Listing a house for sale

We have lived in the same house for 38 years and now that we’ve retired we want to move out of the city.  Getting this house ready began 2 years ago before my retirement. I did a one year plan updating, painting and purging that you can see at the Whole Home Make Over here. We found a place in the country and put a contingency contract until we sell our current home.  There will be more about that on a future post, once our current house is sold.

    
This week we packed most everything out of all the closets and took an abundant amount of stuff off shelves, walls and off the fireplace.  They say “less is more” when showing a house.  It’s the tip of an ice burg toward getting moved I think.  The garage has been a wood working shop for hubs and the attic is full of forgotten memories.  That will have to wait until we are certain we’ve sold.
     We contacted three agencies to interview.  Choosing one was not easy because they were each highly qualified and very easy to like.  Each was very encouraging about the current market and salability of our home.  We made our decision based on the prices they suggested for our house and the negotiating strategies they say they use with potential buyers.  Now we’re down to the final steps and have listed with an agent.  The sign is in the yard and we’re feeling the pressure. 
     We spent the weekend preparing for a home stager on Monday and photographer on Tuesday.  I admit  I was a bit excited about the staging.  I watch a lot of HGTV and hoped she’d transform our home into something spectacular.  Well, as spectacular as it can get using my furniture!  Then the photographer will take photo’s for the real estate web page and we will wait.  Hopefully not too long.
      Last week I planted more flowers and mulched the flower beds to improve curb appeal.  Hub & I trimmed some low tree branches to open up the view of the house today.  I think I have pulled at least 2,000 little crab grass bunches from the side of the yard that got an accidental spray for broadleaf weed killer (I think…from the neighbor on that side).  St. Augustine grass IS a broadleaf so most of it died last summer and the harsh winter we had did not help.  I think crabgrass thrives on weed killer!  The good news is the two bags of Bermuda grass seed I tossed out along with some new grass fertilizer and daily watering is working.  I hate using so much water even though we have been getting some rain this spring but we do what we have to do.  Hopefully the seeds will grow and establish quickly and the watering can be reduced in a couple of weeks.
     Inside I decided to put a fresh coat of paint on the baseboards and a built in bookshelf.  Good decision, it looks nice and clean.

I’ll show you how that goes later.  Goodor bad.