Yesterday

Well, it looks like we'll finally get that piece of crap closed. When you are working with foreclosed properties, you are at the mercy of the whims of the bank. They like to drag their feet, but when they want something, they want it now. My client has bought many homes in this neighborhood. It doesn't look like a bad neighborhood, just a bit run down. However, I did read in the local paper yesterday that someone on that street had been brandishing a gun. Whenever I show my client "homes" in that area he always jokingly but seriously tells me I should stay in the car. But being the curious person that I am, I just plow right into these infested abandoned places just to see what I can see.

Usually all I see is crap. But there is that old house part of me that likes to visualize what this pile of planks and falling plaster used to look like. I like to think about what the neighborhood used to look like, who built the home and who wanted to live in it so bad that first day they opened the door. Reality then sets in and I see bathrooms that have had leaky pipes for who knows how long; rotted walls, stained floors, sagging ceilings. I see the remnants of past owners attempts to "update" the house, then, when the job became too big to handle, it was cast aside. I see bits of original woodwork that has been eaten by termites then "repaired" with something Lowes had thrown in the dumpster behind the store. I see missing foundations, broken windows, worn shingles. It's a shame, really. These older neighborhoods used to be the backbone of Wilmington. But as new was built, old became, not "cheap and cheerful" but just cheap.

In the defense of the city of Wilmington, several years ago they actually put money into these older neighborhoods. Some areas of the city had no curbs, crumbling streets and decaying yards. The city came in and gave these areas a face lift with new streets and plumbing. Yes plumbing! Not too long ago some parts of Wilmington had virtually nothing. And as the city took more pride in their town, so did the residents. Now you can find some really cute little places in the most unusual places. Like my house. I live in one of those old neighborhoods and things have been looking up these last couple years.

But things are not so good in other places. Better, but not quite there. Do I have the answer? Nah, I guess not. I wish I did. But as one realtor told me years ago, while I was shopping for a "fixer upper" for myself, "For every dirty little house, there's a dirty little buyer."

I never quite knew what to do with that one.