After several months of work, on September 9th, the active sisters formally accepted a purchase offer for $58,000 (and many other positive features), beginning the legal process to obtain court approval to sell the house. The process for a non-profit such as PLP to sell its major/only asset requires seeking approval of any purchase offer from the state Attorney General’s office in Syracuse and the state Supreme Court in Oswego. Now that there is an acceptable offer on the table, our attorney will complete all the paperwork and submit it as required. There is no court appearance or appointments needed; it is purely a paperwork approval process, but it could take several months to receive approval and go to closing on the house.
However, the buyer will immediately clean up and secure the house as well as maintain the yard until the deal is final. And best of all, he will offer to rent back to Phi Lambda Phi next fall after he has completed work on the house. All of this is great news: PLP’s debts will be paid, the house will be renovated, and the sorority will have the opportunity to move back to 54 West Fifth St.
Closing costs ($8,000) and sorority debt (approximately $43,000) will consume most of the purchase price. But there will be enough to help PLP pay for their annual liability insurance, Rush, and other sorority costs for several years into the future. The active sisters are totally in agreement with the plan to deposit proceeds from the sale into the Tax Escrow account, which officially belongs to PLP but is maintained and controlled by PLPA for their benefit.
Our active sisters have all moved out of the House, and three of them have rented a smaller house in town which all five sisters are using as their sorority house. They have decorated it with paddles and composites as well as other memorabilia, and they are quite pleased to be living in a more secure, safer, and less expensive dwelling. But they aren’t freed of house finances and responsibilities yet. They need to continue to pay the mortgage, fire insurance, and back garbage bills, and they need to actively participate in the selling of the property.
It’s a long process but it is underway!