The Severed Cortex

All those dreams about how much money we were making from owning a house suddenly evaporated just as we were about to put it on the market. I put the blame squarely on Dubya and anyone who voted for him. We put a fair amount of money into upgrading the place; new doors, ceramic tile, tile back splash, paint, carpet, and of course the kick butt landscaping. I'll miss sitting on the deck and listening to the waterfall. Best $800 I ever spent. In my opinion we had one of the best houses in the subdivision. Now faced with hoping to break even, we had to figure out the best strategy for selling the place.

Here were the facts:

1. We didn't have to move. Yes we wanted to avoid our round trip commutes of 160 and 90 miles daily as soon as possible, but we weren't under the gun. This point is very important.
2. There were several houses in the neighborhood selling in the same price range as what we thought our house might be worth in this crap market. Two were the exact same floor plan as ours. One of those was a REO and was listing for basically the same price we paid for ours 5 years ago. Not a good sign. Another house for sale was a friend of mine in the next subdivision over.

We decided to price the house a little less than what we thought it was truly worth in order to attract buyers. Nothing in week 1. In week 2, the open house turned up only one person. I had my hopes up in week 3 when we got a relo to come through the house on a Thursday night, but it turned out to be nothing. A couple weekends passed with no one coming to look at it. It was certainly depressing, especially when the REO sold for list in week 3. I figured since we lived mere blocks away from a new middle school, a brand new elementary school, and a new YMCA, people would be beating a path to the door. I think those elements helped in the long run, but their impact was less than I hoped it would be.

And then in week 6 we had another open house. This time, three groups of people came through. One, we were told, had some rambunctious kids, but it was also their second time through the house. And they took measurements. Sure enough, a couple of things were nicked, but these are the costs of selling a home. Hot damn! We got a bite. I was expecting to get an offer in a couple of days. And then we heard nothing. For over a week we heard nothing. In week 8 our realtor called us to tell us that the couple who took measurements wanted to see the place again. At this point I knew we were real close and on Monday our realtor told us an offer was on its way.

On Tuesday we got it.