Judgement Day: Meeting the Realtor

The clock struck 2:00pm.  He was here.  It was Judgement Day.

The day when a stranger studies your home, prying into your closets, examining your bathrooms, and decides to send you to Heaven or Hell what needs to be done to sell your house.

For the four hours prior (when we scheduled the meeting) I had been a sloppy pile of nerves.  I can only compare it to my wedding day, weirdly enough.  Is he going to tell me to paint over my stenciling in a neutral color?  Will he make me buy new dining furniture, since we just sold ours?  What if I trip when I'm walking down the aisle? 

Don't take my anxiety the wrong way - I had been preparing for his arrival for the past two weeks.  A quick online search gave me some tips on what needed to be done.  They were right on, because Realtor could see my efforts right as he walked in the door!

Declutter.  Luckily, I'm terrified of hoarding, so this wasn't too extreme since I'm constantly decluttering.  I threw out some old magazines and sold some spare furniture, but most of our junk was just paper.  One thing we did have to do was organize closets.  We have plenty of storage, so if something looked too crowded, I just put it in an emptier closet.  (Or cabinet.  Yes, I organized the whole kitchen too.)  How beautiful is this?

Verdict: A.  He described my effort to declutter as "really good."  I was going for Excellent, so I was slightly disappointed.  Though I get the impression he's a man of few words, so maybe "really good" is off the charts.

Depersonalize.  I removed diplomas from the wall, took away most Wolfpack paraphernalia, and hid my wedding photos.  I have tons of photo frames around my house, all of them with friends and family in them!  I swapped them all out with scenery (Lena, I even stole some of your Europe photos from Facebook - thanks!).  I wanted to include a photo of my parent's dog, but Stephen was thinking ahead and didn't want anyone to think pets lived here, just in case they were allergic.  I was quick to point out that I was using pictures of other animals, like cows from our four-wheeling trips.  But he was pretty sure no one would think a cow lived in the house, so he OK-ed those.  (pssst - here are some beautiful photos of cows.)

I still hung this photo.  Who could resist?!

The house, however, still has personality.  Remember my chalkboard cabinets?  My kitchen wall stencil?  I'd rather die than paint over either of those!

Verdict:  A+. He told me changing out photos was the right thing to do.  When I questioned him on the "personality" of my wall stencil, he said it was "done well."  On the personality of chalkboard cabinets, he gave me a "really cool!" and I think was genuinely amused with the concept. Oh, and he said it was obvious that we didn't have a dog in the house, so the Zeke photo can stay!

Fix it.  That leaky faucet?  Fixed.  The sprinkler system that broke 2 days after we found out we were moving?  Fixed (thanks to a very helpful landscaper, who didn't even charge!).  I also added some touch-up paint in the living room and master bedroom.  During a storm last week, some lattice with vines that enclose the patio blew over, so we wrestled that back up.  I'm going to add "recaulk bathtubs" into this category too.

Verdict:  A.  Well, he didn't make any mention of anything broken or any quality issues with the house, which is what I was hoping/expecting.

Add some curb appeal.  Our lawn is looking just short of stellar these days, so we just removed the soaker hose and mowed.  We spread a few bags of mulch, pulled some weeds, trimmed back the bushes, and called it a day.  There are some things that need to be done, like xeroscaping the side yard (it's only half gravel) but we're not planning on doing that to sell (dirt and gravel don't really look much different to me).

Verdict:  C-.  He wasn't real keen on the fact we didn't landscape in the backyard at all.  He already has asked us to consider a landscaping allowance should a buyer request one.  Sigh.

Clean. Clean. Clean. Clean. Clean. And a few more after that.  This was easiest for me to do after all the clutter was gone, and after things were already organized in closets.  Basically, this step just included dusting, sweeping/mopping/vacuuming, and basic bathroom maintenance.  I even made my bed.

Verdict:  B.  I had to move a ladder and shop-vac for his pictures, but otherwise, he didn't say anything.  Perhaps he was speechless.

Stage.  I added a few throw pillows here, a couple candles there, and brought home some real life flowers.  I bought some little accessories for the bathroom counters to make it more "spa-like."  I think it worked, because I find myself gazing into the bathrooms a lot.

Verdict:  ?.  He didn't say anything about my staging efforts, but maybe he thought I lived that cute all the time?

I copied this shadowbox idea from Diana, and I love them!

Anywho, I'm on vacay this week, just waiting for the offers to come in.  Already we've had a termite inspection, plumbing inspection, and two appraisals done, so we're well on our way to selling our first house!  It brings about mixed emotions, but I'm trying to stay positive.

Happy Monday!

posted by Emma