I remember the day my parents told me that we were moving again. I was 8 years old and we’d just moved from New York about a year prior, and they excitedly shared the news that we were finally buying our own house. My mom said, “And, the street is named after your Dad!”. “Really?!?”, I said. “Yes- we’re moving to Old Man Court”. This quickly became a family joke… used, overused, many times for years and years. Interestingly, most of the streets in my neighborhood were inspired by various Ernest Hemingway works- ours, after The Old Man and the Sea. Our house, although not huge or luxurious, was, as most people that have visited know, very “comfy”.
Fast forward to the last part of 2019 and with our older son Akaash about to go to second grade, we knew we had to move to India then, or it will not happen for a long while. At the same time, my husband was already working with a few of his friends in India looking to startup companies devoted to early disease diagnosis. The timing, we thought, was perfect; we’d put our house on the market soon after Xmas ’19, then sell our Teslas at the start of 2020, quit our jobs soon thereafter and move to Mumbai. “It’ll be an adventure”, we told anyone that said we’re crazy.
The house was on the market but all those that came to see it balked at the repairs that had to be done. Repairs? We never thought that the house needed so many repairs! First, it was denial and as the months went by and we saw that there was a consistent pattern – most of the buyer said the same thing – the house needs a lot of repairs. We then realized that maybe we needed to look into it. Long story short, we put in a huge sum of money in the contract for the potential buyer to use towards home repairs. This brought one of the best buyers we could find. Someone that would indeed take care of the house like we’d do.
Look at the coincidence- the gentleman is a professor at the University of Maryland (just like my dad was), his name is Richard (same!), his wife is a teacher (just like mom was), their daughter for whom they bought the house is named (drum rolls please!) — Jen!! 😀
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