That Real Estate Life

The first week of summer was exhausting. Not because we did a bunch of fun stuff. Rather because it was spent putting two houses onto the market.

Our main home went on the market last Tuesday, although the sign didn’t go into the yard until Wednesday. So there was a seemingly endless list of cleaning and straightening and other tiny projects to make the house gleam as much as it can. And then the constant checking of things to make sure if we got a call about a showing we could get out of the way quickly and still have everything in order. The girls did a pretty good job with it all, although they are already beginning to chafe a bit under the restrictions we’ve put on them to keep the house in decent shape.

Then Saturday we went down to the lake house to get it ready for our realtor to come take pictures and put her signs up. That house officially went on the market this morning.

All this is new to us, as we’ve only bought houses before, never sold before.[1] As I said up top, it is exhausting. Especially with kids home from school who want nothing more than to relax and make messes and not have to worry about them for a week or two.

All that physical stuff wears you down enough, and then there’s the mental side. The waiting for notifications that a showing is scheduled. Each time I get a text message there’s the hope it is from the booking agency. It could be a text with totally awesome news from a friend or relative, but I still feel a little let down if it isn’t a showing notification. Little things catch your eye as you walk through the house, “Man, we really should have had that fixed. Who’s going to buy a house that has that?!?!” The girls are clearly having some issues, too, which weighs on us. There have been emotions and some acting out which we are assuming come from the stress and uncertainty they’re feeling. Oh, and I’ve not been the best dad, snapping at them for little things.

This isn’t meant to be some “Woe Are Us” post. We are lucky that we are selling our homes because of decisions we made, not because we have to sell them. We knew what we were getting into and could have adjusted our timing if we wanted to. But now seemed like the right time to jump all the way in. I think that will prove to be true in retrospect once we get through everything. But, man, this first week was tiresome.

Now that all the prep work is done, and the first week of being on the market is out of the way, I do hope I can relax a little. We had hoped for more attention on our house in week one. As I mentioned, we have neighbors who had two offers on the first day they listed their home, and our entire area is lacking in inventory. Those unrealistic comparisons/expectations weighed us down, too. Sunday we told ourselves, “We have a great house, in a great location. Someone is going to want it.” Selling a home in a month is awesome, and there’s still plenty of time to do that. It’s going to happen, just on a more normal schedule that our neighbors.

Oh, the girls and I did go pick strawberries one day last week. Which was a lot of fun until someone – no one claimed responsibility – decided to wash all four pounds at once and then put them back into the fridge. We had to freeze them before they turned into a mushy, mess, which was kind of sad. We will have good smoothies for weeks, though!