Monday, December 26, 2016

Selling Our Old House

When we decided to look for a home, our biggest worry was timing of it all. We knew we needed the cash from our house sale to buy where we wanted to move to. It was unfortunate, having to move, we were on track to have our house paid off by 2026. That was a bitter pill to swallow but we knew we were doing this move for a good reason, even if it didn't make the most financial sense.

We watched some houses in our neighborhood sell and checked some comps that our real estate agent who helped us buy our new house gave us. We were lucky to be selling in a hot market and decided to be our own real estate agents. Through a friend, I found an agent who charged a flat $249 fee. With that fee you get your listing on the MLS, a sign and a lockbox. We also received amazing assistance from the agent who really didn't have to do half of the things he did. He was a great resource to us through the process and we feel we got a great deal.

One of the biggest things with listing a house these days is online presence. With the listing on MLS, it is not only sent to the local agent's website, but to all of the other local and national websites, as well such as Coldwell Banker, FM Realty, Realtor.com and Zillow. We were in charge of our own pictures. I felt that was something I could do but our agent told us we could use him if we needed someone to take them for us. I was pleased with how our pictures came out.

The funny thing about the internet is people really have no idea what is going on behind the scenes. Since we were still living in the house at this point, my mom, dad and husband were all scurring around behind me hiding things under cabinets, hiding lamp cables and opening blinds.

These are just a few of my favorite rooms from that house and our amazing backyard that my husband transformed from a literal blank slate to this.








We listed the house on the MLS on Thursday and started showings on Friday. We did not live in a very sought after area but we felt our house showed well and was priced right.

We had 3 showings on Friday and 4 lined up for Saturday. Friday I received 2 phone calls from agents asking if we had offers already and asking a few questions about the house and the natural area behind it. Saturday we had 3 showings in the morning and one scheduled for the afternoon. By 10:30am, I had a verbal offer. At noon, we had a written offer in our hands. By 4pm, we had finished our haggling, a final offer was signed by the buyer and by us and we were under contract, with earnest money in hand. What a whirlwind.

Closing was set for a date that worked for both us and the buyer and we were on our way. The process was surprisingly smooth all of the way. The inspection report had a few very minor things on it and we offered to pay for a couple of them. The only hiccup happened at the final walk through when the buyers found the washer and dryer in the house. We thought they wanted it, turned out, they didn't. We spent a tense couple of hours that night trying to make it right and they ended up just keeping them (thankfully). Closing went quickly and smoothly (so much smoother than our closing on the new house!)

Finally. All that hard work was worth it.

Do I miss it? Yes. I miss my friends. We had great neighbors in that neighborhood. Young couples with young kids. There are not that many young couples with young kids in our neighborhood. I miss them a lot and miss having someone for our daughter to play with but we'll get through it. Hopefully we will have other young families move in close to our new house and we will work with what we've got.

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