Creepy McCreepville

So I have been a little busy and haven't had time to get this written down, so I am taking a break and getting it on paper--so to speak.

So, we are moving to Tennessee in a few very short days and since I was the only one with a flexible schedule, I flew down to TN for three days in the middle of June.

I had contacted a real estate agent and somehow we lost contact. Lisa found a house she really liked online and I contacted the realtor from that company. We had what we believed was a real estate agent from a reputable company and away we went.

This trip was doomed from the moment we went to bed.

I set my alarm wrong, so we got up a half an hour later than planned. My flight was in O'Hare and I live in Lake Geneva, WI. This trip is about an hour normally, add in rush hour traffic and we were cutting it close.

Well, Jon tells me to jump out, but we are in the third lane of traffic. I get out and go to get my bag and I cannot reach it. The police officer says, "move it or I am giving him a ticket, you do not get out of the car in traffic." Well, everyone else was doing it...

Meanwhile he is driving away with my bag.

So, I ding Jon on my phone that he is driving away with my bag and he is yelling at me about why I did not get my bag when I had the chance. I am thinking, I did not want you to get a ticket, just stop and give me my bag.

Get my bag, run into the airport, get through security, sit for flight. Fly to Nashville. All is fine until I check in at my car rental place. Apparently Travelocity agents are stupid. They said it was fine if someone else made the reservation with their credit card as long as I brought my driver's license and the credit card with me. Well, apparently you have to have YOUR name on the card. I explained to Travelocity that it was someone else's card. NOBODY will rent you a car if you do not have a credit card in your name.

Finally, after going through all the car companies, I got to Enterprise and Victoria there gave me the card of Charlie. He is a life-saver. I cannot thank him enough for renting me a car in cash and driving me from and back to the airport. We are taking him out for Mexican food once we move down to TN.

Well, off to my hotel. I check in at the desk and drive my car around the hotel and there were three drug deals going on. While I was waiting for the realtor, a hooker came in and asked for a "cheap" room without a bathroom or tv. So, I get on the phone with Travelocity and they cannot help me because it is a franchise and they are not connected and I can get my money refunded but not for 30 days. May as well make the most of it and stay in the "crack ho" hotel. I just have to make sure that I get back before dark and don't go anywhere.

I meet up with my realtor, let's call him Creepy, in the lobby. He is totally disorganized. We looked at six houses that first day and we zig-zagged all over town. Now, I had just spent three weeks sending Creepy MLS numbers of homes in our price range. I do not know Tennessee, so I was relying on Creepy a little bit to show me around and get me acclimated to Nashville. I told him I did not want to be within at least 15 mintues of this hotel. I knew that this was probably an area that I did not want to raise my six children in.

The first home we looked at was a lovely home. After looking at six more homes, we still did not find what I was looking for, so we went to lunch. After lunch it was about 4PM.

I was concerned about getting back to my hotel before dark. I suggested to Creepy that we could look in outlying areas as long as they were not further than an hour from TSU (the school Lisa will be attending). Creepy tried to talk me out of looking. He claimed that I would not want to drive that far every day. I didn't think it was his place to not show me properties that I wanted to see.

Since we had about four hours of daylight left, we found a property that had 5 acres attached to it in Lyles. Creepy said that it was about an hour drive and we should do it that day rather than wait.

It seemed to be too good to be true.

It was.

The house was a duplex, so the two floors were not connected. Creepy failed to mention that until we got to the home. He said that our two families could live separately again. The thing is, we LIKE living together and helping each other out and living like a FAMILY and he knew that. So, how can he just made the decision that we should all live separately again? Also, we have six children, two girls and four boys and three adults. I am still trying to figure out how we could have lived separately in two two bedroom apartments.

As we are heading out of Lyles, he says his land is five minutes away, do I mind if he stops and checks it out as he had not been up there in awhile.

Being the heroine of this saga, I said no, I did not mind. I was not going to go anywhere and as long as I made it back to my hotel before it was dark it was fine.

We get on our way and he asks if I mind if he stops for a six pack of beer. Heroine is thinking he wants to stop now so he doesn't have to stop later. That's fine with me.

The heroine was wrong.

He proceeded to open a beer and pour it into a tupperware cup he had in his cup holder and drink it. I believe he finished the entire six pack before we returned to the hotel while driving.

When we arrived at his farm we got to go off roading in his truck on his land. He forgot to mention that it was just that, land. No home, no road, no phone service. We get out into the middle of it and he gets out of his truck and asked me if I wanted to get out and look around.

It's land. It is not like I cannot see out of the windows.

I am thinking to myself, the heroine stays in the car, the heroine stays in the car, the girl who doesn't die in the beginning of the movie half-naked stays in the car.

Then he got back into the truck and drives a little further while turning around. He sees his crick and he has to get out to check it out. He yelled that he can see a huge turtle in the crick.

Lisa asked me later if I had gotten out at the creek to look at the huge turtle. I said, THE HEROINE STAYS IN THE CAR. If I had gotten out, do you know where I would be?

In the crick.

With the huge turtle.

In pieces.

I was an hour away from my hotel and had put my trust in this man and here we are out in the middle of nowhere and I cannot contact anyone and he's drinking and driving.

I was so glad to see the crack ho hotel again.

During this first day, Creepy developed a disgusting habit that drove me crazy. He would spit constantly. He would spit out the window, on other people's property, on the street, all of the time. It was rude and embarrassing behavior from a professional in my opinion. He continued spitting the entire three days I was there.

The next day, I tried to contact the other realtor I had found. Let's call her Glinda, the good realtor. She was not available.

The second day.

I decided to suck it up and drive my own vehicle anywhere I needed to go this second day. Creepy called me at 8:15AM to make arrangements for the day. He asked me to meet him at 11AM at his office. Why do you call someone three hours before you want them to meet you?

We finally got on the way to see homes after 2:30PM. I feel like we wasted 3 hours looking at houses on the computer rather than getting out and actually seeing them and figuring out where they were located in relation to TSU and SE Nashville where Jon is going to be working.

I was frustrated. I kept wanting to leave and go look for a good map. I wanted to explore Nashville a little bit to see exactly what I was looking for and if I could afford it. He just kept making excuses on why I couldn't leave.

Finally we left to look at property.

He couldn't understand why I wanted to drive my own car.

We looked at about 7 homes. The last home was on Brunswick, the same street as the first home we had looked at the day before. As we were leaving the house, Creepy asked me, "Do you mind living with blacks?" I said no, I did not care who lived near me as long as they cared about their homes as much as I cared about my own. Then I realized what he had asked me. I called Lisa and she was in disbelief. Jon said like in the same house, like does he know someone we can rent with?

On my way back to the hotel from there Creepy tells me to get on the expressway and my hotel will be right there. Well, there are what feels like 800 different highways, expressways, & roads that intersect off of 24 and I do not know my way around. And I have no map because Creepy would not direct me to a store to find one.

They have signs that say, Memphis, Knoxville, Chatanooga, etc. Well, after an hour and a half in traffic and passing the same road for the third time, I got off, bought a map, and asked for directions.

Well, I was less than 10 minutes away from my hotel the entire time, and since I had already established with Creepy that I did NOT think that this was a neighborhood I would like to raise my children in, I also felt betrayed that he did not expain how close to the hotel neighborhood this house was. I was so angry and frustrated and homesick by that point that I just went to my hotel and cried.

That night I found out it got worse.

Lisa and Jon had researched the schools in that area. The school district has a 39% graduation rate. That is just not acceptable in our opinions and we needed to find a different area to look in.

I had Lisa look up new MLS numbers in areas that she and Jon had researched the night before based on better schools. I needed to see more homes and I needed to try to find a map and check out what areas we wanted to look in.

The last day.

The last day of looking at homes was just as horrible as the first two. Creepy knew I had a time constraint. He knew I had a flight to catch and I had to return my car first. I got to his office at 11:30AM, because I got lost. We left after 2PM, again I felt like we were just wasting time.

We only looked at 7 homes. I found one I loved, finally. Creepy tried to tell me that it was too small for my family. We raced around looking at the rest. He was so far ahead of me at points that I thought I had lost him. He would call me on my cell phone and ask where I was. I told him that he was too far ahead of me and he would say I know, could you try to keep up? I said I was doing 60 mph in a 40 mph zone already and he needed to wait.

Then when it's time to leave, he would not give me directions to get back to Charlie, the car dealer. He thought it was funny. So, I called Charlie and put him on the phone with Creepy so that I could get good directions and possibly make it to the airport on time.

On my way out of town and at the airport I was able to contact Glinda, the good realtor and she agreed to represent me and mine after talking with her broker to make sure that there were no reasons why she couldn't.

Thankfully, she's representing us now. I now feel like my best interests are at her heart and that she is working FOR me. I am so very grateful to Glinda for not giving up on us and being able to take on the responsibilities of handling this transaction through fax and email.

When I returned home, I found out that Creepy had kept calling my house in Wisconsin instead of calling my cell phone. He woke my sister and the children a number of times.

Then he kept calling my home number on accident to tell me what landmarks we were passing, Lisa would tell him that he had called the house again, but he never called me back on my cell phone to tell me and these were things like schools, grocery stores, things I would need to know to get around.

I did not feel like he listened to what I was looking for. I do not think he understood that we had a financial constraint and wanted to spend as little as possible for as much home as necessary in a nice neighborhood of MY choosing, based on schooling and feeling. I felt disrespected, ashamed of his behavior, and all around discontent to be moving to this new state and city.

If it weren't for people like Glinda, Charlie, and Glen I know I would have a different opinion of Tennessee. Thankfully the universe always balances itself.

I believe that Creepy McCreepville was released him from his team and he might be facing federal charges based on his blatent disregard of the Fair Housing law.

Glinda, the good realtor found us a beautiful home that has passed inspection and we are on our way.

Look out Tennessee, here we come!