So, it was inevitable-I had to take to my blog to bitch about trying to sell our current house.
We're currently living in a 1470 sq ft 2 level condo with 2 bdrm, 1.5 bath. We love it and it was a perfect starter home for us. We're just growing out of it in many ways. I'm a borderline shopaholic so I have a lot of stuff. Fortunately I'm the anti-packrat, so that's helped us some. But we just have spacious hobbies. My husband is a musician, golfer, hockey player and electrician by trade. For a guy--that's a lot of crap to have in a house with no basement or garage! Plus, in the next few years, we'll probably think about starting a family and there's just no room for that right now-the spare room has our fouton and is filled with hubs' instruments & equipment.
So, in December of last year, we purchased our first single family home. A 1900 sq ft 3 level corner lot with 3 bdrm, 2.5 bath and a garage and basement! Expected closing date was to be November 27, 2008 (only 43 days from now!!!), but as expected it was delayed...until February 5, 2009 (74 days from now).Unfortunately, 2 days before we got the delay letter (end of July), we posted our current home on a FSBO site. Argh! The membership was for 6 months, so we had pretty much until January 09 anyways. So, we weren't in a rush to sell the place as we
(a) weren't confident in the revised closing date,
(b) didn't think there'd be many opportunities for a 7 month sale,
(c) thought our place would sell like hotcakes and we didn't have another place to go yet, and
(d) were/are lazy.
So we listed at $5K above what we'd like to get, thinking that that would give us some room to negotiate. We had our first open house on a Sunday a couple of weeks later. We had some interest leading up to the open house and actually had a showing the day before. After frantically cleaning and getting ready, we got the cats carted up for hubs to drive around for 2.5 hrs so I could host the open house.
1:30 and they're out of the house.
2:00 Open house starts
2:15 Nothing--strange, I thought people would be coming by in droves
2:30 Still nothing--weird!
3:00 Still nothing--it's such a nice day-I thought for sure people'd be out.
3:30 STILL Nothing--Son of a! This is annoying
3:40 Doorbell rings! Yahoo--I jump to greet my potential buyers and walk them through the house. Interest is meh and I'm pretty sure they came by out of pure curiosity and had no intention of looking seriously at the house. Frig!
So the open house was a waste of time. We do a few other private showings, all the while our cats are begrudgingly getting used to being put in their crates for a period of time. A couple weeks later we drop the price by $3K hoping to get some bites. Around the same time, we notice that the sign down the street lists the wrong phone number, I complain to the company-they respond apologizing, crediting us a portion, assuring it'll be fixed and bumping us back up on the list. Overall, a great response. I anticipate an influx of calls and showings.A couple more private showings, and every single viewing seems to really like the place. They ask all the right questions, say all the right things and leave saying that the place is beautiful. Um, ok, then make a damn offer!
We decide a couple weeks ago that we'd better get our asses in gear, so on Thursday night, we drop the price another $2K (so our ideal sale price), post the sign & 'headline' that there'll be an open house that Saturday 2-4. I post an ad on Craig's List and Kijiji, just out of deperation. The open house arrives and a young woman comes through with her parents. They seem to love the place, the room it has and how perfect it is for her. They ask all the right questions, and I'm left feeling hopeful (again). Later on, an agent comes by just to see how the open house is going (that's another issue in itself, fecking agents) and takes a look at the place, says it looks great and that we shouldn't have any problem selling. Thank-you, but it means diddly to my sale!
The next week (this past weekend) we hold another Open house Saturday 2-4 and it's a fiasco to get going. Hubs decided to go golfing, so I had to crate up my 2 cats alone and it was near impossible. 1 was fine (although I had to pour her in), the other I had to drag out from under the bed, deal with him scratching me all the way down the stairs and forcefully push him into the crate. They're both whining and growling this whole time. The harder one then starts hissing at me (he's a huge suck and so sweet, so this is very out of character). I take them to the car and he's still hissing and growling, so I lean over to the side of his crate and say how "it's ok", "I know buddy", kissy noises, etc. Then he hisses and swats at me! Almost immediately I get upset and start crying (I'm a suck, yes, but it breaks your heart to know you're the reason they're SO stressed out). I bring them to my brothers room to stay for a few hours.
Almost right away, 2 women come through. They also seem to really like the place, they ask what colour paint is on the walls, where we got this or that, talk about how much they like the place, the space and everything. I'm hopeful-as usual. An hour or so later, a European couple come through (without even knocking-weird. My house isn't that open, thank-you very much) and also seem to really like the place. Ask all the right questions and even ask if they can come by with their agent at 4:30 after seeing another similar property. Yessss-of course I say they can and I make the necessary arrangements to keep the open house going another 30 minutes.
They come back with the agent and it's a bit shady, but they seem to like it.I get an e-mail Tuesday morning from their agent saying that his clients have decided to put an offer on the other property. Shit. He said our house showed much better, and they liked ours more, but the other property was an end unit, so had some extra windows. Damnit! He said I shouldn't have any problem selling and our house was "superb" (direct quote). May I add, that the other property is listed $2K more than ours, so it's not like we're completely out of whack price-wise. We have a gas fireplace, they don't. We also have upgraded carpeting, plumbing fixtures, lots of electrical upgrades and a kitchen island. None of which they have. SO frustrating, although I appreciated the e-mail.
So I'm left wondering why the hell no one is even making an offer on our house. Everyone seems to love it. Other houses are selling in the area-some even for more than we're listed for! We have loads of upgrades, flexible closing date and not a single fecking offer!
Last night, my husband and I decided that end of November is our last straw and we'll seek a listing agent if we haven't sold by then, but we're going to pull out all the stops until then. So...we're having another goddamn open house this weekend. On Sunday, hoping to utilize the marketing of another unit having an open house that day with an agent. We decided that Max (our swatting cat) will not be leaving the house, but Layla, our other cat, will be as well as all their stuff. He's a scaredy cat anyways and will likely run under the bed anytime someone comes in.
Wish us luck---apparently we need a lot of it.
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