Anyone else to speak on this case, please come forward. Normally, I say only one
person at the podium at a time, but we'll make an exception in this case.
MS. SIMPSON: Hi. I'm Jessica Simpson; I reside at 652 Hunt Ridge Drive. And I
will be the host on Paula and Jenny's property. I am a realtor, so they contacted me.
Actually, they had another realtor. They contacted me through Airbnb and -- because
there's, like a thing that you can, like, reach out if you want someone to host your
property. And so, they were, like, hey, we have a realtor in Columbia that we've been,
like, talking to, but we want you to manage our property once we get one. And I would
say, okay, well, I'm also a realtor actually, so what kind of are you looking for in a
property? And so they told me some of their, like, requirements, and I was, like, okay, I
know exactly what neighborhood we need to look at. We need to look at West Ash
because they are -- Paula is an artist. Jenny is a teacher. They want to be able to walk
to the Farmer's Market. They want to be able to just, like, be on foot as much as
possible. And so I was, like, I just knew, being familiar with Columbia, that this is going
to be the neighborhood that they were happiest in. And I -- maybe I'm speaking, like, for
her, but, huh, it does feel like nervous up here. But ever -- when I -- when I -- the whole
time I've been talking to them, they told me they would retire in about two years, so I've
never heard anything about five to ten years. And we closed -- I can't even remember. I
kind of still have, like, pregnancy brain, I think, but we closed on the house -- it's been at
least a couple months or beginning of October, I guess, actually. And they were kind of,
like, we would love to Columbia for Thanksgiving with our family. Can we wait? And I
was, like, we can wait until March if you want to. Like, I'm not in any rush. I'm not
pushing you. Like, this is your property. You -- this is the point. This is why you want
to do this is because you -- and I told them, I said, if we need to wait two years to find the
perfect property, like, we need to find the perfect one. I'm not a realtor who is just, like, I
don't just sell people houses to make money. Like, I sell people houses to help them
build a life. And I know I actually kind of -- we looked at properties all over Columbia, and
I had a feeling. I was, like, I think this is the one. Like, I think you're going to be so
happy here, and this is where you're going to want to live. And we walked away from it.
No one put it under contract. So there was plenty of time for other people to put this
property under contract. If one of the neighbors wanted to live there, there was plenty of
time. And that did not happen, and so it kind of, like, they almost gave up. And Jenny
was, like, can you, like, it would be great if we found a house for my birthday. And I was,
like, well, McBaine is still there, and I was, like, I'm surprised, because it was so
affordable. And I was, like, this is really going to be the perfect house for you. Like, they
wanted, like, an older home, and I was, like, this one is -- I don't like to -- I -- like, it
makes me nervous to sell, you know, the older, like, bungalow homes because they were
built 50, 80 years ago, and there's so many foundation issues. And I was, like, I just
