cajunrose Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 My house has been on the market since June 2nd. The market here is slow right now but may be picking up? We have had 7 showings I think. I'm getting discouraged. I am having a tough time keeping my home clean clean. I have 2 BIG shedding dogs, 1 shedding cat and 7 chickens out back. People treck in and out of my house all day long..leaving muddy footprints everywhere. When we show the house, it's very very clean. Don't get me wrong, but it takes me forever to get it to that point and they have been giving me less and less notice. We are down to 1.5 hours. It's ROUGH to pull it together and leaves me just drained. I am cleaning baseboards in the house today..and OMG the dog hair. Like I said, I get it super clean but it's so hard. I have had new people in my home just to see what they say about the smell, cleanliness, etc and those people say that it smells great and looks perfect so I know I'm doing a good job there. My daughter is heartbroken b/c I'm not putting out fall decorations and minimimal Christmas. My decorations look hillbilly and not 'show' worthy at all. My daughter cried all morning over that. I'm also trying to run a home business out of the house...making soap...and I'm concerned about the super scented room that I use. I am going to put a business sign on that door so they don't think I'm just trying to cover smells. I can't just stop that business either...I'm just getting it going and it's just starting to fly fly. Still haven't gotten bad feedback even with that, but it worries me. Just needed a quick ear...I need to get over this being discouraged and just move on and do better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K&Rs Mom Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 I know what you mean. We've been listed since April. Mostly we get 24 hrs notice of a showing, but not always. The kids have gotten good at getting things ready, especially their rooms & the bathrooms, while I work on kitchen & floors. I don't do a ton of seasonal decorations, but having all our school stuff off the walls is a pain, plus the kids' rooms have to be pretty empty/neutral. I'm playing up the idea of them getting to decorate a new room (if we ever sell), and so far that's working pretty well - they are full of ideas for what they want that to look like. Could you keep some old towels down by the doors to soak up the worst of it as people/pets come in & out, and just pick them up before a showing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cajunrose Posted August 30, 2012 Author Share Posted August 30, 2012 Not to mention trying to keep the kitchen cabinets all cleaned off (the faces of them), the windows clean...all of the screens need to be removed again to clean the outside. Keeping the carpet clean...I am just ready for this to be over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cajunrose Posted August 30, 2012 Author Share Posted August 30, 2012 That's the other thing. ALL of our homeschool stuff is in storage..only books that we NEED this year. I made a quilt map so that we would even have a world map and I can fold it up. 95% of my daughter's toys are in storage..she misses her dolls terribly. Ugh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blessed3x Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 :grouphug: You are not alone. ;) I am ready for this to be over as well, but do not see an end in sight. Our house in VA is empty and on the market while we rent in PA. The house in VA has been on the market since the end of February. We finally have a second showing on Sunday. Next week we will be putting it on the rental market just so we can stop making 2 house payments for a while. For a laugh, you don't have to be living in the house to be worrying about dirt and messes. Our realtor suggested that we have our hardwood floors redone, so we did. Little did we know until almost a month later (from a friend who came by) that there was almost an inch of dust covering everything after the air had settled from the floors being done.:001_huh: UGH. There had been an open house just a week before, but the realtor did not mention it to us. :confused: Selling a home is not easy, no matter the circumstances. That is my humble opinion. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somo_chickenlady Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 (edited) IMO, if a person is interested enough to buy your house, they won't care about a couple toys on the floor, or fall decorations up. The people that ended up buying our last house just showed up at our door wanting to look at it. We were in the process of firing our agent, so we hadn't had a showing in at least a couple weeks, so I got behind in my housekeeping. We were also in the process of doing a wardrobe change due to seasons changing, so we had laundry EVERYWHERE in our bedroom. I told them to wait a minute, and I frantically ran around the house picking up, throwing all of our laundry into the closet in "organized" piles. It was FAR from perfect and I apologized profusely while they were walking through (I was SOOOO embarrassed!!), but they were interested enough to request a second showing, of which we cleaned for prior. After the second viewing they put in an offer and they ended up buying our house. Trust me, when we were looking for a house to buy, some of the ones we looked at were FILTHY. One of them could have been straight from the show Hoarders, even with the owners still there watching tv in their pajamas while we looked through...trying not to die while we were in there, and trying not to touch anything. If your house is clean and smells nice, you are already doing a WAY better job than most people selling a house. :) As far as people tracking mud through your house...put up a sign on your front door insisting that everyone (including sales agents...make sure you mention that b/c they will think they don't have to) remove their shoes before walking through your house. That's what I did, and we had zero problems with mud or anything. Edited August 30, 2012 by somo_chickenlady Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cajunrose Posted August 30, 2012 Author Share Posted August 30, 2012 That's what my husband says...as long at it's not filthy and an attempt was made to get it clean. I'm getting it pristine....that home sellers commiseration thread has me paranoid..rofl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somo_chickenlady Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Our house was pristine for every other showing...so.... *shrug* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K&Rs Mom Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 That's the other thing. ALL of our homeschool stuff is in storage..only books that we NEED this year. I made a quilt map so that we would even have a world map and I can fold it up. 95% of my daughter's toys are in storage..she misses her dolls terribly. Ugh. I've already given in & opened a box for 7yo. They've been great about putting things away and even donating a ton to goodwill, but after 4 months she deserved to have some of her own stuff! I packed school things in April, guessing what we'd need for summer and fall, but if we're still here by late winter I'm going to have to find some books (out of the thousands of boxes I have labeled books, and hundreds labeled school books). If your house is clean and smells nice, you are already doing a WAY better job than most people selling a house. :) That makes me feel so much better. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 IMO, if a person is interested enough to buy your house, they won't care about a couple toys on the floor, or fall decorations up. The people that ended up buying our last house just showed up at our door wanting to look at it. We were in the process of firing our agent, so we hadn't had a showing in at least a couple weeks, so I got behind in my housekeeping. We were also in the process of doing a wardrobe change due to seasons changing, so we had laundry EVERYWHERE in our bedroom. This. We bought the house we are in NOW earlier this year. Despite the fact that renters lived there (2 families in 1500 sq ft) and the place was floor to ceiling STUFF. (literally in the case of the 2 car garage). It wasn't FILTHY. But it certainly was not pristine. Kids lived here. Their stuff was all around. So many people living here you couldn't see the floor at all in one of the bedrooms (other than where the door swung into the room) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatholicMom Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 I hear ya. I would be paranoid, too. We only owned a mobile home before our current house and we were desperate to get rid, so I worked my butt off cleaning and organizing (and painting) and making it look as good as possible. It definitely does make a difference in a first impression. But at the same time, sometimes people don't care if they know what they're looking for and your house has it. Anyway, people who are looking at houses and are serious often know what they want and aren't going to be deterred by some unfolded laundry and muddy footprints on washable surfaces. As long as it's not so filthy that it has stained hardwood floors, ruined carpets, etc, etc, (which clearly it's not!), you're all good. I say put up your fall decor and make your daughter happy.:) heehee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.