Sharon and Karen, The Agent, and A Dilemma

Once upon a time, not so long ago, a lesbian couple – I’ll call them Sharon and Karen – lived in a small house just a block away from Linden Green with their two adopted sons. After many years together, Karen met someone new – I’ll call her Marion – and she ended her relationship with Sharon and moved into Marion’s apartment some considerable distance away, leaving Sharon and the boys, now 7 and 9, behind. While Sharon and the boys were not happy about this when it happened, Sharon and Karen ultimately arrived at an amicable arrangement. Sharon bought Karen’s interest in the little house and the two of them agreed to joint custody of 7 and 9. But when 7 and 9 traveled to visit their other Mommie, the distance and logistics became troublesome to all. Sharon urged Karen to invest her share of the equity in the little house in a larger one nearby so 7 and 9 could visit more easily, a house with enough bedrooms so that each boy, now sharing a room, could have his own. This plan especially appealed to Karen when she and Marian, new to their relationship, were having interpersonal problems. But when things were going well, Karen was ambivalent about Sharon’s entreaties.

Enter Phil and his house on Linden Green, just a block away from the little house where Sharon and the boys lived and large enough for 7 and 9 to each have his own room. Enter also, Phil’s real estate agent – whom I’ll call Agent – who was friendly with both Sharon and Karen and recommended Phil’s house as the perfect answer to Sharon’s (and, as it turned out, to a lesser extent, to Karen’s) quest. Agent urged Karen to take a look at the house on Linden Green but Karen, who owned her own business, was scheduled to go out of town and couldn’t squeeze a visit to Linden Green into her busy schedule. By way of encouraging Phil who was beginning to feel that his house was never going to sell, Agent told Phil about the Mommies and their dilemma, suggesting to Phil, and to the Mommies, that his house was the perfect solution. While Karen was away – according to Agent’s description of events to Phil – she asked Sharon to take a look at the house on Linden Green to see if it was satisfactory. Sharon came to the house with 7 and they fell in love with it. Agent was pleased. So was Phil. But when Karen returned from her business trip, she didn’t rush to see Phil’s house herself. Phil was not pleased – this delay did not auger well - and by way of explanation, Agent told him of the facts recounted here. Still, after what seemed like sufficient time for Karen to signal her ambivalence about the plan, she came to the house on Linden Green and liked it. However, Agent reported to Phil that Karen wasn’t at all sure she wanted to buy now. Her relationship with Marion seemed to have improved. Perhaps it’s true that even a short separation does make the heart grow fonder. Or perhaps Karen had invested her equity in the little house in her business.

Meanwhile, Phil is scheduled to move into his new apartment in The Fitzgerald in the middle of August, by now obviously impossible. Without a sale – or even a contract for sale – Phil doesn’t feel comfortable obligating himself for the new apartment. This is what we call A Dilemma. Phil called Agent for advice and was urged to lower the price of the house on Linden Green by $10,000.00 in order to bring the listing into a lesser category on real estate search engines. Everything else, Agent said, had already been done to promote the house and there were no takers: only the African-American doctor with a child and nanny who had found the ceilings of the house too low, and who had (strangely) bought another house just like Phil’s in the same community; and the young couple who loved the house but had to sell their condo first. Phil hesitated. $10,000.00 less was his absolute low number, which left no room for negotiation at a time and in a psychological environment where everyone wants to tell their friends they got A Deal.

Phil called The Fitzgerald and asked for an extension of his occupancy date to the end of September, hoping that Agent was correct in suggesting that although August was hot and no one was buying, September might bring a bump in the market, or the couple would sell their condo, or Karen might fight with Marion and want to move out. Any of these could solve The Dilemma. The property manager at The Fitzgerald answered Phil’s request by saying she had the authority to extend an occupancy date for two weeks but not for six. She would have to go higher up for her answer.

In reserve, the owner of Agent’s agency, a friend of Phil’s, is also a friend of the builder of The Fitzgerald and should the Property Manager’s answer be negative, he has offered to call the builder on Phil’s behalf to plead Phil’s case for the delay.

The story of Sharon and Karen, The Agent and The Dilemma will be continued. Stay tuned.