Downsizing - House Selling - The Realtor Makes the Sale

Although I have had a house on the market for 6 months, I often forget about the tremendous downsizing coup it will be when it sells. In some ways, selling the house seems almost a passive activity. I don't feel like I'm doing anything toward downsizing every day, but really every day I have been working on selling the house; well many days I have had to do something about it.

At first there was choosing the realtor. I set up interviews with (1) a friend who had recently taken classes and become a Realtor, (2) a Realtor at the location that had helped me find tenants when I used the house as a rental house, and (3) a well-established Realtor. The well-established Realtor cancelled our appointment, telling me she really didn't think it worth her time to prepare a presentation for me if I were interviewing others and might not choose her. I think she really didn't need the business of the small house I was selling, as she is quite successful and probably has bigger fish to fry. I chose my friend. The reason was that ever since she started the classes, she has been very excited about realty work. She had a good reference from another friend whose daughter she had helped find the perfect home to buy recently. I hoped her interest in her new job would compensate for any lack of experience she might have.

My friend the Realtor "executed" our contract today! Presumably all will go according to plan, and the closing will be later this month! It has been a lot of fun working with a friend on this, and she has proven to me that she is pretty wonderful! She handled all my ups and downs, and there were a lot of them, as the house went through an extended "money pit" stage before we were able to sell it. I grumbled all through the fixing and "disclosures" and then the inspection. By the time the inspection rolled around, the house was all fixed up. But the inspector found "deficiencies" in every aspect of the house anyway, and I was newly annoyed. My Realtor listened and let me vent and then we went onward to the next step.

One of my favorite parts of this is that I feel I can strongly recommend my friend's services to others. I like being pleased and then helping those who do a good job!

Downsizing - House Selling - 2 Steps Forward?

Selling a house simplifies life, but I'm not so sure. I'm selling a house I have been renting out for about 8 years. The rental business has had its ups and downs. It requires various amounts of time, without a dependable schedule, but has brought in monthly cash, usually on a regular schedule. Up - my first tenant was a young single woman taking care of 2 small children for a friend who was having problems; and my last was a man who wanted a place to have his 2 teenage daughters stay with him so he could help them graduate from high school, which he (and they) accomplished! Down - I had to evict a family and go all the way through with having the Constable put all their stuff on the lawn, where it sat for days in the rain before I could get enough garbage trucks out to clean it up.

Selling the house will save me the time I have been giving to the rental business and will immediately give us some cash, but to me that adds decisions. Decisions, decisions, decisions! What to do with the cash, and what to do with the time! Nice decision to have, certainly! I do tend to be a "yes, but" person. So, I'll say but will we miss the income and tax advantages from the rental business. And if so, what will we do? To buy a new rental unit, we would have to use the cash from this sale plus incur a new monthly cash debt.

For now, I'm selling. I want to be finished with this old house. It will be good for me to unload it - to downsize!

It's not a done deal, but the house shows well. We have had some offers!

Downsizing - House Selling - The Curb-Appeal Stage

With some advice from realtors, I decided what had to be done to fix up the house for selling. I didn't want to spend a cent more than would be necessary to get the house sold! But, I got some good advice and did a little more than I originally expected to do.

Indoor paint, 2 shades. A light tan on the walls and a contrasting white on the trim. An extra wall in the kitchen needed to retexturized and painted. Outside, I had some rotting wood replaced. Didn't think I would do this, but it was near the front door and affected "curb appeal." It looks much better done! I decided to have the brand new deck sealed, even though people said I didn't need to bother. The deck looks so nice, and I don't want it to start weathering before I even sell the house. New carpeting, cheap but new. Hired a cleaning crew, even though the house was mostly clean. I didn't want to do it! Also hired a guy to wash the windows. I was on vacation the day he was there; and my Realtor took care of the admin details. She reported that he had a bad attitude. The windows look better but not great. Their age shows.

The house looks great! The fixes are mostly cosmetic, but the curb appeal is definitely there!

Opportunity to Downsize...A House!

The tenant is out. The house is empty. It's kind of bittersweet to have it back. I guess once the tenant started failing to pay and I began thinking of needing to get him out; I started looking forward to getting control of the house again. But I don't want to be attached to it; there's nothing in that for me.

I have decided to sell the house, for the following reasons:
1) I am tired of the hassles of landlording. I am somewhat disillusioned because although I thought I was providing a service and helping people, I realized that the basis of my interest was really financial and I was unwilling to provide much charity...just a little.
2) Because of the $8000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, the size and price of home I have is selling well.
3) The house is getting old, and old things should be disposed of before they start breaking down (things, not people((I hope))).

So I am starting to think about selling. There is a lot to think about. It's not like trying to decide whether to keep a bell or not! There are several places/ways to sell a bell, but not nearly as many decisions as there are involving the best way to sell a house.

Which realtor, what kind of service to expect from the realtor and with that what kind of commission to be willing to pay. What repairs to do, how much to pay, who to do the work. Do the cracks in the wall mean anything needs to be done?

Do I fix things or just get estimates and suggest the buyer choose their own paint and carpet colors? Do I get carpet that I won't have to pay for until the house sells? Or will they charge extra for that privilege.

I have to get prices on everything.

Meanwhile the high-school kid across the street wants to charge $25/week to mow the small lawn. And the worst part of that is that there is a small mower in the shed, but I don't have the kind of strength it takes to start it!