had been discussed between attorneys.

We are no closer to ending our nerve-wracking attorney review period than we were last week. The only thing getting me through this weekend was the thought that our three business days would be up on Monday, so at least we would be through that particular hurdle. Now we find out that it still technically has not started, since only our half of the contract is legally represented.

I get that an attorney has a bunch of things on their plate at any given moment. I understand that selling our house is not a priority to any of them. However, it certainly is to us. I have about a month and a half to pack up, clean house, find a place to move, actually move, do one final cleaning, then have our closing on or before September 28, 2012, and we do not even have a finalized contract to motivate me to get up off my behind on this hot, muggy, summer day.

I guess it's a good thing I called him today then, eh? Oy. Keep your eyes peeled for that grave marker. I'll either be six feet under from stressing myself out over this laid-back approach, or he will have murdered me for calling him all the time to keep on top of what he is supposedly doing.