How We Sold our House in One Showing

Since spring means the typical start in the uptick of homes hitting the market (and I forgot to share before now), I thought I'd share how we sold ours late last summer. We had actually originally discussed listing in the spring. Spring a year ago. But, like often happens, life happened and we held off. In the end, it probably worked out for the best.

As the title states, we did in fact sell our house in one showing within just hours of listing. Here are the details that led up to it ...

Staging and Repairs

I mentioned in this post about house hunting how much of a difference staging makes. We started preparing/staging the house in May. Clearing out extra stuff by packing boxes, separating out donations and tossing the rest. We rented a 5x10 storage unit and filled it full with extra furniture and many of the boxes we'd already packed. Doing our best to make our 1350sf home feel as spacious as possible and still comfortably house the 2 of us, 1 toddler and 1 cat.

We did a few obvious repairs, fixes. Fresh caulk and new toilet seats in the bathrooms. New, neutral paint in the master bedroom. Freshening the outdoor flowerbeds with new mulch. Hiring a company to power wash the house, porch, sidewalk and drive as well as clean the gutters.

We actually called the Realtor after we had already completed these things and, I confess, I was relieved when she said we were in great shape. Even to let go of a few of the things that were still on my 'to do' list. Once we actually started touring other houses, I got it. Even in this age of HGTV and shows that stress all the things to do to help improve your selling, it's unbelievable the utter messes you will walk into. One house, truthfully, we were all nervous about walking in because it was so dark and filthy. That's another story, but proof that staging (and even just cleaning up!) before a showing makes a difference.

Professional Photos
We were fortunate that our realty company offered professional photos for free. Also staging assuming you kept your house listed for a certain amount of time (unless it sold faster) but we had made enough progress and our house sold so fast that it was never necessary. When I saw our listing online I saw the difference the professional photographs made. Purely from my hobby I knew they would be better, but when you compared them to listings with standard photographs - those just didn't have the same impact.

Timing
We had been watching the market and knew homes in our neighborhood were selling fast. Simply - price and location, location, location. Both things that originally attracted us to the area.

We finally chose a Monday to list the house. The first Monday in August. We had the house in pretty good shape, but assumed (wrongly) that we wouldn't have requests for showings until the weekend. Nope. Try mid-afternoon. Dylan was napping (do not wake my child!) and, there was a bit of tidying up that I felt needed to be done. I asked to have the showing pushed back 30 minutes. A short time later I received another call (while dripping in sweat from running around in the August heat like a mad woman trying to get every detail inside and out just perfect) that the showing was cancelled. What? And so I admitted my failings to both Trent and our Realtor. Our Realtor was awesome - don't worry about it. You'll be ready for the next one.

The First & Only Showing
After Trent got home, we loaded the car to take more boxes to the storage unit. Barely a mile from home, we had our second call requesting a showing. This time, we accepted immediately as I u-turned it back to the now tidy house to turn on lights and put a sign on the door to please not let out the cat. Then we took our time eating dinner out and dropping off the boxes at the storage unit. Later that night when we returned, we were hopeful it went well and that we would get good feedback.

The next morning, instead of feedback, we had an email from our Realtor sharing the offer. We had a small bit of back and forth, but that was it. One showing, one full price offer and within 48 hours all the paperwork signed. The closing didn't happen until late September to give us time to find a new house, but the showings were over and done.

In the end, it boiled down to three simple things - price, location and inventory. The day we listed, we were the only single family home in our price range in our area. I honestly believe it was key in helping us sell in one showing. And while there was still a good bit of stress in finding our new house in the time frame between the offer and closing, it was a huge relief especially with a toddler, to not have to continue to keep our home in "ready to show" shape for an extended period.

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Moving - the layout

This cut out template for the October Blueprint Challenge at Design House Digital was perfect for little glimpses of our move. I used "cardboard" paper and masking tape to mimic the feel of all those packed boxes (which I wish I could say were all gone but we're still working through them!).

Supplies: DHD October Blueprint Challenge template by Jen Papadimitriou; Kindergarten Crafts kit by Miss Mint; Picket Fences kit by Jen Allyson; I Love Boys elements by Robyn Meierotto; Digi Essentials brushes by Karla Dudley; Back to Basics - Black Frames by Sara Schmutz; Another Typewriter font.

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grow

One of those bittersweet moments in the past week, we took our final photo in front of the giraffe growth chart. I wasn't good about getting these on a monthly basis as I hoped, but we did take several over the last 3 years. Here are the first and last taken at 1 and 38 months respectively:

Supplies: Rocketman kit by Deena Rutter; Blossom kit by Karen Funk; In Stitches - Bright Basics by Robyn Meierotto; 2peas Island Style and Adobe Caslon Pro fonts. Scraplift of Playing Together by editorialdragon at DHD.

Why the giraffe is staying put and why we won't use vinyl wall decals in our next home here.

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Moving Organization

This is it. The week of closings and moving. Here's how I've been getting us ready ...

Basket of moving supplies - I found this idea at A Bowl Full of Lemons and it's been so helpful! I used a small plastic crate we already owned from the Dollar Tree. In it, I placed a plastic cup to corral markers, pens & scissors; printed box labels (see next item); and assorted tapes (packing & painters). It's easy to move around the house, easy to spot in it's bright green color and keeps all our packing supplies at hand as we fill those boxes.

Box labels - These are a free printable from The Nest Effect. I simply bought Avery labels and printed them out. Then made notes of contents and smacked the label on the box. Simple as that.

Moving checklist - Good reminder list of all the little things to do before a move here.

Donations - I realized last year that I still had a small amount of neon 8.5x11 paper from college. This has been perfect for keeping track of donations. I use a sheet each time I prepare a box or bag for donating. At the top I note the store name and date of donation. I then list each item noting quality when necessary to help me when tax time comes around. After making the donation, I staple the receipt to the sheet so I have it ready. Each year I choose a different neon color (currently using green) - it makes the sheets very easy to spot amongst our other paperwork. We have quite the stack of these sheets this year as I have been donating a lot of items I don't feel are necessary any longer and I don't want to move!

Moving Binder - I saw this idea in numerous blog posts. It has been vital to keeping us organized. I actually found an empty binder and dividers when packing up items to put into storage. Inside I have sections for our schedule (calendar with notations of all appointments related to the move); inspection and repair notes for both houses; loan documents; utility information; reference sheet of important contacts.

Plastic Zipper Bags - Ok, so this is the least "green" part of our move, but oh so helpful. I'm using bags in a range of sizes (snack, sandwich, quart, gallon) to contain various items such as hardware for shelving we're taking with us.

Plastic Reusable Food Containers - You have to pack them anyway so why not use a few to help contain smaller items for the move? The uses are pretty much only limited to the size of the container. One of the best ideas I came up with (in my own humble opinion, of course) was to put kitchen utensils and gadgets in them. They were all headed to the same room and it kept these items clean during the move so I had less to wash when we arrived.

Big Blue Ikea Bag - hands down one of my best Ikea purchases was this bag. It's been used so many times. Currently, it's holding a few "need immediately" items that we'll take with us the moment we first have keys to the house. It's easy to continue to add to, easy to spot amongst all the boxes and easy to carry.

And with that, I'm back to packing boxes. A few more to go. The finish line is in sight.

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Toddler Moving Books

This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

After a suggestion from a friend, I made a request from our library for a couple of age appropriate books about moving to read to Dylan. While we've been telling him for about it for a few months, taken him to see the new house several times, he's seen the boxes piling up, etc. - we don't fully expect him to understand the concept at age 3. He's enjoyed these two books and both have led to further conversation that I hope will help with the transition. So far he's been excited, but last night he did show concern that the moving truck would have spiders and didn't want his stuff in it! Where he got that idea I'm unsure, but I promised the truck would be clean and, regardless, his bed and toys would be moved in Mama's car. That seemed to help!

A Tiger Named Thomas - cute story about a boy that moves to his new neighborhood shortly before Halloween. He doesn't think the new neighbors will like him, but on Halloween he learns otherwise.

The timing of this book is perfect as we're moving into our new home at the very end of September and are already talking about Halloween with Dylan. It gave me an opportunity to remind him that we will meet some new friends in our new neighborhood and I also reinforced that we will still see our old friends that both live in our current neighborhood and elsewhere.

The Berenstain Bears' Moving Day - the story of Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Brother Bear moving from their home in the side of a mountain to their treehouse.

We already have a few Berenstain Bears books that Dylan loves. Having a father, mother and son moving were a good comparison to our family of 3. We discussed how all our belonging are being boxed up and will be loaded into a truck to move (it was after the 2nd reading of this he mentioned spiders in the truck. I'm not seeing any in the illustrations so I'm thinking they came from his imagination). Since Dylan will be staying with grandparents during the actual move, I promised to send him a few photos so he could see what is happening. He liked that idea. Thank goodness for the digital age!

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House Hunting Reality

In the last month, I've learned a number of things when it comes to house hunting ...

Photos Lie
I sort of knew this beforehand, but it is nice to think that a house looks as good as its photos. Sometimes they are pretty close, but some are soooo far off. Like the house that looked empty and had lots of great features. In reality, it had people living in it that were total slobs. Now, I'm not the best housekeeper myself but this showing was delayed and the place was still trashed. All the lights were off, window treatments closed. It was dark and creepy including the horrid spiderweb covered exterior. Our Realtor even joked she felt the need for a bath after walking in it. Yeah, gross. (I won't post photos - partly for the privacy of sellers and, frankly, I was so horrified I didn't think to take any!)

Staging Makes a Difference
Thankfully, Trent & I do have vision and can look past a lot. Ok, so not so much the house mentioned above. We both agreed we could never see past the filth to imagine ourselves in that house. But, aside from it, we've been able to envision possibilities in some homes. Those that have a least some staging (ie, furniture and minimal clutter) definitely make that easier. A couple empty homes we saw were a bit more challenging to picture what furniture of ours might fit and how we could arrange it.

Glimpses of a few of the homes we liked.

Location, location
This is our focus. There are plenty of houses in our budget that fit our "wants" list, but not so many in the area we want to be. Lots can be changed about a house. Location isn't one of those things.

Exhausting
It seems fun when watching other people search out their next house on TV, but after a few weeks, reality is it isn't that much fun. Perhaps it's the pressure of the closing date on our current home fast approaching (although we did learn this morning that we could possibly push it back. Hurray!) or the pressure of finding what's right for our family for years to come. We have no intention of doing this again until Dylan is grown and out of the house! I think I'm probably the pickier one and kudos to Trent and our Realtor for their patience with me as I comment on each new choice presented. I've truly lost count how many we've seen ... the "dark house", the one with the sinking floor, the cute 70s split level that was a tad too small, the one with the stage, the one where 2 cars really didn't fit in the "2 car" garage, the one with half the property under water due to a retention pond, the foreclosed home, the one that felt like it would slide down the hill it was perched on, etc.

We have found a few we liked and already "lost" 2 - the first we weren't quick enough to get an offer in before another buyer did. The second another buyer slipped in during our negotiations over the weekend and snatched. It wasn't until a day later that the seller's agent told ours we were no longer a contender. Very frustrating.

This morning we submitted an offer on yet another house. Still waiting word. Fingers crossed.

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Week in a Nutshell

This week has been incredibly busy. Far from creatively productive (struggling there), but full in so many other ways ...

I've been packing more boxes. Still many, many more to go with only 6 weeks until closing.

We've looked at 8 more houses since Saturday and finally found 1 we are interested in. :)

The inspection of our current house took place on Tuesday. Thankful for a good friend letting Dylan & I hang out at her house while that was going on. Still waiting on the full report.

Dylan & I met friends at Oval Drive Park in Durham (our first visit - the pirate 'ship' is awesome!) and hosted our weekly playgroup get together.

I thought about blogging on Wednesday. I took a nap instead. :) The right choice.

I've worked 4 nights at my part time job since Saturday. Starting tomorrow I'll be working the closing shift for 4 nights straight.

My dad visited on Monday and watched Dylan while I attended a funeral for a friend's grandmother. She will definitely be missed and is probably having a blast in Heaven. Grateful to have known her. How many grandmothers take their granddaughter and friend to FL on spring break? Yes, there's a story there and it takes a unique individual to do that! :)

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