Frustrations of Trying to Sell a House

So... any advice on trying to sell a house with 4 "3 and Under"? The realtor basically chewed us out (nicely) for having so much "kid clutter" everywhere... But I don't see an viable alternative! I live here, usually all day with all 4 home. If I put away the toys, bouncy seats, swings, activity gyms, etc, I would literally go insane. We've already packed a lot of our normal stuff away in the garage! I live in fear of the phone ringing because it might be a realtor saying they are going to bring someone by. Its a mad house trying to clear away normal living 'clutter' and trying to get 4 kids out of the house for them to 'show it'. But we need to sell it, so I have to comply! I'm just stressing! (not to mention the stress of moving out of state soon, but not yet even knowing when or where)

Okay, all that sounded pretty negative, I'm sorry. Just wanted to vent. Thanks for listening!

 

It is difficult having your house up for sale while you are still in it! At this point in the market though, most people are begging for a realtor to show their house! I am! :hug99:

 

I'm sort of right there with you. We're trying to sell our house right now and we have a really really bad market here right now for sellers. It feels like all we are doing with our time is either tending to the girls or cleaning in the slight hope that someone might actually want to come look at the house. In one month, we've had ONE walk through and that was yesterday afternoon. It's so disappointing and frustrating. We want so badly to get out of FL and move to IL and it's ALL contingient on selling our current house. <sigh>

 

wow, that gives me much better perspective... thank you. Our market's pretty bad too (So Cal), and we listed for a bit 'under' the going price in the hopes of attracting attention. I guess it worked in that sense, we've had probably 15 walk-thru's in 3 weeks. But no offers yet.

Where in IL? We just might be headed there also. Heard of Galesburg?

 

No, but I looked it up on mapquest. We had thought about settling in the Quad Cities area, or Rockford, or Peoria. Right now, the plan is to move to Princeton and RENT this next time til we find the exact geographic location and employment that we're both happy with. I'm so discouraged. ONE walk through. We moved here Feb of 2006. We put our house on the market just before Christmas of 2005 and had it sold by the first week in January and were moved out and on the rock Jan 31. Maybe we got really spoiled from that deal.

 

I know it's a pain in the butt to have to keep moving all the stuff back and forth but your realtor is right. Whenever you are showing your house to someone (especially the way the market is ALL OVER the country) then you gotta do what you gotta do. There are more houses available than people looking so think of it this way: my house has to be better than ALL the others. Easier said than done but something has to draw the buyer in. A couple of things I have learned about having open houses:

1. put away and box up any "personal" aritfacts. For example, pictures of you and the family, chachkas (sp?) from travels or gifts from others. The idea is to de-personalize the space so that when a potential buyer comes in, they can visualize themselves in the house and not have a hard time getting over YOUR life in the house, kwim?

2. De-clutter as much as possible. I'm sure that is incredibly hard with 4 kids but it is doable (to an extent of course). I would suggest (if you haven't already) purchasing a couple of those big plastic storage containers. Put all the kids toys in them and let them use as a sort of toy box. That way when someone is coming to view the house, you just quickly throw the toys in there and store it nicely in the garage, closet or basement. Same thing can be done in their rooms and you can store them under the bed or in the closet.

3. ANYTHING you can do to update your house will help the buyer to see less things to do when they move in. Such things as a fresh coat of paint on the walls (any crazy colors should become neutral colors to appeal to the majority of buyers), fixing a broken light switch, having the carpets washed, changing the sink faucets or whatever can actually make some nice changes that make the house feel fresh and new. It doesn't have to be expensive stuff.

4. One of the most important things, CURB APPEAL CURB APPEAL CURB APPEAL. What ever you can do to make the front of your house as welcoming as possible is the first and foremost step to getting the buyer to want to COME IN kwim?

I'm not saying do all these things or accusing you of not. Just sharing with you what I have learned about trying to get a house sold. The fact is that the market is really bad right now but some of these things could help you to have a step up above the others. I wish you all the best of luck in getting your house sold and getting to where you want to go!!!

 

Good luck!!! I know where you are coming from.

We moved into our new house when we had a 3 and 1 year old - so it was a little easier for us. But you will like this story....

One day the realtor called and I was gone and my husband was sleeping - he works shift work. It was 2 weeks before Christmas and I had given up on renting (we decided to rent our old house) our current place until after the holidays. so I left everything as is and left for a holiday party. I mean everything was everywhere!!! The realtor did not realize my husband was home and walked into the darkened bedroom and heard him snoring and quickly closed the door.

We got a tenant that day and she has been there ever since. She is a wonderful tenant!!!!

Thought you might enjoy this story - good luck!!!!

 

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