27 Additional Things We Learned Trying to Sell Our House

1. Our (new, better) realtor told us you get the most traffic in the first three weeks. She is absolutely right. We got five or six showings within the first two weeks of our listing, and it has been nothing but tumbleweeds since.
2. Paying cash for our next house is a lofty goal, but man I wish we could do it.
3. It really sucks when you get ready to go out of town and think (correctly) that you need to leave the house staged and in showing ready condition.
4. It sucks worse when you then delay leaving for said trip, clean up the house, make everything just so… and you have no showings.
5. …two weekends in a row.
6. I was reminded last week that we have a lot to be thankful for.
7. We live in a country where my biggest concern is not having food, shelter, water, or clothing. (And for us, thankfully, employment.) We’ve got all those and are blessed for that.
8. Our issue is not having shelter — it’s getting rid of it!
9. That having been said we’ve lived in a really nice home for the last three years. No regrets there. If we could pick up our house and move it to where we want to live we would gladly do so.
10. Not sure what the homeowner’s association would do with our vacant lot though…
11. I was also reminded last week that “it is only money.”
12. Oof.
13. That doesn’t sit well with the personal finance writer in me.
14. That doesn’t go well with my spreadsheet.
15. But it is absolutely true. It is just money. Assuming we never get to the point of being foreclosed on we will get some money back on our house.
16. Just not all of it. Tough fact of life.
17. While I am personally not a fan of stimulus bills and deficit spending, the homeowner in me wishes they would come out with a program to give $20,000 in assistance to buyers!
18. Another one of those “not a big deal but kind of frustrating” tidbits: we staged our backyard, put in some nice colorful flowers, everything looked nice. Now fall and winter are setting in and those nice flowers are starting to wither.
19. People who garden regularly are thinking “Well, duh, genius. Plants die!” I guess I’m just not used to it yet.
20. We are considering renting our home. As much as that would make fantastic blog fodder… I would really rather not.
21. So many issues with renting…
22. …not pulling out equity for buying a new house in a new city.
23. …having a rental property hours away from your new city.
24. …risking damage, stolen appliances, and general upkeep.
25. …having to screen renters and then hoping nothing happens. Hard to mentally separate “that’s where we live” to “investment.”
26. But it can be done. I’ve seen it done. We’ll do it if we absolutely have to.
27. I just wish I could rent to someone I knew really well that would do a rent to own or something like that.

As you can see there is a lot of emotions, a lot of struggle, and a lot of worry involved with real estate. I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated as we continue going through this process.

Tagged as: Housing, Real Estate