When Your Home is on the Market
Thursday, 11 March 2010
It's not like this is a surprise; it was only a little less than five years ago that my New York home was on the market. But I am that much older now and I had forgotten how damned hard it is to have a for sale sign on your house.
No prospective buyers arrive unannounced and my real estate agent gives me at least 24 hours notice before showings. Still, it's a scramble to have the place in tip-top shape each time. I have become a full-time housekeeper dusting, vacuuming and polishing and then wondering what I've missed that will reduce the apartment's attractiveness.
Ollie the cat is, of course, no help. No sooner have I collected toys than he drags them out again. Cats are notorious for wanting to stay in the same place forever and it's as though he knows what is happening so is doing everything he can to undermine the endeavor, finding new places to snooze, scratch and wash that leave kitty fur behind.
He hasn't shown any interest in the sofa in a year or two; now it's favorite hang-out spot – the hardest fabric in the house from which to remove cat fur. So I vacuum. And vacuum. And vacuum.
I know from my own searches, online and in person, that it is much easier to evaluate a home when it is empty of other people's stuff, as anonymous as possible. Since I have nowhere else to live, that can't happen, but I do put away all the things I usually leave out - coffee maker, rice cooker, blender, dish soap and sponge, books I'm reading, notes to myself that I leave around the house, etc. Since they have no regular storage places, I hide them wherever I can fit them when a showing is due and then forget where they are.
Last week, I stuffed the French press and rice cooker in the oven. Later in the day, after the showing, I turned on the oven to broil a piece of fish. The only reason I didn't ruin the appliances and/or blow up the stove is that I opened the door to check the level of the rack. I won't be using the oven again for last-minute storage.
As to the notes usually left on counters, tables and wherever, there is no telling how many blog post ideas have been lost because I can't find the notes now.
I feel like a stranger in my own home, afraid to touch or do anything that will disturb the pristine condition in which I try to keep it or worried that I'll overlook something when readying it for a showing.
This will all be worth it in the end, right?
At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Jeanne Waite Follett: Too Late Schmart
Fingers crossed that you will sell quickly and go back to living normally!
Posted by: Colleen | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 05:12 AM
Oh, I remember those days when we were selling our last home. What a pain.
My suggestion for the couch - put a throw on it when just you and Ollie are home. That's what I use here, even though we're not selling our home - I pull it off when we have guests. Much easier to wash and dry that than try to get those hairs out of upholstery. I also have one on the recliner - although that one doesn't work - the cats crawl under it.
Posted by: Nan | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 05:27 AM
I cleared a spot in a closet for a clear plastic rubbermaid tub and everytime someone came to see the house I would put the things I wanted out of sight in the tub. That way I didn't have to hunt for where I put stuff after they left. It was all in one tub in the hall closet!
Posted by: Dani | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 05:43 AM
You probably have a dictionary or some book you wouldn't mind leaving out. You could stick your notes in it, then always know to check there. Works for me.
Good luck!
Posted by: Estelle | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 05:49 AM
Yes, it will be worth it, Ronni! I am so very much looking forward to your posts from Portland, OR. When are you going to make a house-hunting trip?
Posted by: mary jamison | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 07:09 AM
It will be worth it, but I am sorry for the fuss for now. As far as the notes - maybe type them into the computer, if the dictionary idea doesn't help?
Posted by: Laura | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 07:10 AM
I know that realtors swear that the house has to look un-lived-in so that buyers can imagine their own stuff there, but we sold our first condo when it was filled with moving boxes, laundry atop those boxes, and an 18month old's toys strewn everywhere. Our first house sold empty but for random pieces of furniture left haphazardly after a "moving sale".... I hadn't even swept up. Showed and sold another house while decorating for winter holidays - boxes and packing materials everywhere.
When it's meant to be sold, it will sell - you only need one buyer and, if it's priced right, I wouldn't get too hysterical about random cat hairs. We "staged" - at great financial and emotional distress - our last house and had no offers. Got rid of the rented stuff, reinstalled our "not right" stuff and sold the place while packing to move - boxes everywhere, once again.
Deep breaths, confidence in your realtor (love the ad on the blog)and time will save you. Vacuuming cat hairs makes everyone happy but won't sell your house.
a/b
Posted by: Ashleigh Burroughs | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 07:11 AM
Even though I write everything on the PC, I still carry a hard backed notebook. It is a mixture of daily journal, notes, cuttings and anything else I come across that seems interesting. On occasions, there have been as many pieces of paper and post-its stuffed between the covers as there are pages.
Posted by: ian | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 07:16 AM
When our house was on the market, I had "one of those days." When I left for work, there were breakfast dishes on the kitchen table, dirty clothes on the bathroom floor, the beds were left unmade, and the dog picked that day to show his displeasure for some imagined slight by pooping on the dining room floor. Of course, that was the day the realtor showed up unannounced and the house painter allowed them in. The house sold after the viewing. Take heart. Maybe a little cat hair won't stymie your sale.
Posted by: lucy | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 07:17 AM
Poor Ollie; he knows something is up. You are not obeying him and he is going to show you who is boss, by trying to sabotoge the move.
I solve the problem of keeping the house in apple pie order when I sold my last one. I cleaned it thorougly and left town.
Maybe you can take a vacation to Oregon and find your dream house and buy it pending the sale of your Maine house.
Posted by: Darlene | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 07:21 AM
Yes Ronni, it will all be worth it in the end. What you're going through is annoying and tiresome, but temporary. I would think you've already gone through the hardest part and that is making the decision to move. That takes guts of which you have!
Posted by: Claire Jean | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 07:26 AM
Funny on the oven. Cats just hate change from my experience-- unless they are the ones instigating it. Good luck on a quick sale. Being near the ocean, this should be a prime time for finding buyers thinking ahead to the summer.
Posted by: Rain | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 07:33 AM
For my own future moves: Where oh where do you put the litter box because you can be sure that Ollie will need to use it at a most inopportune time. Gladys
Posted by: Gladys | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 08:00 AM
A lot of good suggestions here, everyone - keep them coming.
As to the litter box, Gladys, Ollie has quite a fancy one - a large, rattan box into which the plastic litter container slides. It's in the bathroom and it is quite attractive. I clean it out just before I leave the house when a showing is coming up and because Ollie hides under the bed whenever strangers are here, he'd not going to do anything inopportune until I get home.
Posted by: Ronni Bennett | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 08:14 AM
I'm laughing and sighing right beside you, Ronni! As a military family, we bought and sold houses with each change of duty station, averaging about 3 years per house. I was a whiz at selling a house while we still resided in it; every one sold within 2 months. Then, we retired, we changed, and the story changed.
We put our twenty-year-old house on the market last August. Our agent was convinced that buyers hate wallpaper, so, at great expense we couldn't afford, we paid someone to remove almost all our beloved papers and paint the walls in "acceptable" colors (which did not include white, for some reason). We were so saddened by the insult to our home, we felt suddenly protective and didn't want to sell anymore! That feeling grew until we recognized that our sense of "home" in that house had deepened and grown in us while we were busy just living. We sweated out our six month contract with the agent and felt relieved when we only had two views in the six months. It might not be wise to stay put, but the house has claimed us...maybe irrevocably.
Posted by: Nance | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 09:11 AM
You'll make it worth while because it's important to you. I suspect everything you've done throughout your life has been tackled with focus and precision.
Posted by: notdotdot | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 09:31 AM
Yes, yes....it will. Those of us who read John Bailey's blog understand what you are going through. He and his partner have been fixing up houses and moving for years. John's getting creaky now, and he hopes this will be his last move. Every time a home is ready for sale, they go through what you are going through. Until recently they did this with two cats. :)
We care.
Posted by: Mage B | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 09:46 AM
It will all be worthwhile - I'm confident. Great horizons beckon! ...and all that...
Perhaps we cherish our cats because, secretly, we resist these changes we scope for ourselves and they can act this out for us. Let us hope for a quick and bountiful sale!
Hang in there!
Posted by: Cile | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 09:57 AM
It's always a headache. We have a lot in Cannon Beach, Oregon, which has been sitting on the market for months.
I don't really think it's anything but what shape the market's in in your area that will determine how fast your property sells.
Posted by: Hattie | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 11:51 AM
Store things in your car trunk for those last minute no place to put anything days!!!
Yes, it will be worth it....
Posted by: Beverly Dixon | Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 08:06 PM
I am sorry you have not sold, as yet...I am with Nance...I can't move ever again, except when God calls...when we took the rev. mortgage - I breathed a sigh of relief...be it neat or messy - here I stay until its time for me to go. I like what Darlene said, take Ollie go to Oregon and find what you want and there is something called a bridge loan, I think that might work for you. Like I know????
Posted by: Sheila Halet | Monday, 15 March 2010 at 10:30 AM