Anyone sold their house recently, or have it for sale?

btsrc5 · October 2012

DH and I are desperately wanting to put our house on the market. The thought of trying to get it in "show" order, and then keeping it that way, makes me want to cry.

What do you do with all the toys? how do you keep it spotless?

I work full time plus another job that I do in the evenings from home. I am struggling to get the basics done at home at this point, so I really don't know how I will do this.

Sammy-Mae · October 2012

Pack Everything you don't need and get toys packed and down to a minimum. Remove almost all personal items and nick nacks, wash all windows and take a bunch of stuff to goodwill. That is the first step. Second step is, if you can afford it get a cleaning service to come in for a day. Next you get the largest size container that can fit in the back of your car. You keep your house mostly tidy and do the basics as you say every day. When you get a call for a showing you usually get a few hours notice so you toss all the clutter that didn't get put away in the container for the back of your car, load container in the car, run a vacuum, dust and away you go. Our agent said, running a washer load and running the dishwasher was actually a good thing becaus it shows that the machines work.

HTH a little. It's very stressful so good luck!

kagl08 · October 2012

All the advice Sammy said is wonderful! When our house was listed we had the 2 kids but DS was still a baby so he didn't really make a mess yet. Sundays were open houses then we had showings too. The biggest thing that helped me was to make a list and stick to it each week. Mondays were the kitchen, Tuesdays were bathrooms, Wednesdays were bedrooms. This helped to keep me organized. I couldn't afford a cleaning service so this was not an option. I also packed everything up that we didn't use daily, toys, dishes, mugs, pictures, clothes. I put them in boxes labeled or I got rid of them. Not being cluttered is key. Good luck!

btsrc5 · October 2012

Where did you put all the stuff that you packed up? I am guessing I need to find time to do that before we put it on the market, right?

Unfortunately since I work an hour away from our house, I don't think that doing a quick run through to collect last minute things when I get a call for a showing will be an option for me.

kagl08 · October 2012

btsrc5:
Where did you put all the stuff that you packed up?nbsp; I am guessing I need to find time to do that before we put it on the market, right?nbsp;
Unfortunately since I work an hour away from our house, I don't think that doing a quick runnbsp;throughnbsp;to collect last minute thingsnbsp;when I get a call for a showing will be an option for me.nbsp;

We stored it in our garage and in our pantry. Told our realtor not to show those places.

And in your case I'd say a daily inspection and cleaning routine would work best for you so your house is ready for a showing when you leave for work. It will be worth it if your house sells!

Ours didn't so we did 6 months of this crap for nothing. But we are happy here now so it worked it for the best.

btsrc5 · October 2012

kagl08:

It will be worth it if your house sells! Ours didn't so we did 6 months of this crap for nothing. But we are happy here now so it worked it for the best.

UGH this is what I fear. Our housing market sucks here, so it wouldn't be surprising if it doesn't sell. But we NEED to move for so many reasons.

nicki731 · October 2012

Our house has been on the market for 2.5 months. I'm not going to lie, it's tough. We live in a townhouse about 2 hours away from our families, so we are trying to move closer to them. (We also recently decided that with the lower cost of living where we want to move, if we buy another townhouse instead of a house-house then I can afford to stay home! YAY!!!!!)

But anyways, as far as the house, we spent a couple of months prepping before we put it up for sale. We decluttered and packed away everything that isn't essential. We were going to put the boxes in a storage unit, but our realtor said it would be ok if we stacked them neatly in the garage. She said people are forgiving of boxes in the garage if they know you are moving, not so forgiving of clutter in the house. As far as the toys, we pick them up every night and put them away in a big toybox. On days we have showings, the toys and the toybox all go down in the storage area in the basement. We do our best to clean up every night after G goes to bed. If we have really short notice on a showing, we either have to ask the people to come later, or MH rushes home from work (30 min away) to tidy up and put the dog in the crate. On weekends we really clean, and then during the week if we have a showing we can just tidy up, wipe down counters quick, etc.

It really stinks trying to keep the house clean and show-ready all the time, but we have a clear goal for why we are doing it (being closer to family and friends, me getting to SAH). We've been close to a couple of offers so far but nothing yet. I'm tempted to just drop the price so we don't have this stress anymore, but we can't really afford to drop it too much. GL to you and I hope everything works out! It is do-able but will take a lot of your time!

kagl08 · October 2012

AA0417:
PP who commented about packing it all into a garage and pantry, I have to disagree with completely. I would definitely want to see those areas before I would be willing to make an offer. Also, if you do show a house where the garage is full of boxes and whatever, it doesn't show well. There are regional differences on how garages are thought of, but around here, garages are a big deal, as important as any other room. I know people who have 6-car attached garages (although that isn't typical). Even spec houses are being built with 3-car attached garages with lots of attention to detail. Sorry to ramble. Point is, a storage unit would be much better if garages are even slightly as important in your area as they are here.

By us garages are a nice to have, but not a deal-breaker. Doesn't matter all that much. They could see it if they wanted but, they were warned that there were boxes. We didn't have the money for a storage unit and it wasn't that big of a deal for us in this market (PA). As for the pantry, it's an under-the-stairs thing, so there is a back section that you can't really see from a quick inspection. That's were our boxes were. It actually worked out well for us because it showed them that there was more storage back there.

I agree, closets are very important! Definitely talk with a realtor and find out what buyers in your area think are important (garages, back yards, basements) and focus on those areas too.

btsrc5 · October 2012

I don't have a garage. We finished our basement and have an unfinished storage closet and finished storage closet. Would it be ok to try to put all the packed up stuff in there? Or do I really need to get a storage unit?

Mrs. Mo · October 2012

Can I hijack this for a couple of questions as well? (sorry bts!)

For those that had pets (esp. dogs), how did you deal with that? Since we both work, we wouldn't be able to go home to grab the dogs if someone wants to see our place mid-day.

Do you have houses that you are eyeing to put an offer in for as soon as one gets put on your place? The one thing that stresses me out about selling our condo/buying a house is making sure we are not "homeless." With a baby, 2 dogs and a fish, it would be too much for us to stay with either of our parents (my parents already have 2 dogs & DH's parents has a cat that one of our dogs hates).

nicki731 · October 2012

OP, I think it's fine to stack boxes in a storage area. However, I also thought it was fine to stack boxes in the garage, so there seem to be different opinions. If you have a ton of stuff, a storage unit might make sense.

Mrs. Mo:

Can I hijack this for a couple of questions as well? (sorry bts!)

For those that had pets (esp. dogs), how did you deal with that? Since we both work, we wouldn't be able to go home to grab the dogs if someone wants to see our place mid-day.

Do you have houses that you are eyeing to put an offer in for as soon as one gets put on your place? The one thing that stresses me out about selling our condo/buying a house is making sure we are not "homeless." With a baby, 2 dogs and a fish, it would be too much for us to stay with either of our parents (my parents already have 2 dogs & DH's parents has a cat that one of our dogs hates).

The animals can't be loose if you want to show your house. I would think there would be a few options: 1. Crate them every day just in case 2. Come home and get them if you get short notice on a showing 3. If you know about a showing a day in advance, maybe you could have the dog stay somewhere else for the day.

For our house, we request 24 hours notice for a showing, but 90% of our showings have only given us a few hours notice so it's tough.

Also, we have been looking at places that we would want to buy after our current home sells, however realistically we don't think everything will line up perfectly (especially since we are moving 2 hours away) so we are planning on probably having to stay with my mom for a few weeks minimum.

btsrc5 · October 2012

Mrs. Mo:

Can I hijack this for a couple of questions as well? (sorry bts!)

For those that had pets (esp. dogs), how did you deal with that? Since we both work, we wouldn't be able to go home to grab the dogs if someone wants to see our place mid-day.

Do you have houses that you are eyeing to put an offer in for as soon as one gets put on your place? The one thing that stresses me out about selling our condo/buying a house is making sure we are not "homeless." With a baby, 2 dogs and a fish, it would be too much for us to stay with either of our parents (my parents already have 2 dogs & DH's parents has a cat that one of our dogs hates).

We have a small dog, but he is crate trained. So he is in the crate during the day regardless of if we are showing our house. I am sure he won't be happy about strangers coming into the house, but we don't really have much choice.

I am stressed about being homeless as well. We have no where else to go, so I guess if we don't find a house to buy we will have to rent a short term apartment and move twice., which would REALLY suck.

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