12/1/10

The power of a zero

I grew up around real estate. My mom is an agent and my aunt is a broker.
Back in the "day" one of my jobs was jumping up and down on signs trying to get them into the rock hard soil of South Texas for my aunts Real Estate company. If I was really lucky sometimes my friends would think it was a ton of fun to steal these signs and then put every single for sale sign in the town in the front yard of some unlucky and unsuspecting resident of Pleasanton, Texas. Guess who got to go pick them up and put them back? My cousin Myra and I were not big fans of this prank.
So, it is rather normal that I like to look at homes for sale ,or in Paris, for Rent. Lately, two bedrooms and one bathroom just really isn't working for me, so I set out on a hunt.
I found what I thought was a steal! I know better, but the optimist in me just had to call. I clarified with the agent the price and size, 350m^2 for 2000 Euros/month. He said yes.
So, my girlfriend and I set out to see this place today.
It was good really good. Can you say central A/C, 5 bedrooms each with bathrooms, terrace, top two stories of the building, hardwood and stone flooring, not to mention Haussmannian architecture. Amazing! It is still under renovations and will be done sometime February. The agent asked if my husband needed to see it, I said that would not be needed. He seemed a bit shocked, but I was feeling lucky. So, he handed me a sheet, said he would email the proper articles to get the ball rolling.
So we left.
As I walked down the street I looked at the paper,
"Pascal, there seems to be another zero added here."
Make that 20,000 Euros a month.
Insert hysterical snort laughter here. If it's too good to be true, well then it's too good to be true!
A copy of the email that I sent the agent, for your pleasure:
HI Philippe,
I loved the apartment, I don't think there is anything not to love! However, from the advertisement I was expecting something to be very wrong, but it was perfect, just the price was very different. I thought I may have stumbled upon the best deal in Paris. I'm going to paste a link to the advertisement so that when you see the price I was expecting you will get a good laugh.
http://www.avendrealouer.fr/annonces-immobilieres/detail+pro-8179218+location+appartement+5-pieces+paris-08+75.aspx

As much as I love it, I sure can't afford it. However, if you have something in close proximity to 000 rue de Grenelle that falls in the range of x000-x000 euros a month I would love to see it!

Thanks and don't laugh too hard when you tell this story to your friends;-)
Peggy Rice


It's been 9 hours and I haven't heard back from Philippe.
Cheers.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Maybe you could get him to honor the posted price...like Dillards does ;-)

Oh well...something else lovely will come along!

Love you,

Caro

Mary said...

Carol's right...the one for you will turn up.

Kerrie said...

Just keep looking Peg, I am always looking. Eventually something has got to give for us. Your apt may be small but it isn't falling apart around you!