Waiting

I am not very good at waiting. From standing in line at the grocery store to sitting in traffic, from anticipating Christmas to planting spring bulbs in the garden, I am a person of little patience. I want to see results, reactions, closure, whatever. And I want it now.

This does not particularly suit me well for real estate transactions. Crafting a sales contract, dotting i's and crossing t's in a listing agreement, closing loopholes, creating others...observing the traditional dance moves of buying a house is painfully slow. Sign and initial, initial and sign endless documents that one person makes endless copies of, then passes to another person who reviews, copies, sends to clients so that they can sign and initial, initial and sign ad infinitum. Then copy again and send back to the originator to alter, initial and sign and start the entire process yet again.

When everyone tires of writing their names and initials in appropriate boxes and lines, we move on to the financial forms. More initials, more signatures, this time with numbers and percentages sprinkled through the pages. Then, whole pages of numbers assigning dollars to specific tasks and specific people at specific times. Wait to sign, wait to initial, wait for checks, wait for loan officers, wait for underwriters, wait for papers to be copied or signed or rendered useless. They should stop calling us 'clients' and start calling us 'patients'.

There are some advantages, I'll own. By doing this, we create a financial snapshot for ourselves and can see where we are. We establish some quality time together, digging through files and papers and assorted boxes of information. We spend more time at home waiting for the phone to ring, telling us of success or failure or yet another postponement while we await the arrival of yet another piece of paper or two. I've reduced my internet time by at least half. Real life is more challenging than any virtual world.