THE GAMBLE

I retired from state employment February 2003. Shortly thereafter, the beautiful bride and I decided that we wanted to purchase a piece of property in NW Williamson County to build a house on one day.

Our wish list included in no particular order of priority:

1. Lots of trees with minimum cedar

2. A live creek or pond

3. A distant view

4. Privacy from neighbors due to acreage, trees, hills, whatever worked

5. Wildlife (deer, birds, squirrels, etc.)

6. About five affordable acres ($25,000 or less)

7. Country living, no traffic, and few people

As I was retired, I had time to get a map of Williamson County and spend a day or two per week driving the county roads in my pickup. When I traveled the length of a road, I would use a yellow marker on the map line to commemorate my journey.

Early on in this quest, I found an interesting piece of property (15 acres) that had all the requisite specifications, plus a few extra bonuses:

1. It was at the intersection of two PAVED county roads (much of the property I viewed was on dusty caliche roads).

2. With the exception of an adjacent 15 acre tract with a residence on it, the property of my interest was surrounded on all sides by 200 to 600 acre ranches with no other houses.

3. The property was relatively square so that a residence built in the middle would have an excellent buffer of trees and space between anything outside the house.

Only one problem, the $250,000 asking price was TEN TIMES my proposed budget.

I wrote off that option and continued the search for my future retirement home in other areas. My search (which included day long internet searches for real estate) lasted for six months as I grew increasingly frustrated with land that was without trees, or was shaped like a long, thin cigarette, or had a dump/junk yard next door, etc.

During all this time, I kept coming back to the gate of the "perfect" 15 acres I had found initially.

Finally, I told my bride that we were going to a real estate agent and ask to view the land. On the day we met the agent at the "promise land", we walked every step of the place. This wasn't an easy chore as it was grown up with brush and brambles like a jungle, but I had to be sure of what I was contemplating.

After an hour of walking, I told M that with her blessing, I proposed to make a ridiculous offer and see how the seller would react. M agreed and I told the agent I wanted to offer a contract in the amount of $120.000 (less than half the asking price). The agent balked at such a ridiculous amount, but I insisted (I didn't figger the agent planned to contribute much to the monthly mortgage)(and $120K kinda scared a retiree, so no amount of courage could make me offer higher).

The agent wrote the contract with a promise to offer it to the seller. The bride and I left and got on a plane the next day to fly to Nashville for a week of vacation.

In a cab on the way from the Nashville airport to the hotel, the agent called me to incredulously say that the seller had accepted my offer.

The rest is history and we have spent the last four years grooming our little piece of heaven, and future home, into our beloved TIN STAR RANCH!