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April 2012 Moms
Selling a house (showing gripes)
Our house is for sale. Our realtor will call and give us 2 hours notice when someone wants to see it. I really don't think that's enough time. DH says we need to keep the house spic and span all the time so people can come see it whenever.
I'm sorry, but I work full time, commute sometimes over an hour each way, have an infant, and have 2 dogs. THere's no way my house is going to be spotless all the time.
When people want to see the house, they are just going to have to wait A DAY so I can clean!
Is that unreasonable?!
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Re: Selling a house (showing gripes)
Well, we just had the house painted (they are there today finishing up) so things are just misplaced temporarily. But there's no way we can have all the laundry done everyday and things like that. It's just not practical! Also, no way I'm vacuuming every day before I go to work!
My sister used to get a call about 30 minutes before the realtor would come by--with two kids and a dog. She was so desperate to sell the place that she didn't care, but it was really tough on them.
I think it depends on how badly you want to sell your place. If you really, really, desperate to sell, I'd suck it up. But if you've got a comfortable window, I would mention it to the realtor and see if she could give you a bit more time.
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This exactly
I think the way it is is fine! I wouldn't mind someone coming through and seeing my laundry or bottles in the sink. Or some dog hair on the floor. But DH seems to think it needs to be SPOTLESS whenever anyone comes to see it! That just isn't reasonable.
Today, I didn't make the bed because we knew if someone called, we were going to have to tell them we needed more time because everything is so out of wack because of the painting. But there wasn't really anything we could do about that.
I would, however, like to be sure the toilets are flushed. Sometimes they go unflushed at night because I don't want to wake DD up with my midnight pees!
We're selling our house too. 2 hours isn't unreasonable, especially with it being a buyer's market. If they can't get in to see yours when they want to, they'll likely plan on seeing another one instead, and could end up buying that one. We've had less notice than that. Sometimes when we're at work we'll get a call that someone wants to see it that day, so we don't even get 2 hours -- they'll see it how we left it that morning.
Our plan is to do heavy cleaning on the weekends, then every night after DD's in bed we go through and straighten everything up, wipe down counters, vacuum if it needs it, etc. And make sure we don't leave anything out of place in the morning when we're getting ready for work. It's tough b/c DH has crazy hours, I commute 1 hr 20 min each way, have DD and 3 cats, and am pg so energy is nonexistent. DH is awesome.
I can't wait until I'm in a new house! The packing and unpacking will be awful too, but it'll all be worth it.
If I really really wanted to sell my house I would absolutely keep it as close to "spic and span" as possible. I don't think they will notice if you have not dusted or mopped that day, but if things are put away, no clutter, etc I think that would help. I would also buy a nice oil air freshner that smells like cookies or baked goods...it will have the house 'smell clean" and if any of you shopping for homes noticed that some sellers bake cookies when they show your home...its a sales tactic but amazing how that home sticks in your head
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I guess I'm extra ticked off because things are really falling apart with the house we have a contract on, so I'm leaning towards not even buying it at all. The roof leaks, which we noticed when we saw it, but the realtor said it didn't. Now we got 20 inches of rain in the past two weeks and the sellers say they won't fix it.
Well, fine, but we won't fix it either, so we'll let the inspector tell us the roof leaks then we can get out of our contract.
Another thing is we have 2 dogs that bark A LOT. Chihuahua/Pomeranian mixes, so it's a breed trait. They'll definitely always be there for a daytime showing.
omg I thought I was the only person who doesn't flush at night!! lol
I don't think this is the case. I'm not only a seller, I'm also a buyer. I've never had a turnaround time like that. Also, who is available at 1pm on a Friday who isn't available nights and weekends. Or, like, any other time that isn't Frirday at 1pm.
I guess it depends more on what the housing market is like for you.. when we sold our last house I was glad people could come anytime to look at it because I think we might have lost out on a lot of showings.
Making your house conveniebt to see for the buyers would be preferrable to me, but you also can't drive yourself nuts with it.
If your husband isn't already on board with the work this requires, get him in the loop taking care of specific tasks. I don't think you have to be without a single spec of dust, but your house should look generally kept up. If that means that you tidy but can get away without vacuuming, so be it.
I also found that putting EVERYTHING out of sight (and not just crammed into cupboards) helped a lot. We definitely couldn't live the way we showed our house (ie: we had the kitchen garbage in the garage, toaster / coffee maker were packed away rather than on the counter, bathmat and towels were hidden out of sight), but I think it helped make the house feel cleaner and bigger. That kind of stuff you do once and then it requires very minimal daily maintenance.