Still sort of on the market & I got St. Joseph in the wings

Well, this is the end of August and I took my house off the market the end of June because nothing was happening and my real estate agent's contract expired. She seemed capable and we had a lot of people go though the house but nothing is moving except short sales or just the occasional buyer finding something they have to have. Jefferson City is going though a depression in spirit if not in economic terms. The state budget is in terrible shape and state workers don't have confidence that they will be able to keep their jobs....let alone buy a house.

So I had a long talk with my agent and at one point she made the comment that "people don't want to live the way you live". I think that was an awkward way of saying the house is too personal -- matched to my tastes -- but I took offense a little bit at that comment. Once I thought about it I can see her point somewhat. I have three bathrooms but only one has a tub. My kitchen suits my tastes -- no granite. I don't have "his & hers" sinks in the bathrooms. The downstairs is finished off much like the upstairs with distinct rooms instead of one large multi-purpose play room.

I've been trying to sell the house since mid October. Had one guy who thought that maybe I'd like to take his vacant lot in Fulton as part of a payment for the house - wrong. I was having a bunch of showings but once the incentives are over that all dried up. The house actually looks very good but it doesn't seem to matter. I decided that I would put it back on the market once I got back from New Mexico but now that I'm back I think I will still wait a while. I don't want to cut the price any and things aren't selling anyway. I will probably do a FSBO thing in the paper or on Craigslist until I'm ready to get another agent.

One of my birthday gifts was a little 'kit' with a plastic statue of St. Joseph and a little prayer card. It had instructions on how to bury St. Joseph in the front yard to induce him to help me sell the house. I find this to be very strange and heard about it a year or so ago from someone who did it and swore that it helped. I'm supposed to bury the figurine in the front yard upside-down and tell it....sort of in a threatening way...that if he wants to be dug up he needs to get the right (and honest) buyer to come and buy my house. Once it sells I promise to dig him up and take him to my new house where he will be given a place of honor. This seems almost like extortion or some twisted form of negotiation with a plastic statue. I'm not Roman Catholic so the whole saint business is odd to me....but what if it works? Since I already have one now, maybe I should sneak out in the dead of night with a little trowel and stick him in the ground. I'll need to tie a little ribbon on his ankle to stick out so I can find him again. But I'm conflicted...If you really believe that this plastic statue has a cosmic connection to St. Joseph then what about all the other plastic St. Josephs hanging on the rack in the store. Wouldn't it be good to buy them all to sort of liberate them....set them free so to speak. I don't know what I'd do with thirty little St. Josephs. Puzzling.