'Frustrated' has put an offer on a house...

[Begonia]

For those of you who followed my 'Frustrated' thread...we have put an offer on a very modest house!

There was compromise on both sides.

I'd say we are both happy, but our offer hasn't been accepted yet, so I just can't go there until I know more.

We are trying to buy this one, and then sell our current one as fast as possible with bridge financing if need be. No stress there...

This waiting game is a bit nerve-wracking yes?

Anyone have any wisdom or nuggets of advice?

 

[Enerchi]

FAN - freaking - TASTIC!!!! yippee for the Begonia family!!! compromise has been reached and that's awesome - oh, I hope you get the house you offered on and yours sells quickly!!

First - GET RID OF EVERYTHING unnecessary! Any one walking in will want to see how "their" stuff will fit in, not the overload of items you may have. Rent a storage unit and just download as much as possible to there. You can throw out/dispose of items as you move it, or later, but if you want the most bang for your house now - get rid of it. Mr B will have to just deal with that concept!

And get rid of everything that says "Begonia Family Lives Here" - no personal photos, no certificates, diplomas, awards, cute little "I love mom" stuff --- depersonalize your house as much as possible. Once it is up for sale, it is no longer 'yours' anymore and you have to mentally let it go. Nothing sentimental - it just 'cheapens' it for the potential buyers

CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN - and fresh paint! (I used to do house staging with realtors for a while - those were their top 3 pet peeves: personal/paint/perfume <which meant - make it clean and smell clean, and nothing else>)

How exciting!

 

[monarch64]

A huge premature but hopeful congrats on the new abode! And Enerchi makes great points re selling your existing dwelling. Fresh NEUTRAL paint (like off-white, boring but looks clean and fresh) is a must. Get your carpets professionally cleaned as well as any staged furniture. If you can, stage some vignettes in each room, that is always a nice touch. Fresh flowers or plants are neutral and make the place seem naturally homey, and if your realtor (or you if you are selling by owner) is super motivated, s/he could bake cookies/brownies or light a similarly scented candle when showing.

 

[movie zombie]

can't say enough about house staging other than i'm good at it. everything mentioned above is true True TRUE. the best of all world would be to put your current home on the market after you move into the new one. fresh paint, clean floors, cleaned carpet, some deliberate staging, and good curb presence. any dead plants in the front? get rid of them. drive by of a property will tell a prospective home owner a lot.

i am so pleased for you, Begonia! you and your husband "listened" to each other.

 

[JewelFreak]

Yay for Begonia & Company!!! One other hint: if you tend to stress on "will the financing come through..." "when will this house ever sell..." type of things, at high-blood-pressure moments stop & ask yourself if you can do anything about it right now. The answer is No. So put those anxieties in a box in your head & close the lid. Force yourself to go on to something you can fix. Put off worrying till you have an immediate concrete thing to worry about. Most of our dreaded ideas never come to pass anyway!

--- Laurie

P.S. All good advice above, except the part about baking brownies or putting vanilla in the oven to smell good. For our last house, I looked at a zillion places for a full year. Too many smelled like baking -- with nobody home, obviously -- I found it annoying as hell, as if the sellers thought I was stupid enough to buy a house because it smelled like warm cookies. Yuck!

 

[Missy]

Yay!!! Wonderful news Begonia!!! My fingers and toes are crossed for you! I agree with all the sage advice offered by the previous posters. Especially love Laurie's advice of putting vanilla in the oven. Yummmm, who doesn't love that smell. Just resonates happy home!!! Best of luck!!

 

[Begonia]

Clean, de-cluttered, fresh paint, de-personalized...staging. Got it. I think. Gosh I wish you ladies were close . Well a keystroke away will have to do...

We are going to rent a storage locker methinks. Casa Begonia is small...hell most of my life is in blue totes in the garage. I can haul away 10 blue totes this afternoon

I can clean like a hot damn, and de-cluttering I have years of experience with. The staging part not so much.

We've painted most of the house in neutrals except the kitchen (a sunny yellow). I have a lot of really nice houseplants (too many really, some of them will have to go in a shady spot outside). You know the house is so small I think clean and decluttered will do a lot for us. We keep painting everything as the boys ding it up quickly.

Gotta get on that mantle mirror...ack the yard too!

What a wild and crazy ride this life is.

The hot brew is gonna have to be a quick one...

 

[Enerchi]

You got it! Sounds like you are already on fire with this plan Turf, purge, toss, ditch...however you can phrase it, just do it. Less stuff at the next place too.

Just know we are here for yOu if the going gets frustrating. Fingers crossed for a speedy sale!

 

[Begonia]

Clean, de-cluttered, fresh paint, de-personalized...staging. Got it. I think. Gosh I wish you ladies were close . Well a keystroke away will have to do...

We are going to rent a storage locker methinks. Casa Begonia is small...hell most of my life is in blue totes in the garage. I can haul away 10 blue totes this afternoon

I can clean like a hot damn, and de-cluttering I have years of experience with. The staging part not so much.

We've painted most of the house in neutrals except the kitchen (a sunny yellow). I have a lot of really nice houseplants (too many really, some of them will have to go in a shady spot outside). You know the house is so small I think clean and decluttered will do a lot for us. We keep painting everything as the boys ding it up quickly.

Gotta get on that mantle mirror...ack the yard too!

What a wild and crazy ride this life is.

The hot brew is gonna have to be a quick one...

 

[lyra]

Put your kids to work also. Delegate! Don't stress yourself out too much, or hurt yourself. I hope your house sells quickly.

We are moving (hopefully!!!) next year, and I definitely plan on renting storage space for some of our furniture while we're in sell mode. We're having a garage sale this month, and will be drastically paring down on EVERYTHING! I love getting rid of stuff. We will be Kijiji'ing some of the furniture for a bit more cash closer to the move time too.

 

[movie zombie]

good idea re renting storage.....the more space in the house and people can move around, the better.

wish i was close...i love doing this kind of thing!

 

[monarch64]

Clean, de-cluttered, fresh paint, de-personalized...staging. Got it. I think. Gosh I wish you ladies were close . Well a keystroke away will have to do...

We are going to rent a storage locker methinks. Casa Begonia is small...hell most of my life is in blue totes in the garage. I can haul away 10 blue totes this afternoon

I can clean like a hot damn, and de-cluttering I have years of experience with. The staging part not so much.

We've painted most of the house in neutrals except the kitchen (a sunny yellow). I have a lot of really nice houseplants (too many really, some of them will have to go in a shady spot outside). You know the house is so small I think clean and decluttered will do a lot for us. We keep painting everything as the boys ding it up quickly.

Gotta get on that mantle mirror...ack the yard too!

What a wild and crazy ride this life is.

The hot brew is gonna have to be a quick one...

I really think you need to write a book just because of this fantastic title!!!

 

[Enerchi]

good idea re renting storage.....the more space in the house and people can move around, the better.

wish i was close...i love doing this kind of thing!

where abouts are you MZ? Im in Ontario - probably not any help at all!

 

[tyty333]

That's great news! I hope they accept your offer! You've gotten some great advice about staging.

 

[Gypsy]

Fingers and toes crossed for you! Hope you get the house. This is a great breakthrough.

 

[movie zombie]

i'm in the Santa Cruz Mountains about 1.5 hours from san francisco and about 45 minutes from Santa Cruz....California, of course!

i'm against the vanilla in the oven type of thing......unless you're a homebaker and going to leave cookies out for your "guests"....i've actually seen that done. a little over the top for my taste.


the key, Begonia, is to let the house sell itself. a very clean looking and uncluttered space shows well. it also says someone took care of the house. want to post a picture of the front of the house? perhaps we could give you some tips. it might be nothing more than a tidy up kind of thing.....but i like to have something with either some structure and/or color going on as well. people will drive by and decide whether to look or not based on what they see. unless, of course, you've got investors and people looking for rentals doing the drive by. even then they may think the seller will go way far less if the house doesn't "show" in a certain way.

i'm so pleased for you! here's hoping the offer is accepted....but get busy in the meantime with unloading "stuff"....and enjoy that hot beverage! hey, i don't suppose you spike it with a wee bit of bourbon now, do you?

 

[Begonia]

This buying a house (and next selling) is a whole new world for me.

I gotta get out more.

Hubbie and I are calling on a storage locker as we speak, although our counter offer has not been accepted yet (gulp). Well living with one thing each is gonna make cleaning that much easier! Seriously, this is like living on a boat, being in this house.

I think I agree about the smell deal too. We are going for clean and fresh-smelling. Hubbie is sensitive to off-gassing and scents, and we have all hardwood floors because of it. Mum always used to light plain beeswax candles for a short time before guests came over. I'll give that a try before I leave some day for a short while and see how it comes across upon entry.

My camera is hooped right now, or I'd send some pics...I'll try to borrow something MZ. Hey, if any of you ever get to Victoria I (may) HAVE A SPARE BEDROOM. Holy crap. Sense of wonder...

Realtor is here with counter...

 

[Gypsy]

DH is in property management. He always sprays down spaces with a ton of febreeze and makes sure there is a clean scent/ Plus a little bit of bleach in the bathroom (not a lot just a whiff) triggers the "clean" button in people's brains-- of course the bathroom actually needs to be clean too. And If you can do it simmer some cinnamon sticks and some water. Or bayleafs work too if you don't like cinnamon. It makes a big difference and really beats any of the air freshener on the market. He doesn't recommend vanilla, says it mixes with odors instead of covering.

Basically with scents you want to go for "Clean" and "Homey" and balance the two.

 

[Haven]

This is great news! I really hope you get this house!

You've gotten so much great advice on staging. DH and I looked at over 70 houses when we were house hunting four years ago. (I read your frustrated thread and couldn't gather my thoughts in time to put them together, but let's just say I was where you were not too long ago. I think I posted a thread about it here. We were very incompatible home buyers, but now we're in an awesome home we both love, so happy ending!)

Of all the homes we viewed, the cluttered homes were immediately out of the running. I know this is silly, but it must be a psychological thing--I'm really averse to clutter, and no matter how clean and lovely smelling a home was, if they had too much stuff in it, I couldn't imagine living there.)

Definitely remove all of your family photos. Great tip. We saw a home with huge framed wedding photos on every single wall. I could not imagine living there after seeing that, it was like they were haunting the place.

We saw a bunch of homes with fresh-baked cookies set out. My husband has a chocolate problem, so those were his favorite houses. I think it was a nice touch, but I'm not one to say no to a cookie, myself. A lot of open houses had small spreads with delicious finger foods, promise of which was honestly the only way I could get DH to accompany on some Sunday morning house hunting trips.

As for scents though, I think doing a quick swipe on your surfaces with a fresh-smelling natural cleaner is the easiest way to get that fresh and clean smell in the house without being overpowering. I love J. R. Watkins products, particularly their lemon all-purpose cleaner. I buy mine at Target. I use it on our counters and in both loos before we have company, and people *always* comment on how nice our home smells. It's a nice lemony scent without smelling like actual cleaner. (It always makes me want lemon-flavored PEZ, strangely enough. Smells kind of like that. )

I loved seeing fresh flowers in homes. Yellow daisies and other happy blooms add a particularly lovely touch.

One thing we saw in a couple homes and loved were books and decorations that celebrated the type of home we were viewing. For example, we ended up buying a small mid-century modern ranch home in the Frank Lloyd Wright style. The previous owners had a couple stacks of books in their living room celebrating mid-century modern ranches, FLW, and a bunch of books about small space living. We viewed another home that was originally a one-room schoolhouse (you have no idea how much I wanted that home!!!!) and they had a ton of little nods to the home's schoolhouse origins. You could also put some things that celebrate your city, too, or any local attractions. (For example, we live near an amazing outdoor music festival, so if we ever decide to sell our home you can bet there's going to be a huge framed poster from the festival on our wall.)

In your case you could set up a stack of books about small spaces, simple living, urban living, etc. (I don't actually know if you're in an urban area, though.) If you live near a used bookstore you could probably find some great big hardcovers. Take of their dust covers and stow them somewhere, the fabric spines will be much more beautiful. With our house, the previous owners successfully communicated that the home's small size (something that most would consider a negative) was something that could be celebrated. I love that!

 

[movie zombie]

be careful with those sprays: some of us including me have chemical allergies. the very last thing you want is to set off a sneezing fit by the prospective buyer or other allergic reaction such as in my case includes but is not limited to swelling eyes, skin rashes, coughing, etc.

you have hardwood floors which is great. means no carpet to clean! i even went so far as to ask prospective buyers to remove their shoes before entering once the place was cleaned up.

 

[Haven]

be careful with those sprays: some of us including me have chemical allergies. the very last thing you want is to set off a sneezing fit by the prospective buyer or other allergic reaction such as in my case includes but is not limited to swelling eyes, skin rashes, coughing, etc.

you have hardwood floors which is great. means no carpet to clean! i even went so far as to ask prospective buyers to remove their shoes before entering once the place was cleaned up.

I agree! We went into a couple homes that had been sprayed and my husband didn't last more than five minutes.

Around here sellers (or their real estate agents, I imagine) put out baskets with little cloth booties and a nice note asking people to cover their shoes. I like that better than being asked to remove my shoes.

 

[Begonia]

Holy crap on a cracker.

We've agreed on a price, but no celebration yet, we haven't agreed on the deposit amount. Standard for this size of house is apparently 10k and as we won't close until mid Oct, they want 20k. We sent back that it has to stay at 10k, as only a catastrophe would cause the deal to collapse, and in that event, we can't lose 20k. Hell, 10k would be insult on injury

See, we haven't listed selling our house as a condition of sale, so we have assumed considerable risk here. We have to sell.

Real time house buying with Begonia. Stick that honey boo boo.

There's the realtor again.

I'll be back...

 

[lliang_chi]

Wow, big congrats Begonia!! I hope everything works out for you. Great advice here, keeping my fingers crossed for you.

~LC

 

[movie zombie]

not listing the sale contingent on sale of your existing home was wise.
stick to your guns....mid-October closing is not unreasonable so sticking to your guns re the $10k deposit is reasonable, too, imo.
also, make sure you have that the house must be inspected by someone of your choosing and that there are no negative reports.

 

[Begonia]

We agreed on a price.

Closing Oct. 15 so we can try to sell our current price.

10k deposit (whew!).

Sale conditional upon securing finances (already done) and home inspection (yet to do). We are going to have an inspector and hubbie with electrician and contractor/carpenter friends (different times).

Looks like we may have a deal, but we are waiting on the realtor for the paperwork...

So close...

This is me trying to look like I'm one cool cat. Are you falling for it?

 

[Enerchi]

Nope! i'm not falling for it!!! But this is me very proud of you both -> and one for DH for agreeing to compromise ->

Fantastic news Begonia!!! Ok - let the cleansing begin - volume of stuff and the residual 'dirt' (BUT i mean that in a kind way - every house needs a very thorough cleaning every now and then!)

Hip Hip Hooray - here's to a fast sale as well !

 

[Begonia]

We got us a house! (Conditional upon inspection of course )

We just signed. It isn't a sweet deal, but a good deal. A few thousand more than we had hoped to pay for our revised plans, but half the mortgage that DH initially wanted. He is happy with this place, and I think we can slowly fix/upgrade it to a nice home. That makes my happy too. I might have to ask a boatload of questions about how to decorate on this new budget of ours...


I really can't thank you enough for all of your sage and loving advice everyone:

Enerchi, Movie Zombie, lliang, Haven, Gypsy, tyty, Monarch, lyra, missy, JewelFreak, and gosh everyone from my earlier thread. I'm going from one hot flash to another at this point, and my brain has shut down I'm afraid.

Tee Hee - get this. We currently have one bathroom, and the new place has two and a half! In Begonia's world, that is equivalent to a 8 mm spread OEC, I color with a most unique cut found on the secondary market by someone who had no clue what they had, or what to charge. Dreamer is saying "pish, what's so hard about that?".

I'm not gonna sleep tonight.

Thanks again dear friends.

Tomorrow I gotta start selling me a house. I'll deal with that tomorrow.

Time for a hot brew.

 

[webdiva]

Congrats!!! I love home buying! Went to 2 open houses today looking long distance for Mom = she might move here. How exciting!!! What area of the country do you live in? Definitely get someone to take those fancy overexposed gorgeous house pics for your listing! Is there a website like redfin.com in your area that regular people can access? Also list on craigslist, sometimes people look on there, too.

Congrats!!

 

[JewelFreak]

We currently have one bathroom, and the new place has two and a half! In Begonia's world, that is equivalent to a 8 mm spread OEC, I color with a most unique cut found on the secondary market by someone who had no clue what they had, or what to charge.

Great news, Begonia!! Now to get your house outta your hair & then the fun starts! Exploring all those bathrooms, for instance; leave a trail of cookie crumbs so you won't get lost. I'm SO glad it worked out w/the purchase & am sure you'll do as well on the sale. Keep the hot toddies coming & let us know how it's going!

--- Laurie

 

[lyra]

That's great news! Please keep us posted on selling your house. Hopefully it will go quickly.