Showing Fail

Our house got stood up again. Poor house.

The plus side to not having a showing is that the office door stayed closed all day, so the cat didn't have a chance to run in and take a massive whiz all over the carpet. As she so much loves to do right in the corner of the office. She'll go in her litter box just fine, as long as she can't get in the office. Part of me feels a little bad that I deprive my cat of her favorite litter box. But then I look at the carpet we've already had to replace once, and all those feelings go away.

I think this was our 26th-ish showing?

We're meeting with our realtors soon to discuss the spring selling strategy. Although all the discussions in the world aren't going to get rid of the train that runs by/next to our house.

Showing # 1,000,000 -1,000,003

Just a quick update from our weekend showings.

We ended up with three weekend showing total- one on Saturday and two on Sunday. Right now I'm pretty convinced that only the Saturday appointment showed up/came inside. I know this because their agent left us a very nice note on the kitchen table, which basically told us that his clients loved what we've done to the interior of the house but due to the location of the railroad our house isn't the one for them.

You know what, I really appreciated that note. It was nice to hear that they liked the house itself, because I'm have this problem where I'm constantly doubting some of the decisions that we've made for the house. Mostly when it comes to a few rooms color and design choices. I get that the railroad is a problem for a lot of people, and really don't have a problem being "rejected" over it.

Our Sunday showings? I'm almost positive they didn't show up. Not a realtor card to be seen, the locks were still locked just so and all the upstairs doors were just as we left them. It is pretty easy to see when you're house has been fiddled with. Dimmer switches have been turned all the way in one direction and doors being left open are the big signs for us. Plus there was no hint of snow/salt being tracked inside on our freshly cleaned wood floors.

Fingers crossed we get some appointments for this weekend!

Showing #23

We had another showing this afternoon.

Do I feel hopeful? No.
Am I so emotionally ready to move on and feel ready to sell this house yesterday? Yes.

You know what was really awesome about the showing today? They didn't close the office door all the way and the cat was able to slip in (hopefully after they left) and take a massive poo on the floor. Our cat seems to think that the office carpet is her free for all litterbox, even though she favors one corner. We've already replaced the carpet once.

One day I'm going to make a post highlighting all the crap in the house that my cat has ruined during her 6 year tenure here. It is going to be the longest post ever.

Please Please Please tell me that I'm not the only one with a destructive pet out there. Please.

Showing #22

We got a last minute showing request this morning, for 1pm today. As it turns out we were able to accommodate the the request because Pete is currently at home recovering from getting his wisdom teeth out. Since he was feeling up to it, he was able to clean the house to showing standards and get the pets out.

Our realtor got us the feedback from the weekend showings! The couple who came back for the second showing has a wife who is in love with the house and a husband who is worried about our foundation. The other couple has a husband who loves the house and a wife that is worried about our neighbors. Could they just swap spouses so at lease one couple agrees on buying our house?! I might have never mentioned on here that we're flanked by the only two abandoned houses in the entire town. Which does makes for some quiet neighbors.

Sunday Second Showing

Through out our long adventures with selling this house I've always maintained a love hate relationship with showings. I realize that showings are a necessary part of selling your house. Buyers need to be able to tour homes and see if they want to purchase it! However, a showing can be massively annoying. Cleaning an already clean house and making your home look un-lived in is so hard! Then there is factoring in getting rid of any hint of a pet. Getting our hyper active dog and master escape artist cat wrangled into the car is also really stressful.

All this work is really worth it (hopefully) and comes with the territory of selling a house. It may be inconvenient but we singed up for it! So I try not to complain too much and maintain a positive outlook for every showing.

Out of all our 20+ showings, my favorite are the ones that are on back to back days. Those types of showings mean that we only have to touch up the deep cleaning, instead of having to do it all over again. Despite our (my) hurricane like tendencies to rip through the house leaving a mess in my wake, I can usually manage to keep the house looking spotless for 24 hours.

My ultimate favorite types of showings are SECOND ONES! We've only had two far. One was a fake one too, an old relative of the owners who wanted to see the house. Then she wanted to bring her mom back for a tour. After the other second showing the peopled ended up buying our neighbors house instead. Major Bummer.

Today we had our third second showing! One of the buyers from yesterday called last night and scheduled another showing for today. When the realtor called last night to let us know I started crying. It was just such a good sign. and I'm a crier.

So, we super spiffed up the house this morning in hopes of it making a fantastic second impression. Now that its all over I can't lie, I feel really neutral about all this. Not so excited that I'm holding my breath for an offer, but not so down that I'm counting an offer out. Somewhere in the gray middle.

Please cross your fingers that something good does come from this showing.

Saturday Showings

It has been a couple of slow months on the house selling front for us, which we did expect since winter is the standard dead time for real estate. Houses all around us are pulled off the market in hopes of the erasing their "days on market" count and starting again at zero in the spring. We decided to chance it and leave our house on the market so it could stand out in the smaller "for sale" house pond. Just hoping it will help to attract that rare winter buyer.

It still hasn't proven itself to be a good or bad decision, more like a neutral one. We only had one showing in December, right before the holidays. So you can imagine how surprised we were to get the call from our real estate office for a showing this weekend. Even more surprised when we received another call, for the exact same time. One of the agents agreed to come early though, so we got two showings for the mid-am Saturday morning. Pretty much the most convenient time ever! Clean Friday night and then just take the two pets over to the Wee house with us when we leave for the showings.

Now we're back from doing a couple hours of work over at the Wee house and thankfully both sets of showings seem to have to shown up! Two different Realtor cards are on the dining room table! I can't help but to feel positive about this. Not so positive that my hopes get risen only to be crushed when we don't get an offer. But optimistic that there are buyers out there and they are still interested enough in our house. I still can't help crossing my fingers and hoping that an offer comes our way sometime soon.

You know how if a bird poops on you its considered lucky? Well does anyone know anything about dog vomit having the same luck effect? Because on the way back from the Wee house Nala the dog ralphed right onto my lap.

Showing # 19

Yesterday we received a request for a showing! Exciting! The screeching halt of the real estate market hitting the winter season was and is being felt with our house. I don't really mind though. Like I've mentioned before, in order for one to sell their house it must be on the market and available for showings. The appointments have been pretty rare, so the inconvenience for us is very minimal aside from one or two showing ready cleanings.

Staying positive about ever selling the house is really important. If I don't work at being optimistic about every showing, I'll quickly feel defeated by the housing market and downward spiral into a pretty crappy funk. A deep funk that not even ice cream, beer and Star Wars can bring me out of. While cleaning last night I kept reminding myself that the house will eventually sell. It has to. It will. Even if this person isn't THE buyer, then at the very least we don't have to clean the house again this weekend.

Sigh. This house selling stuff. I'm not sold on it yet.

Showing # 16

There is another showing tonight.

Upside-
BBQ take out for dinner
Clean house

Downside-
False hope for an offer

What Happens...

When there is an open house and no one shows up?

You have two very annoyed home sellers.

showing # 15 and 16 occured last week.
no offers.
The only bonus is a very very clean house.

Showing #10-b 2.0

The client from showing #10-b came for a second look on Sunday!
No feedback yet

and we (yet again) amazed ourselves with how fast we can make a clean house messy!
less than 24 hours folks and we had to spend two hours in a cleaning frenzy pre-showing. Someday I'll learn to clean up after myself right away. Someday.

Showing #10

I'm glad the house is still clean from yesterdays realtor open house.

Now to think of something to do during the showing. I'll be wrangling the cat and dog by myself...If only coffee shops liked it when you brought your pissed off cat and hyper dog inside.

Showing # 9

Showing #9 is going to be tomorrow afternoon between 12-1. Which means we have to drop the dog and cat off at Eboro before work. I didn't even get the stupid excited jumbly stomach feeling that I usually do when we find out about a showing. More like nothing with the overwhelming desire to put a sign up that says "make offer. please."

I think I'm headed down the path of a frustrated home seller.

Showing # 8

Another showing this evening.

Here is to hoping they actually show up, unlike yesterdays clients.

Showing #7

I'm pretty sure our house got stood up for its showing today.

Frick.