Buying/Selling a House

[Ellen Griswold]

We are listing our house TOMORROW!    After talking about it for a hundred years (maybe a little less), I can't believe the day has actually come.  I'm tackling the last of the clutter piles  and wondering how on earth I will maintain this level of cleanliness while having 3 children and babysitting 2 more.  There isn't enough chocolate in the world to medicate my stress level.  Oh, and a house that I just happen to love has just dropped into our price range.  Anybody else on the market?

[mumkimum]

Congrats on listing!  It's an exciting to go at it- good luck!  

My advice on the stress - we've gotten good at going over the complete place in a day when we have to.  Keep up on the kitchen/bathroom the most.  We keep random buckets/boxes to dump stuff in when we have to (but then make sure you go through them later, otherwise you might find out you're saving a random box of paper you don't need ).  Thin out things (like toys) and continue to do so so you don't have so much to deal with (good for whenever, but especially helpful for yourself when you're trying to be a perpetual cleaning machine).

We also treat ourselves to a meal out when we've had to really go at the place in bad shape.

We've ended up having our place out there for sale for the past year (a little disheartening by now) but theres still interest, stuff still selling and our place in good shape so . .  . sigh . . just waiting.  (I've been complaining to dh that I'm distraught and I'm sure this will end up taking FOREVER and noone will ever buy our house.  It's just become that kind of thing, and it's hard to stay upbeat. . there's always the happy coffee to cheer me up    and help with that perpetual cleaning).

[mattemma04]

Congrats on the home listing! Hope you both will be able to sell and get the home you want.

We would have to sell at such a loss,so dh wants to stay put. I like to keep ready though,and am always redoing the inside and outside of the home with resale in mind.Summer is better imo since I can make the yard so pretty with flowers. When we sold our condo it was so hard to keep up the home for showings. It was more the pets than the kids(just 2 kids but 9 pets).

After months of showing we finally got that *right* person who needed a place fast for himself with room for his visiting kids(divorced dad),so we were able to play up on those needs.

 I want a home with more land. Here in NE Ohio I can find a good/cheap place if I just look.It is the selling at a loss that is the issue for my dh. Sometimes you gotta lose a little to gain a lot!

[Ellen Griswold]

Ack!  We have a showing!

[mumkimum]

Yay!  Showings are good!  (We had one yesterday too).

[LaughingHyena]

We moved just over a year ago but it was a long process for us (nearly 3 years ) I hope it goes more smoothly for you.

There was no way round it showings were hard, we had a lot of people wanting to come at times which were not great for us, either in their lunch break or straight from work. Both of which would fall into our kids meal times. As far as possible we tried to be out of the house so we ate quite a few picnics in the car!

Many was the time when my last run round the house before a viewing was just grabbing up everything in a room and throwing it into a reusable shopping bag (1 per room made sort out afterwards easier) and dumping them in the car.  Tip, don't forget that you've stuck the nappy bucket/bowl of dirty dishes or whatever in the car and leave it too long. It smells BAD in the hot sun.

[tracymom1]

Ok, I know this sounds crazy, but when we had showings (and a 2yo and newborn) I would literally keep a rubbermaid tote bin in the kitchen and then run around the house dumping everything in it that was clutter-ish and messy.  I also had an empty drawer in each bedroom to throw clutter in as well.  I put the tote in my car, along with the kids, and disappeared for the 20 minutes or so.  We had a LOT of showings (but it never sold - being rented out right now - terrible market in these parts) so I did have to maintain a certain level of cleanliness, but I didn't get all nutzo over it.  I mean, its a house, people live there - tidy and presentable is doable.  Spotless is not.  

Sending you lots of quick sale vibes!!!! 

[ShellieC]

I feel for you! How are the showings going? I have a 1.5 & 3 yr old and am 5 weeks pregnant. We are currently making an offer on a new place and if it's accepted we have to get our house up on the market quickly. Please post any tips YOU have after doing this for a week or so.
My friend who also has two young children & sold her house in 1 week told me that they LIVED out of the house during the days to keep it clean. They ate at friends, hung out at IKEA, etc. It's easier if the weather is good too, since you can go for walks/ park time/ etc. There is always car picnics too.

[Ellen Griswold]

I think the showing itself was okay.  I know from the little email feedback that I get that they had just started looking.  So who knows.  I was just stunned to get one so quick. I did put a bunch of stuff in my van - like my big Kitchenaid mixer that I cleared off the counter for more space and my husband's medications and sharps container (he has Crohn's).  Like the nice person I am, I decided to take the kids to the park to kill time once I had picked up the 2 school-aged kids.  The little guy I babysit for fell asleep.  Luckily there was actually someone there that I knew to help supervise because the actual playground was further than the parking lot than I was comfortable with.  We when he woke up, he threw a tantrum that he didn't want to be there, crawled back into the van, and buckled himself in.  I checked on him a few times - would not get out.  Then when I called the other kids to come back to go, he threw a tantrum that he didn't get to go to the park.  Sigh.  And then apparrently the cat was completely traumatized by people being in the house (she was in the garage) and hid for so long that we had convinced ourselves that she had gotten out - as in my husband had the ladder out to search the rafters and later walked up and down the street with her food dish that he was tapping on with a fork.  When I checked the garage one last time before bed, there she was.  She ran down the hall, hid under my son's bed (who had been sobbing over the lost cat), slunk back out for dinner, threw it up all over, and hid under the bed some more.  Guess the cat gets to come with us next time.

Smooth is a matter of perspective.

[mumkimum]

Hello all.  Any news?  New folk who have exciting house stuff going on?  

Just dull waiting here, and the endless keeping things clean (or lack thereof at times. . . ha ha).  (amuse yourself about that here)

Any hints on staying motivated and positive about the gutwrenching agony of waiting???  BTDT?

[chel]

I had great luck selling homes. Last year I sold 2 and both went in 1 week, so no real experience with the long haul, but my best tip is to try to go to a neighbor's home. Buyers rarely stay that long. No need to be gone for 1-2 hrs if they just stay 15 mins. Just go next door and watch out the window. When the weather was nice we would just stroll the neighborhood

[Ellen Griswold]

No news.  Sigh.  Just the one showing so far.  We did manage to do some landscaping over the weekend so the curb appeal is a bit better.  We'll do some more if it ever stops raining.  I figure we might get some more showing if the weather would ever improve.  At this point instead of a house, we might need an ark.

[Ellen Griswold]

We just put some new pictures up online and now we have another showing.  It's not til Thursday so I have plenty of time to get ready (and panic!).

[mumkimum]

Yay!!, Good luck!  It's so nice to have more than one day's notice too.

Lately it's dh who is getting distraught with waiting for all this to happen and I've been fine it.  Things have actually been cleaner and easier going too lately.

We had a small batch of time with showings and lookers for awhile there and nothing lately, meanwhile our neighbors keep driving over our front lawn whenever it rains destroying it and we have to suck it up and keep trying to repair and replant so it doesn't look horrible .  We've been looking around at places lately though, so at least that's fun for us.  

[scsigrl]

I agree with keep up daily on as much as you can.  We had it easy as there was only one room the kids and I stayed in during the day so it was fairly easy to smash everything into the toy box when we got a showing.  Having one or two big tubs to throw junk in is a great option too!  I found that once the house was really good and ready if I spent 30-45 minutes going over the finer points (washing floors one night, maybe windows another)  and wiping down the bathrooms each night saved me a lot of time from cramming when we had a showing!

 Our agent did ask us why we refused a showing (we switched agents mid way through selling). I explained to her that with a 3 yo and newborn, it was TOTALLY unreasonable for someone to call from our driveway and want in at that exact moment.  Not going to happen.

I would be very honest with your agent that you need X amount of time to get ready for a showing and how late you are willing to have showings as well.  Our kids were little and we run a pretty tight ship and I wasn't going to keep them out of the home till 9 PM for showings!

Good luck!!!

[Ellen Griswold]

No news on the showing but felt like the house could not have looked better!