#4: When I Tried to Sell my House and Mercury Retrograde Kicked My Ass
I didn’t pay attention to Mercury retrograde and it made for a very bumpy experience.
You’re reading Self Certain™ where we discuss astrology, human design and other personality frameworks to better understand ourselves and make life just a little bit easier.
Subscribe to the free newsletter to stay up-to-date on new posts.
Should you care about Mercury Retrograde?
Mercury Retrograde occurs when the planet Mercury appears to be moving backwards across the sky when viewed from Earth. During these periods, it's said that you shouldn’t sign any major contracts, make big life decisions, big purchases or kick off new projects. As the planet of communication, Mercury’s energies negatively influence communication during Mercury retrograde. This doesn’t mean you can’t at all sign contracts during this time. However, there might be some major pieces of information that you don’t know which would influence your decision. You’ll need to work hard to uncover this information in order to know all of the pertinent details of your agreement.
I didn’t pay attention to Mercury retrograde a few years ago and boy did I regret it. It’s not that I think my life was changed irrevocably because I wasn’t careful during Mercury retrograde. I just think I could have avoided a lot of frustrated tears, legal fees and heated phone calls if I had paid attention to what every astrologer says: Be careful when making big decisions during Mercury retrograde.
When I signed a big contract during Mercury retrograde
Listen. It was 2022. I was trying to sell the house I purchased right before covid and it was not going well. My co-owner did not want to leave the house and made it difficult for me to get the sale moving.
After months of convincing, in the summer of 2022 we finally got a real estate agent signed and ready to prep the house for sale. I was anxious to get the house off of my financial back. I didn’t realize how much time and money it really takes to upkeep a house. I didn’t want to invest that much of my finances to home upkeep when there were so many other things that I would rather put my money towards.
So after months of getting the house ready for sale, the realtor finally put it on the market. We got a few interested parties, but no offers.
Until a wonderful couple made an offer that me and my co-owner both liked and accepted. I didn’t realize when I signed that offer contract that Mercury had gone retrograde.
All in the details
If you’ve never sold a house, there’s about one month between signing the initial offer and the sale. This gives the buying party time to examine the state of the property, ask for repairs and ensure that it’s a financial investment they want. From the foundation inspection to the regular inspection to a few requests for paint, the house passed with flying colors.
Then a couple of days before the sale, the buyers sent a contract addendum asking for my co-owner’s solar panels to be completely paid off before the sale went through. Now here’s the thing about these god forsaken solar panels. My co-owner bought them and had them installed on the property without my knowledge. Which is not great since there’s the whole “co” in co-owner.
I had zero financial responsibility for these solar panels and no idea how much had been paid off. If I signed this addendum promising that the solar panels would be paid off in mere days, I would be legally responsible for paying off this giant purchase that I didn’t actually make.
I refused to sign the addendum. I had spoken with the realtor at length about the solar panels and made clear that I didn’t want them included in the sale when I had hired her two months prior. She said that wouldn’t be a problem.
The real estate agent apparently did not recall any details of this conversation despite my many emails regarding it. She yelled at me over the phone that I needed to sign this contract. That I was legally obligated to make the sale of the house go through smoothly. But this was something that I had discussed with her so many times I thought it had been clear. I didn’t want to become responsible for solar panels that are worth 40k and who knows how much had been paid off of it.
There were days of back and forth phone calls about how I was being “hard to work with.” When in reality, I just didn’t want financial liability for an item I never wanted. I was proud of myself for standing my ground and not taking on a liability that I didn’t want, need nor deserve.
The realtor involved their manager. On a phone call, the realtor’s manager mentioned a questionnaire that I had supposedly filled out about the sale of the house when initiating the relationship with the realtor.
I had never seen this questionnaire. Apparently, my co-owner had filled out this questionnaire stating that the solar panels would be paid off with the profit made from the house. A decision that I, obviously, did not agree to nor would allow. Turns out, the realtor hadn’t bothered to include me in those conversations.
This hidden agenda and deceit is the crux of mercury retrograde. Something about the decision needed to be investigated before signing the contract. I just didn’t realize it.
Despite my lack of knowledge of this questionnaire. The realtor’s manager told me if I don’t sign the addendum then the couple trying to purchase my house could have grounds to sue me.
Sooooo I had to hire a lawyer. And the lawyer, thank god, was able to help facilitate the conversations. The couple decided to purchase the house after all of the internal fighting on the seller’s side (I don’t blame them).
Living and learning
Needless to say, I fired my realtor. I had the solar panels taken off of the house to ensure that they weren’t considered “part of the property” for the next offer.
My new realtor said he was committed to keeping the interests of both me and my co-owner in mind during the sale.
Before putting the house back on the market, we spruced it up to help it sell faster. Just a few weeks after we put it back on the market, we got an offer that worked. I signed that offer letter, verifying that Mercury was NOT in retrograde when I did.
Mercury retrograde reminds us that communication is tricky and clear communication can be difficult during high-pressure decisions. We always need to be intentional and thorough before signing anything. Just in case.
Do you have any Mercury retrograde learnings?
Get Personalized Guidance with a Mini-Reading
Want to know more about you or someone you love while supporting Self Certain? Get personalized guidance with a mini-reading for only $7. Choose an area of life to focus on in through a simple form to get started. Learn more here.