Frustration on the House Selling

We listed our house last March shortly after buying our vacation home in the sunny south.  Our property is waterfront so we had no indication that selling would be an issue.  Well it has been.  We had our property listed privately then put it with a real estate agent we have dealt with before.  When that failed to bring us any offers we took it off the market then a month later relisted but with a different realtor.  The agent seemed all gun ho so we figured the house would have been sold with us moved before Christmas.  Oh my were we ever wrong.  It would appear this realtor likes bringing in the down right pissants that really aren't interested in putting in an offer.  Then we get an email the other day that totally ticked me off to no end!

A couple had come through our house for the second time so that is a good sign, right?  Wrong!  I'm not sure who put her up to this email but it was in very poor taste.  First off the couple was trying to negotiate through email WITHOUT putting in an offer.  They were seriously trying to find out our financial position and how desperate we were to sell.  Then she even mentioned doing a cash back for them while doing about $5,000 worth of repairs on the house with one of those repairs being listed as one we had already done and have the receipts to prove in.  Then as if it couldn't get any worse the gal copped an attitutde.  Of course this all happened two days after extending our contract!

A couple of weeks ago I was quite sick but they wanted to show the house.  I said yes despite feeling like crud.  The real estate agent was over an hour late, made no appologies for being late and yet wasn't in the house longer than 5 minutes.  I'm not kidding!  So last week I injured my leg rather severely so am on crutches.  They wanted to show the house this coming Sunday.  I said no.  I can barely get around as it it, our kids are down and my husband will be at the office at least for Sunday morning.  There is no way I can get the house ready for a showing.  Any normal prospective buyer would understand that so would make arrangements to view the house at a better time.  Honestly you would have thought I had committed a grievous crime by saying no to a showing.  So at the end of the contract we won't be renewing.  She is supposed to be working for us and if she sells at the bottome end there is a $15,000 commission but a lot more if she sells where we want it sold.  The bottom line is it really is her loss.  We are planning on relisting privately at the end of this contract.  We've seriously have had it with real estate agents!

Garden Gnome

Back into the Routine of Showing the House

We are back into the tiresome routine of showing the house again.  We arrived home on the 9th and have showed the house three times since getting home with a fourth showing tomorrow afternoon.  After the house being on the market for 10 months, the novelty has worn off of doing a spit and shine at the drop of a hat.  We told our real estate agent to not worry about giving us 24 hours notice for a showing.  That is a good thing and a bad thing but hopefully it will help get the house sold.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

House Sale Update

We had showings suspended while we were on vacation. The last day of our trip while still in the US our real estate agent called wanting to know if another agent could show the house on Monday. We of course said yes even though we would have a lot to put away from traveling. The Monday appointment was changed to Wednesday then postponed to Thursday because of the snowstorm. That showing was a bit hard to read but the feedback a couple of days later is the elderly couple felt the house was too dated. Sunday our real estate agent called again as another agent had someone who wanted to see the house in a couple of hours. That showing seemed to go rather nice. They were here for almost an hour so hopefully that's a good sign. Hopefully we get an offer soon so things aren't up in the air so much!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Looking Back on 2010

We are drawing near the end of the year.  Looking back on 2010 there have been two major developments with respect to home.   First we bought a vacation home in the sunny south where we hope to spend as much as three months of the year.  As a result we ended up putting our primary residence up for sale.  Selling our house was been the primary focus of 2010 taking over most of our activities.  We started out trying to sell privately then went to a real estate agent.  When that wasn't successful we took the house off the market for a month while we vacationed at our vacation home for the second time.  We put the house back on the market when we arrived home where it continues to sit.  Our area has been hit with the economic downturn so the housing market is soft right now.  Unfortunately this has been bad for us but we are still optimistic that we will be able to sell the house shortly.  Aside of focusing on the sale of our primary residence and buying another one we have been working on getting our vacation home in order to rent out when we are not using it.  Renting out the vacation home ends up paying all of our vacation home expenses while netting a little profit for the bank account.  Next up on the agenda is finding a small rental unit to buy in the same area as our primary residence but that is another story.

Household repairs in our primary and vacation homes have been minimal, thank goodness.  We ended up with a minor furnace repair in our primary residence but other than that it was decluttering and keeping things neat and tidy for showing the house.  On the other side at the vacation home we focused on cleaning and furnishing.

We have a lot of plans for 2011.  We hope to have our primary residence sold within the next couple of months or so, moving in time for putting in a garden.  We do have one house we'd really to buy like so hopefully things will work out that way.  Our main focus until we sell will be decluttering and getting rid of anything we can to avoid having to move it.  The vacation home is set for rental so our main goal will be keeping it renting when we aren't using it.  I need to make a few things for a handmade touches at our vacation home.  An afghan or two are in the makings and I will be making dish cloths as well as adding crochet edging to guest towels and pillow cases.  I even bought a couple of pattern books in anticipation since I have a lot more time at the vacation home to indulge in knitting and crochetting.  Oh and I have some lovely yarns that I will be making up into sweaters.  I'll be getting back into ceramics at our vacation home too.  Stay tuned as it should be interesting homemaking in 2011.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

A Bit Disappointed (House Sale Update)

On the selling front things are going nicely.  We have a potential buyer who wants to go through for a second time tomorrow night.  Now that is, given the house sale track record this year, very good news.  The disappointment came from finding out there is an offer in on the house we want that is only pending a house inspection.  The real estate agent figures that offer will stand so we will be back to looking for another piece of property.  We can't really put an offer in on another house without and offer in on ours.  The one we looked at with rumoured water problems is still up for sale and since we liked that house that is always an option but we would insist on a home inspection.  There is another one we are somewhat interested in as well so that is another option.  Now we play the waiting game for an offer on our house before we actively look for a house to move to.  We are a bit disappointed but these things happen when dealing with real estate offers.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Coming Down From Vacation Mode

My gosh!  We have been home almost a week and I still am in vacation mode even though we did a massive amount of garage clean-up on the weekend.  The weather is hot and humid but with the house still up for sale we have to keep on top of things.  We made the executive decision to reduce the price of our house in the hopes of getting out of limbo mode as to whether we are moving or not.  In the meantime we keep plugging along a normal as possible the best we can.  The gardens are going in and we're focusing on the outside that needs the power washer to make the windows and trim sparkle.  We have our own power washer so won't be hiring this job out.  My husband is fixing our natural gas outdoor grill and I'm looking for a few summer projects to work on once planting is finished.  So watch for all of those homemaking tips, projects and repairs coming up in the next couple of weeks.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010