Selling my mother’s house a day after Mother’s Day
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2024 Blog #19
May 12, 2025
Selling my mother’s house a day after Mother’s Day
It seems like a strange irony that I am selling my mother’s house on the day after Mother’s Day. Well, technically it is not my mother’s house. It had been her retirement house before she entered assisted living more than ten years ago. At that time, I bought it from her and have rented it ever since.
Why did I buy this house from her? The answer to that is multi-faceted.
One thought that I had was that I might want to use it as a retirement house. The house was part of an adult community in South Jersey. Perhaps, I thought, as my mother had retired there, this might be a fine place to retire to. I ruled that out several years ago as my daughters and grandsons made homes near me in North Jersey. Somehow, I couldn’t imagine retiring so far away from them. If I do retire someday, I want to be close to my grandsons.
After I had purchased this home, I began renting it out to a mother and her daughter. Both were older than I. This worked rather well for all parties involved. I keep the rent low so that these two received good housing in a quiet neighborhood and my expenses for owning the house were paid for. Everyone was happy until almost eighteen months ago. It was then that the mother died, and the daughter stopped paying rent. I tried to work with the tenant, but nothing seemed to work out. She told me many stories of how she was trying to pay the rent, but no rent seemed to come. I probably was too patient. After a year of no rent, but with all of the bills of ownership, I had to go to eviction court. This, of course, cost me more money.
When the non-paying tenant left, I faced some choices. Should I try to rent again? This would restore some income to me and allow me to give affordable housing to someone over the age of fifty-five. The alternative was to sell the property and use it to purchase a retirement home near me in North Jersey, if and when I would choose to retire.
I chose the second option. I simply did not have the heart to risk another non-paying tenant. Such people, I discovered, cost a homeowner a great deal of time, money and energy. I don’t want to go through such circumstances again.
I was surprised how rapidly I was able to sell the property. It is now under contract just six weeks after it was listed for sale. Today, I will be signing papers with an attorney, and I expect a closing on the house by the end of the week. It strikes me as bitter and ironic that I will be signing these legal papers just one day after Mother’s Day.
This house was my mother’s salvation. She had been abused in her former home and bought this to get a fresh start. At her former home, she had stopped entertaining. Once in this home, she began again and loved holding Thanksgiving Dinner there. Although I did not grow up in this home, it does hold a number of memories for me. The most significant memory is how happy my mother looked when she moved in and put the house of her abuse behind her.
Today will most likely be the last time I see this house that became my mother’s safe house. It is bittersweet. This house saved her spirit but cost me a lot of money with a non-paying tenant. Soon, both the good and bad of that house shall be left behind. The house served my mother well, and for a brief time it served me well. Now I turn it over to others and I pray that it will do good for them and serve them well also.
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