Friday, January 26, 2007

Like a chicken with my head cut off

Please forgive me. I'm a bit behind in my blog visiting. It's certainly nothing personal. You see, I'm preparing my house to sell. This essentially means making it look not lived in when, in fact, I'm living here. "Declutter, declutter, declutter" my realtor says. I live in a 700 sq-foot place. Where am I supposed to put it? She said I could store it in her basement, which is really nice of her, but I'm afraid I'll forget it when I move. Plus, I'm really stressed about once I get it that way to KEEP it that way. Nothing on my desk? But it's my DESK. I need papers and stuff. No card table? How will I do my Hawaii scrapbook? No alcohol on the kitchen counter? But after all this, I may need easy access. :)

We looked at the 2 other condos who are my "competition" yesterday. I'm probably a bit prejudiced, but mine looks WAY better. More light, better balcony view, top floor, vaulted ceilings, looks decorated (one of the condo competition was definitely a GUY condo. Leather couch, BIG TV and a daybed with a Redskins blanket on it and THAT's it!). But my realtor still wants to price it below those two condos, which was a bit disappointing money-wise. I thought maybe I could swing some extra cash to make rennovations to my new home when I buy it - looks like I'll be hitting even. Sigh. Meeting with the loan officer Tuesday to see if maybe he can work his magic and get me better numbers. But I like my current mortgage company, who has also pre-approved me, so we'll see.

So I'll spend the weekend scrapbooking like crazy to get it done so I can store the card table, and decluttering some more. Off to get some boxes.

20 comments:

Zeus said...

I personally hated it when we moved, and it was for this very reason. The cleaning is impossible. You have to be such a stickler for details, and you feel like you're working your hands raw.

Make sure you have plenty of hand lotion. You'll need it! Don't work too hard, though; get some rest in there as well.

Anonymous said...

Moving is never any fun. You may want to consider renting a storage unit and prepacking any unnecessary things. Even bigger peices of furniture so your condo looks bigger. Hugs and prayers for a quick sell and for more than you hope for.

Anonymous said...

I am also trying to sell my house. It is so much pressure. I wish you the best of luck!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, moving is horrible. Unfortunately, I've done way too much of it, being an ex-military and a military brat.

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

watch enough of those darn HGTV shows to know that Decluttering is the idea. But, while they say dont make it looked live in, I think that some personal accents are good on desks and tables. Just dont look like an alchie

Anonymous said...

Decluttering is all very well, but don't people want to see a house that is being lived in when they go house-hunting, rather than a show home? Sure, get rid of that collection of muddy shoes sitting by the front door (yep, I'm guilty of that!), but a few bottles of booze? Doesn't it just show you're human?

TV shows about selling homes here even tell you to put your pets in kennels while you're trying to sell. That's just ridiculous (unless you keep hogs in your living room, maybe...).

Melli said...

UGH! I do NOT envy you this task! If I were to try to sell our house, we would have to MOVE OUT first in order to "declutter" it! At lease yours is only YOUR stuff... Gooood Luck Sweetpea!

Jim McKee said...

I listen to a weekly real estate radio show, and it seems like it's much easier to sell a home by actually moving out, then hire what's called a home stager. This person will rent furniture that will make it most appealing to prospective buyers. (They can also do it with some of your own furniture, if you indeed have nice furniture.) But, the main point is, using a home stager is apparently all the rage in real estate sales. (Of course, it's also an added expense, as is renting the furniture if you go that route.)

Anonymous said...

Sigh...I haven't seen you lurking around my place. You know, I would have thought, although busy, you would at least come to see ME! ;)

I wouldn't store your stuff in her basement. Your stuff is so cool, that realtying skank would probably STEAL YOUR JUNK! (Especially the alcohol, iffen you know what I mean...)

Store your alcohol with me. I'm good for it! And I don't even have a drinking problem...anymore, thanks to CBA (Cat Boozers Anonymous).

Anonymous said...

Well, look at it this way....breaking even is better than taking a loss. Just hope your real estate market is strong in your area!!!

Good luck.

Now the booze? I'd have it real handy tho. LOL

Anonymous said...

Gah, what a pain in the ass moving is!! Good luck with that part. I don't even HAVE a basement (still bitter) so I'm sorry I can't offer you that. Why does the realtor want to price you below the other ones if yours looks better?? Good luck.

Amy said...

I hate moving so I know how you feel! And decluttering is for the birds! How am I supposed to be comfortable in my own home then???

Renee Nefe said...

Are your parents too far out of the way to store some stuff at their place? And it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and pack a bunch of your stuff already.

I'm annoyed that your Realtor wants to price your place lower than the other two in your building. It's been my experience that pricing higher works better...but not too much higher. Our neighbor next door went 30K higher than our neighborhood market value...no one looked at all. bummer I really wanted him to move!

I hope you sell quickly.

Anonymous said...

I HATE moving! Our condo is 744 square feet so I know what you mean about storage ... we have none!

Good luck with the sale!

Anonymous said...

Be sure to post photos of your layouts... I'd love to see the Hawaii scrapbook pages. :)

Anonymous said...

Ahh Ill be going through the pain of selling in roughly 6months or sooner I dare say. I know how you feel.

I use to work in real estate before working at firestation, your realtor cant really say NO to you for not putting it on the market for what you want. I say you should tell em you want to put it on market at YOUR price for a couple of weeks to see how it goes. If u get no interest, then put it at their figure for a couple of weeks. That way its a win win situation really. If you get interest at ur price then its more money for you, if not then well you have it at their price and sell.

Irish Church Lady :) said...

I've been decluttering here too and we're not even moving!!

I need to get my house in order as my Dad is moving in temporarily Feb 21 until he finds a place. He just sold his house.

How come you want to move anyways?

Good luck ~ I hope you get a fast sale!

Pink Chihuahua Princess said...

Its not clutter, my dear, it just looks lived in and loved!

Anonymous said...

I hear ya. I dread the eventual moving day. My place is about the same size as yours, so to de-clutter is quite the chore.

If you're storing the alcohol with the realtor, put little marker-lines on the bottles.

Sounds like it wouldn't be an issue for the Redskins-blanket guy to de-clutter. Maybe he's thinking ahead? :)

Anonymous said...

I understand. I sooo hate moving. I hope that your life will be back to normal soon.