Another Sunday looking at houses........

Looked at four homes on Sunday that were having open houses, just so I can cross them off the list, in case we actually sell our house.

First one I walked in and knew right away it wasn't for us.  

Second one was lovely, had a great back yard backing onto trees and a ravine, so no one behind us.  It wasn't fenced in on one side but no biggie and the grass was terrible.  Oh and it was $50,000 over our top budget😕  I could actually see us living there though, which is a first.

Third house needed work which was doable, but didn't like the yard despite the fact it also backed onto trees and a ravine.

Fourth house was okay, could see ourselves living there, BUT despite having a 200 foot deep back yard it was 200 feet down a steep hill, so needed work to make it worthwhile owning it.  Oh and had no fence on one side of it?  Plus the kitchen needed redone and it had no a/c.

Do have a couple of homes that I would like to look at, but they haven't had open houses.  I don't want to bother our real estate agent with them until we have a firm buyer for ours.

Oh well we will know this week if we are going to sell this year or pull the house off the market and put it back on in Spring.  Tired of this house selling thing now!

How much house cleaning can one person do?

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With the house up for sale it seems to be an endless chore making sure the house is spic and span just in case someone wants to see it.  I have sold numerous houses over the years so know what matters and what doesn't but I feel everyone has their own way of doing things.  I found that dealing with this agent has been totally different from dealing with our last agent. Our current agent is more relaxed and we have a few more things on display that I thought would be acceptable.

I know that having a clean house makes it an easier sell than having one that is cluttered and dirty.  I personally can see through clutter and dirt; hence we bought the farmhouse.  Some people though can't see through things like that.  Mind you I have walked through houses for sale and they were so badly cluttered that even I struggled.

Before we looked at the farmhouse we looked at a converted school house.  There were presents laying around everywhere, plus boxes of thing, and hanging up was a rented tuxedo in a bag and underneath it a fancy dress in a bag. Every where you turned there was "stuff" Turns out the couple had just got married and left all their presents laying around.  It turns out the couple had just got married and went off on their honeymoon without tidying anything up.  We didn't buy that house........not because of that but other issues with it, but the mess didn't help.

I also know that the house photos people see online make a difference.  However what you see in the photos and what you see in real life can be a totally different thing.  We had an agents open house yesterday and the feed back was good I am pleased to say.  Enough that what you see in the photos is as good as what you see in real life.  I am "house proud," so I was super happy with their remarks.

When looking at homes can you see their potential through dirt and clutter or does it have to be super clean and staged?

Tomorrow I am going to talk about Real Estate Agents.