History Mystery

One of the benefits of any bozPROJECT is the thrill of discovering the history of the home. The problem - we do not have time to go to the county records and do our sleuthing the old fashioned way. Instead, we piece things together from the found objects between floorboards, in cabinets, in the attic...wherever we discover them.

"So," you ask, "what have you found so far?

Well, thanks for asking. We have found a little. A picture of the most recent owner, some false eyelashes, dental floss, riding tack, an award for years of service. What can one deduce from this? The previous owner is an eighty year old-ish male, respected in his profession, who enjoys riding. And his Dentist would be so proud! The eyelashes, I cannot explain.

To be fair, I already know the previous owner. Albeit, I only know him as a brief acquaintance. But I do know enough to know that the eyelashes probably belong to someone else.

"How did you know him?" You may be asking yourself.

Good question. Actually, how we knew him says a lot about how we find these investments in the first place. (You didn't think we just picked up a Scene or Tennessean one day and picked this house out of the 'lineup', did you?)

I got a call from my dear friend and fellow Realtor, Dee Davis, some months ago asking for advice on staging and pricing her father's home. I get a lot of those calls. I always say the same thing, "Tough to figure unless I can actually come by, do a walkthrough, calculate a little..."

We did the walkthrough and the math and we came up with a few interesting conclusions. They could sell it as is. For about a $15,000 investment in staging they could do a mini makeover that would make the house worth $50,000 more in profit for Dad. For about $150,000 investment, they could make the house worth $400,000 more in profit for Dad.

Dad was up for the staging, but not the massive renovation. Long story, short...Turns out the bozTEAM was up for the massive renovation. And Dad got to sell the house as is.

And he was nice enough to sell it to us at what he, we and the bank all feel is a fair price. And he was also nice enough to extend the financing deadline beyond what we originally planned while the bank made sure it was a fair price.

"So what?" You ask. "Sounds like he was nice."

Well, Sherlock, that's just the surface. If you are going to be a real detective, you need to dig deeper...

Check out Dee's last name again - Davis. That's Dee's maiden name. (Bachelors - take heed - not married, ironwoman...but that's another blog).

When I first walked into Dee's Dad's house, before I knew him; they had not yet packed or moved. So there were pictures - pictures of family. And just left of the front door was a beautifully painted portrait of a certain Mr. Davis. I recognized him from the news, from local magazines. A regular celebrity. A celebrity who was voted 'The person you least want sitting across the courtroom from you'. Maclin Davis. Of Waller, Lansden, Dortch and ...

When I walked into the house, I knew I wanted to buy it and restore it to it's original ranch-ness. As this house is telling me to buy it, my gut is telling me to buy it RIGHT, "Because, you do not want to screw up a legal transaction with Maclin Davis."

Maybe I was being silly to be scared. Maclin is so sweet. Heck, prior to closing, I was lucky enough to hear him and his lovely wife, Joan, play a piano tune and sing at a party. We even shared a martini - gin, dirty, stirred as not to bruise the gin...of course. But always in the back of my mind was , "Don't mess up."

And then, at the closing table, I realized I was not the only one scared. My banker took a look down at the name on the documents and winced, too. turns out he had seen that name before - on divorce papers. Yikes! Now that's scary!

But all that is behind us now. The papers are signed, the massive debt is officially our responsibility to spend wisely and payoff quickly, and I am lucky to have learned a little bit more about Maclin Davis from items found at the house.

In honor of Maclin, the house now has a name. All great estates need a name. This house deserves to be called an estate because it sprawls on almost an acre in the BelleMeade area. And this estate's name is Macnolia. A fine, southern name to honor a fine, southern gentleman!

We do not have time to learn about other past owners yet. We are busy taking down wallpaper and testing paint colors at the moment. That's where you come in...let us know who else lived in 407 Page and what you can find out about them. And if you are creative enough (I can go to the online tax records and look up my names on my own, thank you very much); there may be a prize in it for you. Yep, a prize! Something fabulous from among the treasures we did up at this old house. So blog us your stories about the past Page proprietors!