DING DONG. REALTOR CALLING

Last night we had our first realtor visit the house.  I had called her on a recommendation by a dear old friend of Ray's, and although she said "yes, you are pretty early in calling a realtor", she understood why Ray and I wanted her to see the house.  We wanted her advice, suggestions and input on what to do with the emptiness of some of the rooms in our house, and what to do about the colors (do we paint or not, do we stage or not, do we leave as is or not).  She was a wealth of information, and we liked what she told us about housing prices (they have increased $50,000 this year alone) and our housing price!  We have two short sales in this neighborhood of twenty-five homes, so she hopes those will go away quickly, and she recommends putting our house on the market in early March.

What she told us in our ninety minute tour and conversation is that we have to tone the red office down a bit--repaint it.  The purple bedroom of Carly's, the teal room she used as an office and her yellow bathroom--repaint them.  The yellow would be fine if it were a lighter yellow.  Nope, we will take it all the way to neutral.  The steps going down to our unfinished basement--why not add a coat of paint to the walls, since they are splotched up?  Sure.  Exterior of the house--clean up the peeling areas (seven year old house) and repaint the trim.  Prune the shrubs in the fall. Power wash the sidewalk and small faux balcony trim.  Re-design the rooms in the house.  Take pieces of furniture from one room and add to the other.  May need help with this one.  But we were given a great compliment when she told us we have done a great job maintaining the house, keeping it so clean and orderly, and that it will show well.  Hope so.

Then today, more comparables came in from surrounding neighborhoods.  As well as a house that sold in my neighborhood just this month (none of the neighbors knew what it sold for, but now I know) for a fantastic price!  There are four models in my neighborhood.  This house is the smallest model, and my house is the largest of the four.  So in the spring, here's hoping Ray and I make enough money to pay the realtor.  We are just hoping the market continues to go up, up, up and that it stays a sellers market (with low inventory and high demand), maybe throw a bidding war in there (lol), and that the house sells easy breezy next summer.  Then what do we do?  I know what Ray wants to do.  I know what I would like to do, but I don't know if I can do it.  Can I?  Oh boy.

When the realtor asked what we will do if the house sells quickly (and she then says we have about 45 days usually to be out of the house), we did discuss moving into an extended stay apartment near Ray's office for a few months.  There will still be things to do and finalize I would think (selling cars, quitting jobs and me making things up to do possibly stalling).  We will know more in 2014.