integrity

the other night eric had an AWESOME little lecture w/the older boys. we have a rule that they are not supposed to play violent video games, but a little mouse informed us that they have all been sneaking and doing it behind closed doors. well, if I had been the one initiating the lecture, it would have gone something like this:  "i know you guys have been breaking family rules. bcs of this, i am taking the doors off of your bedroom. you can earn them back when you are following the rules. if you continue to try to break them when i'm not aware, you will be sleeping on teh floor too". :) but no-oooo-oo...eric is inspired. he called them in and sd this: "boys, i want to talk to you abt integrity. do you know what that word means?? it means that you are good even when no one is watching. mom and i can't babysit you all the time to make sure you are following the rules. if you are breaking them, you can probably get away with it. but not really. bcs Heavenly Father knows when you do. and so do you. and you won't be happy if you aren't a man of integrity. this shapes who you are". anyway, that was the gist of it. i was as spellbound as the boys were. he never mentioned the video games, he never accused. they weren't put on the defensive, and i won't ahve to worry abt seeing them changing in their bedrooms. :)
well, after that discussion, we had a moral dilemma w/our new house...

the purchase price on our house was 135k. that was the asking price. the realtor who holds the listing has the house listed as it is w/.35 acres. we went over and measured th lot that the house was on, and it was .35 acres. there is an additional lot behind it. i'm not sure if it's quite as big, but it's a good sized lot. it MAY be as much as .35 acres. when the house was bought by the previous owner, it was deeded together at the cost of 176k. so i have been inquiring abt that lot. who owns it? will someone be building back there? is it available for sale? will we be paying taxes on it?? will we be responsible for weed control?? etc.etc. all along i've been toldt hat the lot is not part of the house. on our sales contract, the purchase property is listed as 65 east, 200 south, delta...etc. they don't even havea  legal description. but as i was reading the appraisal last night...which is how they determined the asking price (value) of 135k, it says under property description: "lot parcel # such and such  AND lot parcel # such and such". in other words, it listed both the house AND the land. but when you look at how they determined the value, in comparison to other homes in our vicinity, the land value was adjusted to reflect just the land that the house is on. okay, so here's where it gets tricky. taht is an interior lot. there is no water or gas, but it's less than 25 feet from hook up. it's on an alley, so not likely to have any curb appeal or value for building a home. but it could easily be valued at between 10 and 20k. okay, so i called the title company and they sd that the lot was conveyed w/the houes to HUD. so i called hud. they sd they don't do land lots. if it came w/the house, it will go w/the house. so here's our dilemma.... we know that a mistake was made in determining the price. the appraiser messed up. plain and simple. do we tell them? or do we take it as is and nt mentino it? okay, my first thought was to let it slide. it's their mistake, it's their loss. but eric's little lecture on integrity kept ringing in my ears. so i did what i thought i needed to.... i called the appraisal company to point out their error. the guy got on google maps and looked at the land. he sd that it's only .35 WITH the land. i assured him it's not. he disagreed w/me. he sd that this appraiser rarely makes mistakes. he sd that it looks like a tiny lot. he sd that the only way we can know who is right would be to do a survey, and do i really want to insist on (and pay for) that?   of course not. so, i guess we're getting the land with it. :)   these are my thoughts.... if the house were to be readjusted, the value would probably go up at least 10k. taht would put it at 145k. we could afford it, bcs it would simply add to the amount we could borrow. in other words, we wouldn't have to provide more cash bcs the lender would provide it. however, w/the new value, to make it fair, would they open it up to new bidders again?? well, it's in the hands of the appraiser's boss. if he stews over our conversation and decides that it's worthy of reconsidering, we might lose the house. if he blows off the conversation bcs who am i? and what do i know? well, we just got a bigger backyard for the same price. and guess who will be planting fruit trees next summer?? :) 

life is sure interesting, isn't it??