We are working on the sale of my farm. I spent most of today working on the Offer Contract that is more than just the money part and dates, it was 16 pages of standard form and an additional provisions. I figured there shouldn't be a lot of issues, but I was wrong. The lawyer I hired to look at it had a ton of additions and changes and was very good about explaining the reasoning behind them so I would be able to know what was the thinking.

Then, meeting with the Buyer involved finding out his reasons for the way things were worded and coming to an agreement of what changes would be made and which not made. The Realtor was there for comic relief, bringing up irrelevancies and more or less keeping up. The Buyer was very good about explaining the reasoning behind the wording and I was able to follow the thinking.

The meeting started at 10 am, and about 1 pm the Buyer, whose office it was, started dumping bags of string cheese, a jar of peanuts, a couple of other kinds of cheese, and some granola bars in the middle of the conference table. Beverages? Diet Rite pop or fight over the one bottle of water. That was lunch, and there wasn't any coffee earlier, either. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

So finally, at 2 pm it was over and I dragged myself home, just wrung out like a dishrag.

My Ivy League cousins from back east are my partners in the farm, and they have hired their own lawyer for this deal, so once the one I hired is satisfied, we have to run it by this other guy. I hate their lawyer. He loves to ramble on and on while the billing clock is ticking. My lawyer is very terse and competent. I worked with him on a large real estate deal 6 years ago, and was glad he was available to help with this one.

The next hurdle is for my cousins' lawyer to review the changes worked out by my lawyer, and then their lawyer has to convince my cousins it's okay to sign the contract. I just hope their lawyer doesn't drag things out, and that my cousins listen to reason. They don't have much of a past record of that - they think they know everything even though they don't know anything at all about farming or selling farms in Colorado.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow - maybe things will go smoothly from here on out. For a change of pace I'm going to go next door and vacuum up dead flies.