Lifelore

Having our house on the market has been a whole new experience for me. Growing up, I lived in the same house for 19 years and was very thankful for that. When I got married, my husband and I moved to different apartments but this is the first time I have ever been a part of selling a house. This has brought up a whole new set of emotions for me.

When you put your house up for sale, in my opinion, you are in one of the most vulnerable positions that you could put yourself into. You have many strangers coming through your house (potential buyers, realtors, inspectors, appraisers….) and literally judging different things. Sometimes they are judging you on things that will in, the end, affect them, but most of the time they are judging you, as the seller, on things that will not affect them at all in the end. Sure they HAVE to judge certain things like the condition of the structure itself and how well the structure has been taken care of. There are aspects that they judge (maybe even subconsciously) that have zero bearing on the house itself. For example, they are judging how good of a housekeeper you are, whether you have the latest and greatest appliances, the condition of your furniture, why you would put this object in that particular place and on and on. Most of those things could easily and inexpensively be changed out if they bought the house.

I will admit, some of the comments and reviews of the potential buyers who have been shown our house have hurt my feeling. Some of them have been just outright mean. If someone is not interested in the location, layout, or overall look of our house that is understandable. People have different tastes and different things they are looking for in a home. But to be purposefully mean is inexcusable.

This has been a great reminder that it should not matter to us what man thinks of us. This is a hard thing to put into practice. We can have thousands of positive and encouraging comments, but it is always the few negative comments that stand out in our heads that we dwell on.

I am learning so much through this life changing experience that we are putting into place. One of the main things that I am learning, though, is how to trust God more and more. My husband and I talked about this at length both last night and this morning. It was a huge blow to our hearts when we found out that the buyer had backed out of the deal based on something that seemed so silly to us. We have many questions. As Tim told me last night, God is saying, “Tim and Kate, do you trust Me?” The lady backing out of the deal did not go unnoticed by God. He knew that it would happen even before the lady herself knew. God IS and WILL continue to be with us and we WILL continue to trust Him. We may shed many tears and put our fists up in anger many times throughout this process, but God will continue to be with us and help us through each step of this new adventure. This verse is one of my favorites: Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Written by Kathryn Conrad