Thursday, February 26, 2009

Selling schmelling

We're done. The pictures have been taken, the contracts with the real estate agent have been signed, we're selling our house! Well, you know, if we can find a buyer.

Little things.

Our first open house is this Sunday, which also happens to be TK's birthday.

Here's how I think it'll go, version ONE:

12:00: Open house begins

12:15: Call from agent: "I can't believe how many people are here!"

12:30: Call from agent: "Oh my, there's a bidding war going on! There are THREE couples all desperate for your house!"

12:45: Call from agent: "A fourth couple just threw their name in the mix!"

2:00: Open house ends. People are still milling around outside, marveling at our house.

5:00: Multiple offers, all above our asking price.

What do you think? Am I going to be disappointed on Sunday?

__________________________

Here's how I think it'll go, version TWO:

12:00: Open house starts.

2:00 Open house finishes. Agent says: "We got a few looky-loos, but no serious buyers came through. It was a slow day because of x, y, z."

6 months later...

5:00: Finally got an offer, significantly below asking price.

What do you think? Am I going to be pleasantly surprised on Sunday?

________________________

Realistically, I think it'll be somewhere in between those two extremes. Or at least I hope. I know open houses rarely sell a house, so I actually don't have big expectations for Sunday. And quite honestly, we haven't seen any houses we like yet, so the thought of our house selling very quickly scares me just as much as it selling very slowly. Ideally, it'll sell on the very day that we find our perfect new house...whenever that day is...

Oh sorry, fell into dream land again!

11 comments:

Snickollet said...

I think it's so funny that we're totally on the same house-selling schedule. My open house is this weekend, too, and the photos are taken, contracts signed, etc. I actually don't know if my open house is Saturday or Sunday--since I don't live there anymore, it doesn't matter to me, which is a total luxury. I do hear that the weather is supposed to be crappy on Sunday . . . ugh.

In any case, my fingers are crossed for both of us, and especially for you to find a place you want to buy just as someone makes you an unbelievable offer on your current place.

LauraC said...

Actually I think the ideal situation would be the house selling on your due dates. That would rule.

Good luck! I've been surprised at the real estate market. Two houses in our neighborhood sold in less than a week.

Anonymous said...

Well, if you kitchen is the magical land of un-ending storage and bags of holding, I think you guys are set....we overlooked the kitchen and we HATE how bad ours sucks...

Good luck this weekend, regardless!

Amy said...

hahaha:) our first open house was about a month after being on the market and not a SINGLE person came. we came home to find the open house sign sitting in a puddle as the balloons swayed in the breeze and my husband comparing it to our hopes and dreams of ever buying a house;0 lol. I hope yours goes better, can't be worse!

Anonymous said...

Hey, TK and I have the same b-day! Hope that he has a great day. And good luck w/ the house stuff! Sounds stressful and I hope that it goes well!
Dana

Nancy said...

Ya. Mike and I avoided open houses. We looked online to find ones we wanted to see and then went in with our agent by ourselves. (after a drive-by to see what it looked like from the outside).

So perhaps you should hope for random cars to start driving by...?

Anonymous said...

but the big question is...do you have the apple pie scented candle to burn during the open house?

i've never really understood that philosophy, since you're obviously not there baking an apple pie.

(i know, subliminal message(s), but i'm just not buying that it truly works).

it's been so long since i've sold a house; oh wait, we were actually on vacation during our open house and got a call that we had to make a decision on whether to accept one of two offers (bidding war) and were so unprepared to really move out so soon!

SO....i hope you receive two decent offers from which to choose (always good to have a fallback) AND have a place to go to.

Anonymous said...

Don't knock the Open House theory. Do they sell at Open Houses? Usually not, but they do sell b/c of a visit at the Open House.
Ughh, I feel for you. I hate realtors! Just make sure you put all your valuables away! You can never be too careful.

Mary Ellen said...

We sold our house two years ago to a couple that came to our...sixth open house. Good luck!!

Jeanne Estridge said...

We bought the house we're living in now at an open house, so it does happen!

Jan said...

Good luck. In this economy it is difficult at most to get a fair price.