Oh By The Way...

...the realtor is coming in a hour.  Those words tumbled into my ear as Phil called me on his way home from work last night.  Panicked I flew into action and grabbed the kids to help me get the house looking halfway presentable (read: no immediate tripping hazards throughout the whole house).  I am grateful that it was a spur of the moment notice instead of long term.  I didn't have a chance to worry and fuss about getting everything just right.

I am not ashamed to admit I was mostly terrified the whole time she was here.  It is very nerve wracking having someone scrutinize your whole house from top to bottom.  Open each closet door (ha! at least the ones that have doors on them) and see all the skeletons tucked inside.  It felt like being in math class taking a comprehensive term final.  However, she was a very pleasant realtor with kind words and few concerns.  There are a few things that we could fix but shouldn't be deal breakers if we don't.  The only thing that she strongly suggested was painting the girls' bright turquoise room to a more neutral friendly tone.  One room to paint?  Yep, I can do that.

The high points were the compliments on the nice space we've created.  Finding out that the guest room in the basement is a conforming bedroom and we can list the house as a four bedroom home was wonderful news.  Knowing that we're selling at a time when the listings are few but the buyers are serious (they'd have to be or they wouldn't be trudging through snow and the bitter cold) puts odds in our favor of the house selling quickly.

The tough news to hear was my needing to clear more out of the home and remove pictures from the walls.  You want potential buyers to see the house, not the family who's living there.  I feel like I've already given away or packed up so much of our belongings that it stung to hear that it wasn't enough yet.  I guess it will be good practice for us all to go without for a while.  Who knows, perhaps in a few months when we go to unpack those boxes we'll wonder why we even bothered to keep what was inside.