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CONFESSION #0677 — THE LISTING THAT WOULDN'T DIE
Wednesday, July 8, 2026
The deal closed six weeks late. Six weeks. And the reason, the actual reason, was a doorbell.
Buyer's inspector flags the Ring doorbell as "personal property not included." Seller says "fine, I'll leave it." Buyer's attorney sends over an addendum. Seller's attorney redlines it because the language says "doorbell and all associated mounting hardware" and the seller goes "what if they sue me over a screw."
I call the listing agent. She goes "my client is very literal."
Three weeks of this. Three weeks of doorbell negotiations. Purchase price was four twenty. We're arguing about a doorbell you can buy at Home Depot for ninety bucks.
Buyer threatens to walk. Seller threatens to keep the earnest money. I'm on the phone at eleven at night with an attorney who bills four hundred an hour and he's reading me paragraphs about "fixtures versus chattels."
Finally the seller just takes the doorbell. Leaves a hole in the siding.
Buyer closes. Immediately installs the same doorbell.
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Judge Reginald Escrow III
⚖️ Presiding
GUILTY OF CRIMINAL DOORBELL OBSTRUCTION AND AGGRAVATED FIXTURE SEMANTICS IN THE FIRST DEGREE
The Court has reviewed this confession and frankly, Reginald needs a moment. SIX WEEKS over a doorbell. A DOORBELL. This Court once presided over a dispute involving a load-bearing wall that someone painted "Agreeable Gray" without HOA approval, and THAT took less time to resolve. You stood there, a licensed professional, while two attorneys billing enough per hour to fund a small nation's doorbell infrastructure argued about SCREWS. The Court finds it particularly damning that the buyer then installed THE SAME DOORBELL, which suggests this was never about the doorbell at all but about the fundamental human need to make everyone around us suffer. I once argued with my dry cleaner for forty-five minutes about crease placement and even I knew when to walk away, which was after forty-five minutes, but SIX WEEKS? The seller left a HOLE in the siding out of spite, and honestly, The Court respects that energy while simultaneously finding it legally unconscionable under the precedent established in Ring v. Reasonableness, 2022. You allowed fixtures versus chattels discourse to occur at eleven PM and for that alone you should lose your lockbox privileges. The Court must now adjourn because Order the Roomba has entered the chambers and Reginald refuses to speak over vacuuming.
Ding Dong Damnation
Have a confession? Judge Reginald Escrow III's docket is always open.
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