GotchaBaby

May 27, 2015

How to Sell Your House in One Day (and Five Years)

You know how pretty much if you’ve met in in the past 8 years or so, I’ve mentioned how our family wants to move? The walls of our townhouse had been closing in as the kids got bigger and bigger, and the two bedrooms seemed to get smaller and smaller.

So when we caught wind that units in our neighborhood were selling, we decided to go for it. To be honest, we didn’t expect to get much action – we listed on a Tuesday, before we were really ready to show our home. The place was photo-ready, but not really “come see for yourself ready.”

Two hours after we were listed, we got a call for our first showing.

I thought our Realtor was testing us. He swore up and down that it wasn’t him who requested the showing.

We got the house as ready as we could.

Four hours after the showing, we receive an offer on the place.

I didn’t believe our Realtor when he told us. How could that even be possible? In 2010, we were listed for months before the first showing, and never once received an offer. Now, in 2015, our house sold so fast, there was never even a sign in the window.

CRAZY.

Crazy in the best possible way. The townhouse we wanted to unload in 2005, and then in 2010, was finally the right place for someone in 2015.

Which then led to the next predicament.

It was finally time to find our next home. The home we’ll be living in probably until we retire. So….

It’s one thing to look at houses all the live long day on the Internet. It’s entirely another to be tasked with finding a home in approximately two days. Two days and ten days later though, we found a winner:

It has the square footage. And a deck. And a big side yard. And a cul de sac.

And gas appliances.

And a two car garage.

And it’s in our school district.

To put our time frame in relation to Listen to Your Mother: Indianapolis– we got an offer on our townhouse the first day of auditions. We looked at eight house on the second day of auditions. We were in the townhouse for the first rehearsal, and moved into our new home for the second rehearsal. May 3 marked exactly one month from when we parked our storage container and got possession.

In another way? We were preparing our house for sale on Ash Wednesday….and celebrated Easter at our new home. I even made Easter dinner. This past weekend was Pentecost, which means we’ve been in our house for about 50 days. It already feels like home.

August 12, 2011

Admitting Defeat, or Plan B

So about 18 months ago, I wrote about moving at least 1/2 of our worldly possessions into a POD container.

The idea was, if I do say so myself, BRILLIANT.

We moved everything we didn’t want around while our house was on the market into this container, and then, when we sold our house, we could have the container delivered to our new home.

Flashforward 18 MONTHS and untold dollars later (I know how many dollars we’ve spent on this container, but I don’t really want to admit it, so I’m omitting this fact):

We’ve yet to get one offer on this house of ours.

I miss my blender.

The kids have outgrown half the toys we’ve stored.

We’ve paid the value of the items in the unit, along with what movers would have cost and have nothing to show for it, except that we don’t have access to the stuff.

And we just got a notice in the mail stating that the rental fee is going up in September.

So here’s Plan B:

The unit has been delivered to our home, and we’re going to unpack it. (eek!)

We’re selling a bunch of it.

We’re keeping a bit of it (Christmas decorations, love seat, limited number of toys).

We’re donating the rest of it.

This means one of two things- either our house will remain on the market indefinitely, and we will be satisfied with our savings OR we’ll sell this sucker next week and then be faced with moving all this stuff AGAIN.

Sometimes, being a grown up isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Go ahead– tell me some of your worst packing/moving/waiting to move/storage stories. It’s not like I have any moving to do myself!

July 28, 2011

Staged

I started this post TWO MONTHS AGO, but it’s only going live now because I am lazy. I was waiting on this post because I wanted new photos to show you the handiwork that’s been done. But then we got busy, and we didn’t get anymore showings and we put the punch list aside…and it never happened. Then Tuesday we got the text message that we had a showing Wednesday. We kicked into the high gear, and then documented it.

Here’s the part I wrote as the summer was just starting:

Happy June, Everyone! (how is that even possible?)

We are into hour 4 of summer vacation, and so far, so good. Actually, if I’m really, really, quiet, I think maybe both kids could fall asleep at any moment. Shhh…

This week, I called in a professional for something.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a repair, it was an enhancement.

It turns out, a friend of a friend (whom I met through blogging four years ago) does house staging, and she graciously offered to help me out.

After looking at my house for nine years, I’ve stopped seeing it. After having the whole thing painted last winter, we didn’t put any wall hangings back up. I couldn’t picture our furniture being positioned in anyway that would change the visuals of the room.

I stole the before pictures from our MLS listing, and while it was clean in the pictures, in hindsight it was stark.

Screen shot 2011-06-02 at 7.15.24 PM — Living room, empty mantel

Screen shot 2011-06-02 at 7.16.06 PM — Kitchen, with one big table and one little table.

Screen shot 2011-06-02 at 7.16.53 PM — Dining room, with a side table and a large, black, trash can.

With a vision, talent and some furniture moving, my home was warmed up and rearranged, all with things I had either stashed in a closet or out somewhere already. The only thing I need to go find are two pairs of table lamps and matching nightstands.

July 28, 2011: The showing went well, but they’ve opted for another property (we think). Want to see what they saw? Here you go:

f13eebe — The kitchen, minus an odd table.

acfe4e1 — New living room set up, little visuals on the mantel, console table behind the couch with a new lamp....

4bf6d87 — Dining room has the side table at an angle, with a new lamp, and a print on the wall.

I still need to get night stands, and I ended up only getting one set of matching lamps. But it’s an improvement, right? Anyone interested in a townhouse in a nice neighborhood? You know where to find me.