Divine Artifact in a Scientific World-Chapter 69: House Date (2)

Abigail said, "We’re actually a few minutes early. It looks like the previous appointment is still looking. I’ll pop in-"

Before she could finish, the door opened all the way and a tall blond woman in a tight pantsuit stood in the doorway. A young man, maybe Jack’s age, stood behind her dressed in designer jeans and a button-down shirt.

"Abigail! Fancy meeting you here," the woman in the doorway exclaimed.

"Ester, still looking fit as ever," replied Abigail. "Still working the retail market?"

"You know it. I like the personal touch that comes with working directly with home buyers. There’s just something about helping people find their dream home that is just so much more satisfying than dealing with corporate functionaries."

When Ester said, "personal touch," the young man behind her briefly showed a knowing, almost smug, look.

Noticing the look the young man briefly showed, Jack wondered just how personally the young man had been touched by Ester.

Ester eyed Jack and Miranda, then said to Abigail, "Not your usual corporate buyers, these two. Branching out?"

"No," Abagail said, with a faint tone of annoyance. "I’m inspecting prospective homes for a client and a friend of mine asked if I would bring these two along and teach them a little about real-estate."

"Oh, lovely. How kind of you," replied Ester, though she sounded a touch surprised. "Well, we’re all done here. If you’ll follow me, Mr. Vashon, we’ll run along to the next home on your list."

As Ester walked past Jack, she brushed her forearm against his crotch, but acted as if nothing happened. The young man stepped outside, and Abigail and Miranda both entered the condo. As the young man walked by, he and Jack made eye contact and a knowing look passed between them.

On impulse, Jack asked him, "She any good?" His tone implied he was not asking about Ester’s profession.

The young man smiled, like a cat that got the cream, and said, "Yeah, she’s a real pro." Then he asked, "You going to NSU this fall?"

"Yup," replied Jack.

"Mr. Vashon?" called Ester from down the hall.

"Sorry man, gotta go," said the young man. "Maybe we’ll run into each other again."

Then he dashed off down the hall after Ester.

Jack wasn’t sure yet what he thought of the young man. It looked like he had some money, or came from money, but also didn’t give off the snobby, "I’m better than everyone else," vibe he mentally associated with rich people. So, he mentally put the young man in the maybe friend category, then entered the condo.

The last home on their tour for the day was one of the homes he and Madison had identified as a home they wanted to live in while attending NSU. It was walking distance from the NSU campus, walking distance to two separate parks, one inland, one waterfront, and had a view of the lake. Besides the ten bedrooms, there was an exercise room, a two entertainment rooms, a front room, a dining room, a huge kitchen with space for a kitchen table that could seat ten, a deck, jacuzzi, indoor pool, and ten car garage. It was not a house, but a mansion. They had checked and found there were several homes of similar size in the area that were rented to groups of college students, so they would not look completely out-of-place doing the same. Some of the homes were clearly fraternity homes, but some were rented by groups of friends.

It felt surreal to Jack that he was wandering through a mansion and was actually considering buying it. The place was amazing. Everything was clean and bright and new. Both women nearly orgasmed with delight when they saw the kitchen. It looked more like something you would see on a cooking show than what you would expect to find in a home. Both Miranda and Abigail enthused about the appliances, spouting brand names and features that made absolutely no sense to Jack.

Each room had an ensuite, like a hotel room, but one of them was clearly the master suite because the bathroom had three sinks, two toilets, each with their own small room with door and efficient ventilation, a massive jacuzzi tub that could easily fit three or four people and a glass walled shower that could fit at least five. The shower had two rain makers overhead, and four sets of three shower heads on the wall. There were even two benches and several ledges. Some of the ledges were chest height and were probably meant as places for soul and shampoo bottles. But some of the ledges were lower, deeper, and the perfect height for a certain shower time couples activity he had fantasized about.

Throughout the entire tour, Miranda was taking pictures and videos of each room, and Jack would periodically update the template version of her phone in his soul space so Madison could look at the pictures and watch the videos. For all the other houses, she had little to say, mostly agreeing with Miranda and Abigail. But halfway through the tour of the mansion, Madison just kept saying, "Oh, wow," and "I want it."

When they were walking back towards the front door, Abigail said, "Can I assume, from your expression, that you want to make an offer?"

"Yes. There are a few other homes we identified that would meet our requirements, but this one is ideal. For all the other homes we looked at, I’m happy to view them as purely investment homes and offers should be made accordingly. But for this home, this mansion, all I can say is, I. Want. It. So, I’m willing to go above market to get it."

Abigail smiled. "I can understand your sentiment. If I could afford it, I’d want to buy this place too. As for the price, more than half the homes in this neighborhood are investment rental homes. And as far as I can tell, only investors are buying, so if your offer is even a little over market, you’ll probably get it. I recommend you make an offer with a base price that makes sense as an investment, but with an escalation clause that goes high enough to guarantee the seller takes your offer."

"Escalation clause?" he asked.

"It’s like auto bidding," she replied. "If another offer’s base price is higher than yours, then your escalation clause kicks in and raises your offer price to be one increment higher than that other offer. If your offer is the only one with an escalation clause, and your escalation limit is higher than any other offer’s base price, then your actual offer price becomes one increment higher than the next highest offer. If other offers have escalation clauses, then the one with the highest escalation limit wins."

"So it’s like blind bidding?"

"Yes."

"Okay, let’s do it. Um, I’m thinking we can set the limit to, say, fifty percent over list price. I can’t imagine any investor would be willing to pay that much over market."

"Yes, you’re probably right. Are you sure you want to go that high?"

"Yes. It’s not an issue. Fifty percent would still be a small price to pay to live here."

"Okay, I’ll make sure the offer goes out this evening as soon as I get back to my office."

"Great."

Abigail looked between Jack who was still admiring the shower, and Miranda who was staring hungrily at Jack and said, "Normally, I’d offer to leave you two alone to continue to admire the home, but there are two other viewings scheduled for this property today, so..."

Jack turned to look questioningly at Abigail, then noticed Miranda’s look and the emotions flowing to him over their connection. He put his fist to his mouth and coughed, before saying, "Right. Um, I appreciate your consideration and the information. You need to get back to your office so you can send that offer, so I think it’s best if we leave now."

Miranda gave him the sexiest pouty look he had ever seen, then schooled her expression, turned to Abigail, and said, "Yes. This has been an enlightening day. I thank you for the guidance you have provided to me. I’ve learned a lot."

With that, they left the mansion and Abigail drove them back to Jack’s Land cruiser. He rode in silence, memories of the mansion swirling around in his mind. The pictures had excited him, but to actually walk through the mansion, something had awakened in him, some desire or craving he didn’t understand. He told himself that he wanted to live a normal college life, and that was true, but he also wanted to live in luxury. The only reason he could justify buying this mansion, then claiming he was only renting a room, was because so many other large homes in the area were being used for the same exact purpose. True, most of the students renting those rooms were from wealthy families, but he could just claim he was paying for it from the settlement and he had decided to splurge a little. It should be believable.