Home Staging

We definitely made a good choice on realtors.  After listing the house with them we took the rest of the weekend to remove and store things from the closets, off shelves and off the walls.  Monday a home stager came over.  I (not so secretly) looked forward to this part.  She was great.  I learned that my taste is not so far off the mark and had already done a lot of the right things to remove the personal stuff and allow the buyers to see themselves in our home. 

 

All I really had to do was remove a few more things from the shelves and change the bedspread to a darker one in the extra bedroom.  She moved a gladiola in a white vase from the fireplace to the dining table (love, love, love) and took a small garden trellis from the yard to the bathroom vanity (also love).  It was almost a deal breaker when hubs found we moved his favorite lounge chair out of the living room, but he resigned himself to deal with it for a few days.  Phew.

 

On Tuesday a professional photographer came and I watched as he worked his magic showing the best angles and features of the house.  It felt like an episode on HGTV.  I really felt like having a party so my besties could enjoy the clean clear space!  Our little Italian Greyhound was terribly nervous about him being in his backyard, but we managed.

Wednesday at 3:15 the home was listed on their web site and the showing appointments started ringing off the phone.  Hubs, dog and I spent the evening at the dog park.  I’m very grateful for some cool weather, which is not usual this time of year in Texas.  The appointment requests continued Thursday and Friday.  We were out of the house from 8:00 AM-8:30 PM both days.  I was beginning to feel a bit weary being out all day since we had to contend with a dog.  Unbelievably our realtor emailed Friday night that we had two offers.  Saturday morning when he called he asked us to come to the office and go over FOUR offers!  We were very excited the showings were over so quickly.  We accepted the offer that best fit our needs and proceeded with scheduling inspections.
 
The home inspectors took four hours to go over every crook and cranny.  They were very nice and complementary but we held our breath until the report came back two days later.  Amazingly there were only five repair items requested.  We were able to DIY all but two.  A plumber came to bring the emergency release valve on the water heater up to code.  That only took about 30 minutes and he turned out to be an old high school friend of our son. We had a nice visit and he gave us a break on the price.   A roofer had to replace and seal a shingle next to the fireplace vent from all our Texas wind storms and now the house is ready.
During the inspections we had the opportunity to meet the new owners.  We had an immediate connection because they are moving here from Main to be near their grandkids during retirement,  That’s what we are doing!  Only we’re staying in Texas.  Now…let the big time packing begin.