February 2022 –
It’s an easy five hour drive from Benson to Las Cruces (LC) that ends with the sudden appearance of the city and the Rio Grande valley as I 10 drops down a long grade. The distinctive road runner statue appears and you know you have arrived.
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| Every Saturday morning the craft and farmers market takes over Main Street in LC |
We’ve been looking forward to going to LC for months, ever since we decided to settle down here. Kayeanne has spent several hours a day researching the area, the neighborhoods, houses and realtors. I think she knows more than the natives do about the town, and especially the real estate market. We made a reservation for two months at Sunny Acres RV Park about a mile from downtown LC and began looking at houses the next day.
Like many area, the housing market in LC is very active. The good homes often sell within hours of being listed. A listing we called “the cup house” popped up a day or two before we arrived. The owners collected mugs and had about a hundred of them mounted in a custom-made wall unit. I think it was the fourth house we toured that first day. We liked it but had a few more to see the next day. Nothing else caught our eye, so when the house appeared on the open houses listing for that weekend we decide to take another, longer look, and that evening made an offer. After a little back-and-forth we had a deal. It was a little bigger than we wanted and hadn’t been updated inside, but it ticked most other boxes.
The owners wanted a fast escrow, so inspections were quickly scheduled, financing secured and an appraisal ordered. The home inspection turned up some troubling items that the owners unexpectedly pushed back on, but we worked through them. We weren’t happy, but decided that we would make most of the repairs ourselves. Then the appraisal came back substantially below the price we had agreed to. Everyone involved was surprised, to say the least. After the initial shock wore off, offers and counteroffers started flying back and forth. It quickly became apparent that the owners’ expectations were not in sync with ours or for that matter, with normal market practices when this occurs. We became pretty disenchanted with the owners and no longer trusted them. After much soul searching, we decided to walk away, despite being out of pocket about $1200 for the inspections, appraisal and title research.
While some of that drama was still going on, we returned to Benson for several days to wrap up some stuff in Tucson and to pack and clean the casita to get ready to give up our lease at the Co-op. We have certainly enjoyed our years there, but it didn’t make sense to hold onto it. And, of course, we want the money for new furniture, landscaping, etc..
It is quite amazing how much stuff we have accumulated in three years! It actually took me a couple of days to return some items to the coach, box up what we wanted to move to LC and to dump the rest. I had to make two trips to Walmart to buy boxes and tape!
On the 28th we returned to LC. We reserved the space at Sunny Acres thru April to remove any time pressure on our renewed search. Watch this space.
I really enjoyed reading two books this month: Welcome To The World, Baby Girl! by Fanny Flagg and The Blizzard Voices by Ted Kooser.
Knowing that LC doesn’t have Costco or Trader Joe’s, we
stocked up on wine in
Tucson at the end of January, and again before we left in February. Here are a few that stood out:
Duck Hunter Sauv Blanc – 2020 NZ – G
Kirkland Sauv Blanc 2021 NZ – VG
Bieler Born to Run Cab - 2018 – CA - VVG
Cavaliere D'Oro Chianti Classico Reserva 2017 - Italy – VVG
Gekkeikan Sake – VG (bargain, esp. at TJ’s)
Sorry about the lack of pictures in this edition. I deleted the pictures of the house that fell through, and discovered that I hadn't taken many others. I'll try to make up for it next month.
More soon,
Bob
