Lifelore

Between trying to sell our home and looking online for our future home, using many realty websites, I have learned a few very valuable lessons. As I mentioned in a previous blog, we have never sold a home before and have only purchased 1 in our 21 years of marriage. Our current home was brand new when we bought it. The people who had it built, ended up defaulting on their loan the week of closing, so we were able to move in to a brand new home and not have to go through the process of picking out a pre-owned home.

My eyes were opened yesterday to 1 major lesson: Do not schedule a showing of a home unless you are interested in that particular home. As a seller, we bust our backs trying to clean and prepare our house to look as perfect as it can look for you. Yesterday we were informed of a showing. We had 1 hour to prepare, which is adequate since we try to keep it tidy with only a few things to straighten up. Many things went wrong that morning. I had a huge load of laundry in the dryer that I had not even began to fold and put away and was in the process of starting just that when the phone rang alerting us of the showing. My husband was already running late to work when our kids informed us that a lightbulb was out in the guest bathroom. Of course, we did not have any spares! So my son followed my husband to the hardware store so that he could help out in the selection of the correct bulb, then my husband proceeded onto work. My son got home with about 10 minutes to spare. That may seem like a lot, but it is not when you aren’t even dressed for the day and still have to install the new lightbulb. So my poor son had to leave for a 2^nd time (this time for the showing) while still in his pj’s. We parked down the street as we did not have any shopping or any place that we needed to go. The potential buyers arrived and stayed a total of 4 minutes! Yes, 4 minutes!!! We received feedback via email that they were just curious as to what a house in this price range looked like and decided to bump up a level. They weren’t even interested in our particular house!! They used our home as research! Oh my, was I ever ticked! Did they realize how our morning had gone? Of course not! Did they care? Probably not!

The second lesson that I have learned is that if you are looking at a preowned home, do not expect it to be your exact dream home! Do not expect all of the latest updates! Do not expect everything to look brand new! Most of all, do not judge the house based on what is in it! My husband is a techie guy and works with computers as a living, so we have a few computers sitting around that are used on a daily basis. We have actually had people see our home who have commented that we have too much techie stuff and that it looks like a computer lab. My thought is, “You are not buying the house with the computers. They are not yours.” One bonus that the buyer of our home will receive in the deal though, is our projector and 135 inch screen to watch movies or play video games on. Who wouldn’t want that? If that is too techie for the buyer, we will gladly take that out of the deal and take it with us. As for not having the latest upgrades and updates, those can be added in due time if you were to buy our house. It is yours to make your own after you purchase it. If you want the house to look brand new, buy a brand new home!

A third lesson that I have learned is how important communication is. As a buyer, we need to let our realtor in Florida know what we are looking for in a home, our price limit, and communicate our preferences. Otherwise, he has no clue what houses to recommend. As a seller it is just as important. We should let our realtor know what kind of offer we are looking for and rely on him to let us know what we can do differently and what to expect in this whole process. We are newbies to the buying and selling process and need all of the help that we can get on both sides. In just the same way, our realtors should communicate on a regular basis so we can be kept up to date on the progress or lack of progress.  We want to feel like the realtor cares and is engaged in the daily pursuit of selling our home and, on the purchasing side, of helping us to find our new home  Thank goodness for experienced realtors who can give us the help and advice that we desperately need!

These lessons have been beneficial to us as we prepare to fly down to Florida soon to specifically purchase our next home. I will be sensitive to which houses we look at. If we know that we are not interested, we will not waste the sellers time and energy. Also, we are looking at pre-owned homes. When looking at photos online it is easy to rule out a house based on the little things. One question that my husband and I have learned to do ask ourselves  is if the little things will make or break our purchase of the home. For example, we would prefer a house with all tile or laminate throughout due to my husband’s sinus issues, but when looking at pictures, if it has carpet, we realize that we can eventually remove it and put down whatever we want. We can make it ours in due time!  One other thing, if the refrigerator works we will be happy with it until it decides to give out. We are not demanding that it be stainless steel since that seems to be the new trend. We understand that since it is a used home, most appliances will be used as well.

I guess my point is that lately I have been forced to think about things differently since we will soon be both on the selling and buying end of a house at the same time. It helps me to realize the things that I have not been happy with on the selling end and to try to be more sensitive to those when we are on the buying end. It is a stressful situation for all involved and that is the most important lesson to remember.

Written by Kathryn Conrad