We’re enjoying a visit from my mom/Gima who arrived on Wednesday! It is always great to have her here. As a bonus, my dad decided to join us for the end of her visit so he’ll be driving down next week. Hooray!
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The girls have been back at daycare since Tuesday, giving Jose and I some time to take care of several random tasks and errands. On Wednesday we went over to our old house and I took all-new pictures for the online listing. The current photos aren’t great and make the house look dark and dingy — and it is neither of those things. After nearly 4 months on the market, I’m grasping at whatever straws I can in hopes of getting some movement. We’ve only had two showings in the last 5 weeks. So frustrating.
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On Tuesday afternoon after doing some couch and rug shopping — or really browsing, since we’re on the fence about whether we want to buy a new couch just yet — we stopped at Sonic for ice cream. When the carhop delivered our treats, he also informed us that they were out of spoons. Like, no spoons at all. When I questioned him about how we were supposed to eat our ice cream without a spoon, he seemed entirely unconcerned. I managed to save the day with spoons from the sub place next door. But come on! How do you not have spoons? And if you know you don’t have spoons, why are you still selling people ice cream??
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I decided to take painting the girls’ bedrooms off the holiday task list in the interest of not running ourselves ragged during what’s supposed to be a vacation. I’d been holding off on hanging any art on their walls until we painted, but…when I really sat down and thought about it, painting their rooms isn’t a huge priority right now. Maybe in a couple months? Anyway, I’m just going to go ahead and hang their art now so their rooms feel more “finished.” That’ll do for the time being!
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As the end of 2016 rushes toward me, I’ve been thinking a lot about what the year has meant for me and for the world. It’s felt like a really tough year at times, especially in relation to the world we’re in and the things happening in our society. But Google’s year in search video made me feel all the feels — in a really good way. There’s a lot of good in the world. A lot of love. We have to remember that.
Happy New Year, friends! I appreciate each and every one of you.
Misti says
Was Sonic out of forks, too? I know they have those as well. Weird!
Sarah says
Ok I have to laugh now, because it didn’t even cross my mind to ask for a fork! Ha! The carhop didn’t think of it either — he offered us straws but that was it.
Ardith says
Well said, Sarah, on all counts. Best wishes on selling your prior home quickly. Cheers, Ardith
Jennifer says
Who took the pictures the first time around?
We rented our old house very quickly, I think in part due to good photos taken by yours truly. (While most houses sold here have great photos, the typical rental listing photos are astonishingly awful, so the bar is quite low.)
Is it possible you are asking too much for the house?
Sarah says
The realtor took the first set of photos and they really weren’t great. I wish I had retaken them a long time ago. Mine aren’t professional quality, but they’re better than what she did.
As of October, we were priced right in the middle of the recommended range based on comps. It’s possible we are now slightly high after another 2 months of a slow market, so we may drop the price again.
katie says
I think you should get a new realtor. If it’s been sitting that long they need to be taking some steps to move it faster, which should’ve included taking better photos themselves! Or, they should be giving you a more reasonable idea about how long it’s taking to sell houses in the area. If they are knowledgeable about the market they must have some idea of why it’s not selling whether it’s marketing or price or something else.
I know it sucks to think about dropping the price but you’re also paying mortgage and presumably some bills every month, so it might be worth dropping a few thousand dollars at least. If it sits on the market even longer you’ll be paying more for mortgage and bills anyway. It might be worth asking a little less to relieve yourself of the mental stress!
Sarah says
Yeah, I agree with all of this. Hmph.
Georgie says
Hi Sarah,
I’ve been enjoying your blog for a while now and thought I’d share about my own disappointment about selling our house which took an awful lot longer than hoped! It was back in Sept 2015 and we really hoped the house would sell in a couple of weeks but instead it took 3 months! I’m from Melbourne Australia so I think house sales are done differently there but can I make a few suggestions? Get professional real estate photography of your house, and turn on all the lights even if you have a bright house. Think about the description and what people will expect (e.g this was the thing for us – we had a 4 bedroom house and advertised it as such – however people wanting 4 beds also want 2 living which we didn’t have so we changed the ad to 3 bed plus study and it sold within a week). Hold an ‘open house’ once a week for prospective buyers (and sticky beaks) to go through – have the agent do it and you go away to have a coffee. Hope this helps!
Sarah says
Hi Georgie! Thanks for commenting! I haven’t gotten professional photography, but I have enough skills to make them look somewhat decent — and better than they were. Our realtor has had several open houses, so we’re doing that…it just hasn’t paid off yet. There is new construction in our neighborhood and while it’s more expensive than our house by $50-100k, I think it’s hurting us as well.