Julie's Dramas: So our house didn't sell in 2 hours...

This is probably the first of several posts because I never get to post anymore these days. Depends on how long Stella sleeps.

First of all, I was feeling like a failure the last couple of days because our house didn't sell in a week like it seems everyone else in this town. I realize the rest of the country is in a housing slump, so I shouldn't complain, but when you're in a seller's market like we are and all you ever hear about is the realtor whose last two houses sold in a day, or the coworker who listed on Thursday and had a contract on Saturday at noon, or the Holmeses who sold their old pad in 7 days, you get discouraged when yours is on the market for longer than a week. A week and one day to be exact. And then, even though you try not to take it personally, you get insulted when your realtor tells you that a couple of people were more interested in the BIGGER houses for sale in your neighborhood instead of yours. Even though yours is definitely the prettiest on the outside and probably the prettiest on the inside, judging by the paltry horribly taken pictures THEIR realtors have put up on the internet. And you start to think, "well screw you! What's wrong with you that you don't see how fabulous my house is? If all you want is a gigantic ugly box, then go ahead, buy my neighbor's house." I have almost lost track of how many houses are for sale in our neighborhood. There were already three on the market when we listed last week, then another one went up for sale over the weekend and two more yesterday, one in our actual hood and the other in the north side of Overland Park. So I guess that's 7. Wow. Except for the newest one, which is a one story and isn't on the MLS yet so we don't know their stats, all the houses are bigger than ours. So if people think bigger is better, we're screwed. At least, so far, all of them have either ugly or non-existant landscaping. The one we're really worried about is the one that's 300 square feet bigger and only $2400 more than ours. Our agent toured it and said we're priced right in comparison, but it does make you nervous. Although it helps that it has no mature trees, the landscaping the builder put in 6 years ago, mold on the side of the house, is a hideous grey color, AND they have even STRONGER paint choices than us, like a room with cow spots painted all over it. So hopefully they won't be too bad competition for us.

Having people in and out of your house constantly is a tad stressful. Make that EXTREMELY stressful. They're supposed to give you half an hour notice before they come, but even when they do (which is most of the time, they are actually mostly very considerate), that's still not enough time to get all the blinds open, the lights on, the catbox and diaper pails in the garage, and throw the dogs and the baby in the car. Oh, and don't forget to turn down the a/c to poverty-inducing levels , light the candle, and take down the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs like I do quite often. I am usually dripping with sweat by the time we get in the car. We've had 12 showings, plus 15 people at the open house, and we had a realtor's tour today that brought in 7 realtors, so I think we're actually doing well. A few people have shown some serious interest, but they were at the beginning of their house search, so they wanted to look some more. At least, that's what they told our realtor.

It's funny, because we shouldn't be in any hurry whatsoever to get this house sold. They still haven't poured the foundation at our new house (they're supposedly going to do that Friday), and when Tim asked the sales agent for an estimate on completion, he said, "worst case, October." So I really should try to hold onto this house as long as possible, as nice as my in-laws are being, I think the less time that we're living with them the better. It's just hard to always have the house spotless, although it's also really nice to have your house immaculate all the time. I wonder if I can keep up with that when I don't have a reason. I mean, you use a glass, you clean it, you dirty a surface, you wipe it, you play with a toy, you put it up. It's like having a personal servant and being the personal servant all rolled into one! Other than a virtual tour photographer coming by yesterday and the realtor's tour today, we haven't had any showings since Sunday, and frankly I am happy about that. It's so nice to spend some time in our house!

our room: