The hubs and I decided to list our house a few months ago. We've been married for almost 3 years. I moved in to his house about a month before we got married because the lease was up on my apartment. He has a nice house. 4 bedrooms, 3 baths. The problem? We have 3 girls and 1 boy between us. My son slept on the couch for the longest because all the girls were old enough to have their own room and not be forced to share. This bothered us both.
We decided we would build. We picked out the plans, made our changes and found our lot. We listed our house and the realtor tells us that houses in our neighborhood are usually on the market for an average of 71 days. Just over 2 months. Great! We can get started breaking ground and hopefully everything flows smoothly, we'll sell this one and move in to the new one. Wrong. We've now had it listed for 6 months and it's a pain in the arse! It shows 1-2 times per week on average but we've only received one pitiful excuse for a contract.
I like HGTV. I watch it on Saturdays. My husband has started watching it with me. Big mistake. BIG! He now thinks he knows why our house hasn't sold. It isn't "move in" ready. Nothing really needs to be done. Allowances are made for paint and if they don't like the colors I've chosen, that's really all that needs to be done to ours. We have new hardwood floors, freshly cleaned carpet, we've painted (when we married everything was tan and I like color so that blah blah bland had to go!) our yard is manicured, etc. My only suggestion was to rent a storage building and remove some of our furniture so it "looks" bigger. Less furniture, more room. We haven't had any feedback, positive or negative. We keep asking and get told "nothing is wrong, they just chose another house"... okay. Why? Why did they choose the other house? How can we fix what we don't know is wrong?
My husband and I both work and it never fails the realtor calls while we're at work and someone wants to show the house. The same day. I get it. It's hard to plan ahead and call the night before. But the mornings are hectic. Half the time I don't have time to make the bed. So yesterday, late morning, my husband calls and says the realtor wants to show the house. Hubs is in the military, career military. He just got back from a weekend away in weapons qualification. I haven't had a chance to catch up on laundry. The beds weren't made. I'm thinking "I don't think I picked up my pj's off the floor". I didn't put the hair dryer away. Did I leave my tennis shoes on the bedroom floor? I say "I don't think today is good, ask him if they can wait until tomorrow". He says "I've already called Kerry (his oldest) and she's going to make up beds and sweep when she gets home from school". He apparently didn't pay attention before leaving for work. It needs more than that.
So around 1:00 he calls and he's at the house trying to finish up some cleaning. He's frustrated. Really frustrated. He says there's no way he can get it all done and he's going to call the realtor and tell him to wait.... Hmmm, sounds familiar, oh wait, that was my idea earlier! I may have mentioned he's military. As in, he never leaves anything out. Always puts his things away. He's a minimalist and I'm anything but. I understand a house needs to be in tip top shape when you have it listed but isn't there some kind of understanding for people who "live" in their house? I mean, we do live there. It's hard to keep it spotless. Straightened? Yes. Spotless? No. It may not be impossible but after being up since 5:30, working 8+ hours, spending an hour plus at the gym, coming home to figure out what's for supper, check homework, etc etc, who wants to spend another couple hours cleaning every night? I like to shower. I like to spend time with the kids and hubs. I like to sleep, yeah I like that one a lot.
So, we cancelled the showing. I have no idea if they're coming today or not. I didn't ask. I almost don't care. Would I like a new house? Yes. Would I be totally bummed if ours doesn't see? Not totally. Our house is almost paid off. I'd love to make some changes to it but if we end up staying, I'm all for paying it off and being debt free! Debt free and that much closer to early retirement!!
One more thing, yes ground was broken at the new house. They are building on the lot we picked out, the house that we chose and so far there's not a contract on it. It's kind of sad to see "our" house going up and not knowing if it will really be ours or not. It's only about 3 miles from our house and we ride our bikes over every few days to see how much further along it's come. It's kind of sad that it's so close I can touch it but then again, so very far out of reach. Everything happens for a reason... I have to keep repeating that to myself.
Happy Friday.. enjoy the weekend :)
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