{"id":3304,"date":"2008-07-01T22:26:52","date_gmt":"2008-07-02T05:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=3304"},"modified":"2008-07-02T13:26:17","modified_gmt":"2008-07-02T20:26:17","slug":"away-and-in-the-dirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3304\/away-and-in-the-dirt\/","title":{"rendered":"Away, and in the dirt…"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the 1968 movie\u00a0adaptation of John Cheever’s short story, The Swimmer<\/em>, Ned Merrill (portrayed by Burt Lancaster)\u00a0stands on a neighbor’s poolside\u00a0terrace in Speedos<\/em>, gazes\u00a0out\u00a0at\u00a0the Westport,\u00a0Connecticut suburban landscape, and\u00a0contemplates swimming\u00a0across all the\u00a0backyard pools in the upscale valley to his own grand\u00a0residence\u00a0and waiting family, somewhere\u00a0on the distant horizon of his\u00a0rapidly waning psyche.\u00a0 As he\u00a0proceeds on\u00a0this symbolic journey\u00a0throughout the\u00a0running time of the film,\u00a0Merrill’s unfortunate personal\u00a0tale\u00a0unfolds and the viewer\u00a0bears witness to\u00a0an allegorical\u00a0undoing of\u00a0a once flush\u00a0ad agency man (total <\/em>1960’s protagonist profession)\u00a0who has obviously come upon\u00a0more pressing, dire circumstances in recent months. In the final scene we find a shivering Merrill\/Lancaster grasping the rusty gates of a boarded up estate, his own\u00a0foreclosed home,\u00a0in total mental cataclysm, alone, and with no apparent hopes of redemption.\u00a0 Judging from the total nothingness he\u00a0is left with in these\u00a0last crumbling moments of the story, he obviously cheated on his wife.<\/p>\n

I made reference to this very film just\u00a0last Friday\u00a0as my\u00a0Buyers and\u00a0I pulled up to\u00a0a padlocked, once grand\u00a0executive\u00a0residence\u00a0in an affluent neighborhood of Northbrook, Illinois. Before us stood 4,000 square feet of rambling, rat bitten, mold ridden, and overgrown memories plotted on a once bucolic, but irregular, single story setting.\u00a0The\u00a0original white exterior clapboard is now green and soaked with moisture, the cedar shingle roof sagging like a sway-backed horse. Shards of broken glass and rusted carriage bolts from half-hanging shutters lay strewn across slick mossy patio pavers\u00a0while the kidney shaped swimming pool,\u00a0abandoned except for\u00a05 feet of rubbish and tree limbs and swamp water,\u00a0sinks quietly\u00a0into the back corner of the overgrown trapezoid. Ghosts of a late 1960’s cocktail party society\u00a0hang from the\u00a0gray, weathered\u00a0latticework and\u00a0peer out from the tilting gables above the gutterline; their faint voices\u00a0and forgotton laughter lacing the\u00a0early summer\u00a0breeze.\u00a0A single wind chime dances\u00a0somewhere in the backgound. \u00a0What a dump.<\/p>\n

“Somebody definitely cheated on someone,” I say as I\u00a0wedge the entry key into the oxidized padlock. The house is not only a foreclosure, it\u00a0is a foreclosure <\/em>of a foreclosure.\u00a0 Literally.\u00a0 A whole lot of things have to go wrong for something like that to happen.<\/p>\n

My Buyer and his wife just\u00a0stare\u00a0at me and the house in silence. It definitely\u00a0showed better on the MLS, I conclude.<\/p>\n

“The Swimmer<\/em>, with Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 1968 movie\u00a0adaptation of John Cheever’s short story, The Swimmer, Ned Merrill (portrayed by Burt Lancaster)\u00a0stands on a neighbor’s poolside\u00a0terrace in Speedos, gazes\u00a0out\u00a0at\u00a0the Westport,\u00a0Connecticut suburban landscape, and\u00a0contemplates swimming\u00a0across all the\u00a0backyard pools in the upscale valley to his own grand\u00a0residence\u00a0and waiting family, somewhere\u00a0on the distant horizon of his\u00a0rapidly waning psyche.\u00a0 As he\u00a0proceeds on\u00a0this symbolic journey\u00a0throughout […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-real-estate","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1075,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1075\/interviews-are-back-on-track\/","url_meta":{"origin":3304,"position":0},"title":"Interviews Are Back on Track","author":"Brian Brady","date":"February 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I have two great interviews coming up this week; I think you'll enjoy them. The interviews are with real, honest-to-goodness BROKERS. Lenn Harley is an agent in the DC suburbs and runs a firm called Homefinders. I'm reading background about her now and her story about how she became one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":615,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/615\/how-much-commission-should-an-agent-charge\/","url_meta":{"origin":3304,"position":1},"title":"How much commission should an agent charge?","author":"Russell Shaw","date":"November 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Theoretically any company could \"take over\" almost any market by offering their services at a lower price than any of the competition. And sometimes economic theorists like to calculate just how long it is going to be until it happens in various industries. Usually those calculations are just exercises with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2507,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2507\/what-do-you-do-about-a-3-dollar-foreclosure-you-can-take-it-in-stride-or-you-can-squish-it-like-a-bug\/","url_meta":{"origin":3304,"position":2},"title":"What do you do about a $3 billion dollar foreclosure? You can take it in stride — or you can squish it like a bug","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Foreclosure is normally not a topic for amusement, but the Las Vegas real estate scene is like a brand new Hasbro game show, Monopoly.TV. The news:The developer of the $3 billion Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino says its lender, Deutsche Bank, filed a notice of foreclosure on the property for a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4405,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4405\/its-the-weekend-right-time-for-another-deal\/","url_meta":{"origin":3304,"position":3},"title":"It’s The Weekend, Right? Time For Another Deal.","author":"Brian Brady","date":"September 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Lehman Brothers has been shopping their firm.\u00a0 Here's Paul Muolo, who co-authored a book I'm reading, Chain of Blame, with OC Register's Matt Padilla: THIS JUST IN: It could be a busy Sunday again at the Treasury Department in Washington. Lehman Brothers (and Aurora Loan Services) may be sold in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1810,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1810\/the-countrywide-federal-bailout-act-of-2008\/","url_meta":{"origin":3304,"position":4},"title":"The Countrywide Federal Bailout Act of 2008","author":"Brian Brady","date":"August 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Have you ever felt your stomach drop? I received an e-mail, from reader Robert Kerr today, asking if I had seen Merrill Lynch's downgrade of Countrywide Financial. Merrill Lynch believes that Countrywide might face bankruptcy. Make no mistake about it, a collapse of Countrywide Financial will give everybody in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4431,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4431\/so-what-does-this-mean-to-the-real-estate-markets-and-real-estate-professionals\/","url_meta":{"origin":3304,"position":5},"title":"So what does this mean to the real estate markets and real estate professionals?","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"September 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I've already had almost a dozen e-mails, phone calls and tweets asking me, \"So how does the financial meltdown on Wall Street impact me as a Realtor?\"\u00a0\u00a0 I thought I'd take a few minutes this morning and throw out some observations and thoughts of what it might look like.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}