Do You Have a Spare $150,000 Lying Around?
Home Life, Rants and Raves - 7 Comments » - Posted on January, 24 at 1:53 pm
Because I could really use it right now and not for the reasons you’re probably thinking of either.
When my great grandmother died she divided up her land and left the large farmland to my grandfather, which made perfect sense since he is the farmer, and in the interest of fairness she left her house and the 8 acres of farm land surrounding it to her daughter. My great grandmother passed away in 2002 and the land has been thus divided since. However, because my grandfather’s sister had no interest in maintaining the house (hey, her and her husband live in their home in Las Cruces after all) so it’s in need of major repairs. On top of that, she never farmed the land so it fell to my grandfather to work the land. He would give her most of the money earned from that land, since it was hers, but kept a small part to go towards seed and paying the workers.
Yesterday she dropped quite the bomb on my grandfather, who in turn, dropped it on me. She’s selling the house and land for $150,000 so that she can get some extra money to do repairs and remodeling to their home in Las Cruces. 
My grandfather is upset but doesn’t want to fight her about this. Myself, I am incredibly furious with her right now. Sure, the house is small and old and the land is large, but come on, it’s been in the family decades, for generations. Our family has owned that house since New Mexico was still apart of Mexico! Pancho Villa used to visit my great great grandfather and buy his wine from him there. My great great grandfather used to have his vineyards on that land and passed his wine business on to my great grandfather who eventually had to turn to farming cotton. My grandparents grew up in that house, I spent weekends and summer vacations there. That house was my great grandmother’s pride and joy, it’s what kept her going in her later years. And when she gave her children the land, divided as she did, it was because she wanted it to stay in the family but didn’t want her children to possibly squabble over who got what.
How can she possibly feel she has the right to just sell a part of our family’s history like that?
Tagged: for-sale, selfish, selling-a-house, selling-family-historyPosted in Home Life, Rants and Raves | 7 Comments »
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Aww that’s really sad. Especially since it’s been in the family for so long, to just want to sell it now. I hope you can talk her out of it.
Holly,
Thank you hun, that means a lot.
It is heartbreaking, but most of all it’s just plain shocking. She’s doing exactly what she promised her mother she would never do and for something so trivial as remodeling and repairs. I guess competing with the neighbors is more important than a piece of family history.
Julie,
I’m trying, and my mother and I are contemplating offering up the option of buying it from her somehow. Maybe make payments to her until we can own it flat out?
Wow, that’s just wrong. One would think that something that has belonged to the family for so long would mean more than remodeling a house. *shakes head*
Charity,
EXACTLY! The history behind that house is priceless. The sentimental value outweighs any possible monetary value she could gain from it, especially considering how flooded the marketplace is right now. I just can’t fathom her.
Sometimes, people just don’t appreciate family traditions and history. It’s a difficult subject to try and accept, but it’s true. I’m so afraid that my brother will feel indifferent to our family history that I’m willing to fight with my future husband on having the kids take my last name (and family middle names). Lol.