Friday, November 11, 2005
FSBO Tales
Selling a house is hard work. Sure, we've done it before, but never with two kids living in the space we're selling. Last time, Nicholas was a year old and not walking. He could be contained. It was easier. Now? Not so much. Sure, sure - our buyers dropped out of the sky and saved us from actually having to list the house in any way. No sign, no flyers, no open houses. Oh wait - I take that back. I've had 4 OPEN HOUSES with yet another one happening today since we embarked on this endeavor. Not fun. Not fun at all.
See, the first time these people wanted to look at the house it was when I literally stumbled upon them in my driveway as they were leaving a note expressing their desire to see the house. It was a tad bit awkward, to say the least, because the house was anything but ready to show perfect strangers. Messy living room, dirty dishes in the sink, embarrassingly un-showable master bedroom (what? You mean you never leave your clothes on the floor when you go to bed?? And you actually MAKE your bed first thing in the morning? Who are you?). So I was only able to really show them the outside of the house/yard and give them a run-down of the basics. They must've liked what I was selling because they hassled us to come get a look at the inside. FINE! I huffed and puffed and got the place pulled together. It ain't no easy task. I abhor clutter and fight it everyday. And yet it does accumulate, and accumulate fast. I spent hours and hours going through every room, every corner, every nook. Nothing was spared. Closets got cleaned out. Crap that was collecting dust in the garage was either sold or dumped. It was liberating to be free from all the junk and live in a much tidier space. The buyers came and the buyers liked. And they've come back a few more times since. That's the problem. I'm not horribly messy, but we LIVE here, so it's not a showplace every minute of the day. It takes time to bring the place back to a condition ready for buyers to see it. We always have advance notice that they're coming - to see the place, to sign papers, whatever. They don't just pop over and knock on the door - surprise! Mind if we have another look? I appreciate the warning. But it's gotten old. They were just here yesterday for a few hours because the house was being inspected. And they're coming back today to show the house to one of the ladies sister who is visiting from out of town. It's nice that they're so excited, but damn - ! And so YET AGAIN I'll be busting out the vacuum, mopping (or at least spot cleaning) the floors, making beds, tiding up the random crap that tends to get scattered about by the kids, and lighting candles in the bathroom and various places to create a warm, pleasant environment. It's all about the little touches, right?
But this visit is really cramping my style because now I have to keep the kids home this morning so we're here when they come over. And I need to bake a couple dozen cupcakes, make 4 or 5 different colors of frosting, assemble 13 gift bags including personalized coloring notebooks, and at some point wrap some gifts for the humongous party we're having here for Lauren tomorrow. Plus a million little details I'm not thinking of right now. But all of that has to be on hold until I show the house ONE MORE TIME. Sigh. This makes the 5th showing to these people, for those keeping count. I'm certain it won't be the last.
It's really interesting to hear what new buyers plan to do to change the house once they move in. We've learned that these people plan to install some skylights in the kitchen and bathroom. One snag - we have ceiling radiant zonal heat. Installing a skylight would interfere with the heating system. So they're puzzling over eliminating the heat in the kitchen (we never use it anyway and instead just heat the adjacent living room) and bathroom, or going with solar tubes. Regardless, some form of skylight will be installed. And Nicholas's room will be painted blue, the choice of the teenager who will be claiming that room as her own. It has a blue carpet - that's a lot of blue. But whatever - there's no accounting for teenaged taste anyway. They plan to plant an apple tree in the yard. I'm looking forward to making plans for my own new house. Let's all hope we know something about the where's and when's of our own moving scenario soon! I'm very excited about settling into a new house, wherever that may be, and decorating it to fit our style and make it our own. That's the fun part. Until then, we wait in endless limbo. At least every penny of this sale goes into our pockets and nothing is paid in commission! We're gonna need it. Oh the joys of FSBO...
See, the first time these people wanted to look at the house it was when I literally stumbled upon them in my driveway as they were leaving a note expressing their desire to see the house. It was a tad bit awkward, to say the least, because the house was anything but ready to show perfect strangers. Messy living room, dirty dishes in the sink, embarrassingly un-showable master bedroom (what? You mean you never leave your clothes on the floor when you go to bed?? And you actually MAKE your bed first thing in the morning? Who are you?). So I was only able to really show them the outside of the house/yard and give them a run-down of the basics. They must've liked what I was selling because they hassled us to come get a look at the inside. FINE! I huffed and puffed and got the place pulled together. It ain't no easy task. I abhor clutter and fight it everyday. And yet it does accumulate, and accumulate fast. I spent hours and hours going through every room, every corner, every nook. Nothing was spared. Closets got cleaned out. Crap that was collecting dust in the garage was either sold or dumped. It was liberating to be free from all the junk and live in a much tidier space. The buyers came and the buyers liked. And they've come back a few more times since. That's the problem. I'm not horribly messy, but we LIVE here, so it's not a showplace every minute of the day. It takes time to bring the place back to a condition ready for buyers to see it. We always have advance notice that they're coming - to see the place, to sign papers, whatever. They don't just pop over and knock on the door - surprise! Mind if we have another look? I appreciate the warning. But it's gotten old. They were just here yesterday for a few hours because the house was being inspected. And they're coming back today to show the house to one of the ladies sister who is visiting from out of town. It's nice that they're so excited, but damn - ! And so YET AGAIN I'll be busting out the vacuum, mopping (or at least spot cleaning) the floors, making beds, tiding up the random crap that tends to get scattered about by the kids, and lighting candles in the bathroom and various places to create a warm, pleasant environment. It's all about the little touches, right?
But this visit is really cramping my style because now I have to keep the kids home this morning so we're here when they come over. And I need to bake a couple dozen cupcakes, make 4 or 5 different colors of frosting, assemble 13 gift bags including personalized coloring notebooks, and at some point wrap some gifts for the humongous party we're having here for Lauren tomorrow. Plus a million little details I'm not thinking of right now. But all of that has to be on hold until I show the house ONE MORE TIME. Sigh. This makes the 5th showing to these people, for those keeping count. I'm certain it won't be the last.
It's really interesting to hear what new buyers plan to do to change the house once they move in. We've learned that these people plan to install some skylights in the kitchen and bathroom. One snag - we have ceiling radiant zonal heat. Installing a skylight would interfere with the heating system. So they're puzzling over eliminating the heat in the kitchen (we never use it anyway and instead just heat the adjacent living room) and bathroom, or going with solar tubes. Regardless, some form of skylight will be installed. And Nicholas's room will be painted blue, the choice of the teenager who will be claiming that room as her own. It has a blue carpet - that's a lot of blue. But whatever - there's no accounting for teenaged taste anyway. They plan to plant an apple tree in the yard. I'm looking forward to making plans for my own new house. Let's all hope we know something about the where's and when's of our own moving scenario soon! I'm very excited about settling into a new house, wherever that may be, and decorating it to fit our style and make it our own. That's the fun part. Until then, we wait in endless limbo. At least every penny of this sale goes into our pockets and nothing is paid in commission! We're gonna need it. Oh the joys of FSBO...
// posted by MP @ 8:31 AM 
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