How Do People Do This?

Well the house has been on the market for about three days.  I am totally offended that we have no offers yet.  Hello? 

Just kidding...  I know it takes a while, but I'm impatient.  Every showing could be the buyer, but the likelihood is low.  Isn't that weird? 

The home buyers around here better get on the ball because I'm going nuts with keeping the house clean.  There are bottles of windex and rolls of paper towel strategically placed in cupboards throughout the house.  Things that used to be on the counter top are in the cabinets.  And things that used to be in the cabinets are either in the garage (very neatly arranged on not-over-packed shelves, thanks to Beloved) or at Value Village.

Yesterday I got a call from a local realtor asking if she could show the house at 5:30.  Of course I said yes.  I flew through the house making sure everything was perfect and the lights were on.  And we went to Round Table for dinner.  Came home to the realtor's card on the island.  They weren't, like, waiting outside to make an offer immediately.  Bummer.  It feels kind of pointless.  Hectic and pointless.  Hectic and pointless and expensive.  Do you just end up eating out a lot when you're trying to sell your house?  Maybe this is normal.

Beloved is head-over-heels for the house we're hoping to buy.  I'm warming to the idea but not head-over-heels.  At this point I'd be disappointed if we couldn't get it, but mostly sad because Beloved would be very-super-uber disappointed.  

Comments

[tafel]

Yep, you will eat out a lot. I didn't cook a single meal in 10 days when mine was on the market. Cereal for breakfast was about it...

good luck!

[susan]

Yes, you will eat out a lot or eat super simple stuff that doesn't smell the house up (in bad way).

[Julie A]

I won't get into the scary details about how many people viewed our house or how often we had to leave (although I'm just reminded of one of the times when someone actually just showed up at the door while I was feeding the kids lunch and we were so desperate I told them if they could wait 10 minutes they could come in--I slid their lunches off their plates onto paper ones, stacked them up, threw them in a bag, ran through the house and took the kids down the street to a park for a picnic ;-)

Our girls were little and to make the "house evacuation" process more fun we would go to all kinds of different places, take photos while we were there and made them a quick little book "Things We Do While We Wait for our House to Sell" by pasting the photos in a notebook. We did parks, the library, walked through a nearby cemetary often, rode the pony at Meijer, and got the house key of a friend--she would be at work and we would be sitting in her living room watching Tv--it was a very odd time and I haven't thought about it in a while (it was five years ago).

I'm wishing you luck. It only takes one person who loves your house.

Julie
ps I'm glad you're back. I enjoy reading your entries.

[zunzun (eos)]

It's worth it though...I sat through a couple of visits once and it felt super creepy seeing people going through the rooms and making comments...better out.

Good luck...what type of house is he in love w/?

[Heidi]

you say it well, that is how I felt and then I had to pull it down. okay I am going to stop being jealous of you.

[Kohana]

So where are you moving to and what's the reason? Just fell in love with another place? Good luck with it all!

[Kelly]

I'm afraid to move, we'll probably be in this house forever. We have too much stuff, and not nearly enough storage. We'd have to move first, then sell. I hope for your sake it sells fast, and few disruptions!

[Heidi]

Hi, I had to do this too, although the market was terrible so I didn't have to actually leave the house as often as you. But so frustrating to live "on the ready". Then our house didn't sell and we'd already contracted for our new house (1 mile away). Different kinda stress there! We ended up moving into the new house while leaving most of our furniture at the old house. Cleaning two houses ~ ah, the memories!
And if that wasn't enough stress... adoption #3 was at it's peak, with THREE trips to Russia.
I don't think I've recovered fully from all that happening at once. I lost half my brain and can't find it anywhere!
Good luck to you, I'll keep my fingers crossed!
Heidi