Thread Drift

[Aromig]

I have a friend who just sold her house in Melrose. It sold within three days of being listed, they had five or six offers all of them above asking price. They ended up accepting the offer for $50K above their asking price. Yes, I think you definitely live in a sellers market. Good luck!

[Crankin]

AHHHHH! They are here and I am going to kill someone. I was out for the first hour and half, came home, put away my groceries, then vacuumed out my car, a job I loathe. I am now sitting out on the deck. I said hello to them, but I will not engage in conversation. DH is ready to kill me. I am not going out more, because I have nothing to do, and we are going on a ride later. Basically, they moved all of the living room furniture around in a different configuration, and took our coat tree out of the entry, moved our bench/cubby for our cycling stuff (it's from Crate and Barrell, for God's sake) in an awkward spot for me to get my stuff out and put on my shoes, and now they are taking all of our art work, ceramics, etc and moving it around or putting it away. They put a copper pot on top of the dining room table, and it looks really dumb. This feels really invasive and I did let them hear me say that people are watching too much HGTV.
I think what is bothering me is the invasiveness of the process, as well as the fact that people must be really stupid if they can't envision their own stuff in a house.
ETA:
A few hours have passed. DH was really mad with me, after I looked at all of the changes they made and went nuts. Some are laughable. They put a crystal vase on top of my dresser and a top hat that DS#1 had in his closet on his dresser. They moved prints around to places that look really dumb. And I can't find my magazines that were on the coffee table in the family room, because the table is now in the living room. They took what few books we have left (we've been purging for a few years) and put them in random, awkward places, not on bookshelves. No one would live like this. Any trace of us is gone from the house, except you might get that we are cyclists. I did get DH to agree to move the bench/cubby back to where it was, as the front door could not open all of the way to where they moved it. And, who puts a dining room chair in the entry way? But, I calmed down and we went out to a kitchen/bath place and started planning the remodeling of the condo. Now drinking wine and looking forward to a long ride on the south coast of MA/RI tomorrow.

[emily_in_nc]

Woah, Crankin, did not realize that you had to submit to them moving stuff around! I assumed they would just make suggestions. Eeek, this would drive me crazy as well. I feel for you. I hope it will all result in a quick sale, but I definitely empathize with your frustration. I would feel so violated, I think.

[Crankin]

They didn't just move stuff around, they made us take out several pieces of furniture. The only "real" piece of art work we have, i.e. not a print, is gone from the dining room and downstairs in our guest room. The coat tree is in there, too. The top of our hutch is gone, so a lot of my crystal, wine glasses, and china is packed up in a suitcase, and will be moved by us! I found the magazines andput them out on some built in shelves. You should see the way they need the bed to be made for the photo shoot, with the comforter rolled all the way down. I guess they want the light colored sheets to make everything look bigger. That's fine for the 3 bedrooms that don't get used, but the photo shoot isn't until next Thursday, so DH can do that in the AM, as thankfully, I will be working. I did some reading, and apparently the tolerance for this has gone in and out over the years, but it's now de riguer for homes above a certain price point. All I can say is that this must have been an easy job for them, as we have no clutter. I am not a sentimental person, especially about this house (when I think of "my house," I think of the last one and the one in Tempe, not this one, the first one we had in MA, or even my first home), but I am attached to my stuff. I like to look at pictures of my kids, and since I can't have them up at work, now it really feels weird. And speaking of them, both of them would croak if they saw how their rooms look. I wonder how they handle people with little ones in this situation.
Seriously, I know I am being unreasonable, but I haven't been this upset in a very long time. And yes, this house better sell quickly.

[OakLeaf]

Wow. I don't think you're being unreasonable at all. I think I'd just have to leave town and let DH deal with it!

When we were shown the house we eventually bought, it was pretty obvious there was none of that. The previous owners had several large paintings of female nudes on the walls - tasteful, but kind of in-your-face I thought - and the urns of two of their dogs on a dresser. Wonder what your stager would've said about those.

[emily_in_nc]

I do agree with no personal photos, though. That's a well-known thing to do when selling and pre-dates HGTV. ;-) Other than that, I still find this all very over-the-top and depressing. Makes me never want to own another house for fear of having to sell it one day.

[lph]

You're all spoilt. This is the norm for Every Single House or apartment being sold around here ;-) And taking photos for the ad was even worse. Basically the house was supposed to have the bare minimum of furniture, tastefully displayed against a blank wall, every pillow should be plumped and arranged and preferably white, every counter and table top should have a classy display of either fruit and vegetables, or flowers and candles. I managed to weasel out of the mandatory white orchids and got something else instead, and felt really wild. It was a nightmare. The house was uninhabitable for over a week.

The photos turned out rather amusing, if you know what you're looking at. In front of the house, where we usually kept six or seven pairs of skis, a ski sled, at least four bikes and a bike trailer, and where no-one has ever sat ever, there were two chairs and a small table pretending to be our "breakfast table", with two wine glasses and a glass bowl of *strawberries*. In the photo showing the whole front of the house, down the street you can just make out a big messy pile of something, around a lamppost. That is of course - six pairs of skis, a sled, four bikes and a bike trailer :-D

ETA: I actually spent two weeks polishing the fittings in the bathroom every time I'd been in there, in case someone wanted to drop by and see the house. Shiny fittings actually make a shabby bathroom look quite nice. But it was still an insane thing to do. We were alle slightly intimidated by our scary power blonde real estate agent.

[emily_in_nc]

Man, lph, that sounds rough! Did your house sell in a week? If so, I guess it was all worth it, but wow!

We've just never had to do anything like that in the US to sell a house, and we've sold quite a few. We spent several weeks earlier this summer getting my in-law's house ready to sell, but thankfully we got everything out of it, so it was vacant when it sold, and we only had to "stage" ever so minimally. We had a professional team come in and clean the inside (including the carpets) after we hauled two dumpsters of stuff out and took many, many loads to Goodwill and various other recycling venues. Outside, we planted flowers, pruned trees and bushes, mulched, power washed the exterior of the house, painted the front door, and did some minor staging on the front porch. The house had been pretty badly neglected by my elderly in-laws prior to us arriving to do our magic. It was all worth it in the end when it sold in less than two weeks. Thank goodness we didn't try to sell it while they were still living there -- they both had serious hoarding issues, and they weren't doing a good job at keeping their litterbox area clean, so it smelled like cat pee before the cleaners arrived.

Ugh!

[Crankin]

After our ride today, we brought our closest friends over to see what was done. They have no problem seeing this as a business thing to make the house sell, that as soon as you decide to list your house, it's no longer yours. I just feel discombobulated from this and it's not like this is the first home I've sold, as it's #5.
Oak, DH was upset with me, because pretty much, he is doing everything. I hate dealing with all of this stuff. In fact, it's only been very recently that I had anything to do with even major home purchases/decorating things, except furniture. I make snap decisions and sometimes end up not liking it, but, it's really the insufferable salespeople and endless decisions I can't stand, so I make a snap decision to get away from them. I remember, when we bought our 2nd home, when DH said someone was coming over so we could buy window treatments, I was like, what, the window is getting a treatment? Just the term was foreign to me. Our first house was in a new development, where you went to the builder's office (embarrassed to say it was Charles Keating of the banking scandal) and picked out everything. I sent DH, begging off with work. They did not believe that a wife would not be involved! So, over the years, I've learned a bit, but really, despite liking nice things, it all gives me a headache.
Emily, I do wonder what happens when it's people like your in laws. I've raised the question, are we the only people flexible enough to envision a home the way we would make it? I mean, this house was a wreck inside and packed with stuff when we bought it. It was a for sale by owner, as they were having financial issues. Yet, we made the decision to buy in like 30 seconds.
DH is leaving for Europe for 10 days, and the first open house will probably occur when he is gone, right before he comes back. Thankfully, I will be gone all day Sunday, but she wants to do both Saturday and Sunday. Meh.

[OakLeaf]

ETA: I actually spent two weeks polishing the fittings in the bathroom every time I'd been in there, in case someone wanted to drop by and see the house. Shiny fittings actually make a shabby bathroom look quite nice. But it was still an insane thing to do.

Hint: keep a microfiber kitchen cloth by every faucet, all the time. All it takes is a 10-second swipe after every use. It's like the easiest cleaning ritual I have, and it takes hours off "real" cleaning.

[Crankin]

House is being listed Friday night. Open houses on Saturday and Sunday. It's supposed to be iffy weather on Sunday, so wondering what the hell I will do. DH is leaving for Europe late Saturday, so if it's raining, I may have to go shopping, if I can't ride!
On a positive note, we spent 5 hours at Lowes yesterday. I tried to be enthused, and I endured picking out appliances, tile and vanities for 2 bathrooms, tile for the entry way, granite counters, and a backsplash. DH decided this is the way to go, as it's less money than working with a kitchen/bath store. I pray they follow through, although I've heard horror stories. We met with the managers of the departments, who clearly knew their stuff, it's just the contractors they use. DH already has appointments set up for them to measure and do templates at the condo and hopefully it will all be done before we move. Haven't heard from our painter, which pisses me off, as my older son worked for him for 2 years. It's just the painting (small areas) and window stuff left.