<p>Good for you re PPSF and your basement. I LOVE BASEMENTS! I am from Arizona but my mom’s family all lived in Calgary. It was so cool when I was a kid and visited my aunts and uncles and they all had basements that were basically party-central for me and my cousins (and the adults when they shooed us off to bed). The whole thought of underground was/is so interesting and alien to my Arizona/Texas/California life.</p>
<p>In Florida basements are called sinkholes.</p>
<p>It’s a wonderful, spacious LR and BR where our nannies lived for 12 years. I think we wound up getting the best nannies partially because of the great space downstairs. Separate bathroom, and walk-out to the back yard, so private entrance. Since the nannies, DH used it as his main office for about eight years, and we’ve have our DSs’ GFs stay there when they visit.</p>
<p>I joined list of home sellers 10 days ago…many showings (which my realtor says is not that common and a very good sign) but no offers.
She also sends me feedback when she receives it (there is some little “survey” the realtors fill out on how they and their clients liked the property…always the same few questions) and so far pretty good…all have said it is priced “just right”, all have said it shows well, but no interest in buying/offers…frustrating. Several have commented that it is “too small” which I find odd since the square footage is clearly stated in the listing and nothing I can change!
Such a stressful time…any helpful hints or suggestions from those that have been through this process recently?</p>
<p>If they think it’s “too small,” maybe eliminate some furniture or clutter to make it feel bigger.</p>
<p>We went driving around today to look through all the subdivisions of interest to see if there were fences, and they were EVERYWHERE. Apparently just not anywhere that has houses for sale right now. I talked with the realtor and we agreed we’re just going to wing it and put in a contingency to review the HOA bylaws, she said it shouldn’t be a big deal. </p>
<p>katie, all of the houses that we have seen so far are around the same square footage, and some of them seem very spacious and large while others seem way too small. I think square footage can be misleading. A home could have a huge living room (or both a formal living room and family room and/or a dining room) but have a kitchen the size of a closet, or big kitchen and formal dining room but tiny bedrooms. The way the space is being split up can make a HUGE difference in how large the house feels. I agree with the advise to minimize the furniture if possible. That can make a big difference, and is about all you can do.</p>
<p>The realtor had a stager come thru prior to the “photo shot” and listing…house is clutter free, sparkling clean, and appropriately “staged” per both…it is a smaller, older house but with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths…maybe people just assume there will be more living space with 4 bedrooms…who knows…the photos of all rooms and sq footage of each are clearly listed…and the realtor says the house “flows” well and feels bright and open to her…maybe she is trying to make me feel good…
I do hate having to leave the house for showings…during the day I don’t mind but the evenings are annoying as I can’t cook dinner for my daughter and have a meal at home those nights and I also miss being home to do laundry, etc as I work all day! Crossing my fingers for the right person to come along and love it like I do…as a plus all the annuals I planted are filling in nicely and always make an impressive statement in the summer…I hesitated to spend all that money this year as I knew I was going to sell but really glad I did (both for me and marketability)
Thanks for the suggestions and support! Selling is stressful is my new motto!</p>
<p>It could be that people expect more with 4 bedrooms. We are looking at both 3 and 4 bedroom houses with 2 baths and I was surprised to see the differences between the two. When I look at the 4br houses I am seeing bigger sqft with way less living space than in the smaller 3br houses-- the square footage isn’t “bigger” enough to accommodate the 4th br without losing space in the common areas, and the bedrooms are often small too. The smaller sqft houses with only 3brs are “bigger,” in a way. But, we want that 4th bedroom enough that to a point we’re willing to put up with a smaller space.</p>
<p>The first house we looked at was 1000sqft and I thought there was NO WAY it would be big enough, but had the kitchen been larger it would have been fine. All of the other houses we’ve seen so far have been more like 1500-1800 and they aren’t REALLY all that much bigger than the first house, apart from the kitchen. Square footage can be kind of weird that way.</p>
<p>Higher ceilings can also make a smaller house “feel” larger, as well as opening up a wall dividing the kitchen from other rooms in the house.</p>
<p>
Ick, I am SO GLAD our house sold quickly. Trying to keep it “sparkling clean” with four kids ranging in age from 17 down to 3 would have been a nightmare, not to mention having to scurry off every time there was a showing. My hat is off to all of you with houses on the market and fingers crossed that you all have buyers soon (and Ema finds a house!)</p>
<p>Finally… in escrow! Been flying up to the S.F. bay area, from south Orange County CA, every time there was a house we wanted to see. Sometimes our realtor as well as my sister (who lives in Walnut Creek where we were looking for a home) would preview the house for us. Thank heavens for the internet, but sometimes pics can be deceiving, and the homes would look better or worse than advertised. </p>
<p>There were 3 offers on this home, which seemed like “nothing” compared to 11 offers on our previous attempt at a W.C. home purchase near downtown. Although this property is in Tice Valley near Rossmoor, a little further from downtown, it is a “one of a kind” custom home that was built in 2007. The unique quality of the home is that it was built using no sheetrock or insulation. The walls and ceiling are 12" thick, using different sizes of pine wood held together using dowels. </p>
<p>My wife and I are already bickering over the walls. I really like the raw, unfinished knotty pine and she wants to plaster and paint them, leaving only the ceiling exposed. Hint: if anyone is taking bets on who wins this battle, don’t bet on me. </p>
<p>Our current home will now go on the market soon… probably next week sometime.</p>
<p>WW…it is miserable!! I feel like I live with a bottle of windex in my hand now! And I keep forgetting where I put things so that they are “out of sight”…you know…like bills that I used to put in a basket on the counter…but now “no clutter” means virtually nothing on the counter so I am constantly looking for where I put them instead!! I really hope the house sells soon (and for a good price) so that I can start cooking dinner and “living” in my house again until the closing! (although that will start the stress of finding a new place in a different state!)</p>
<p>Jshain…congrats…I like pine…</p>
<p>Katie93mom…good luck…hopefully your home will sell fast.</p>
<p>Katie93mom – sounds like you’ve done everything right. I hope offers come flying your way very soon.</p>
<p>I’m still surprised at the amazing amount of clutter I’m seeing in homes listed for sale in MIL’s neighborhood, and the amount of junk that is left showing in pictures real estate agents put up. Unbelievable. </p>
<p>Our screened-in porch is now gone (leaving a covered porch, but letting in a ton more light), and painting will finish in two weeks. A new kitchen chandelier should go in next week, replacing the weird one hanging at a peculiar angle. </p>
<p>Newest problem: the front flower bed (in the center of the front lawn) is looking very, very mangy. But, I can’t be sure that it will be watered more than twice a week, so whatever goes in there needs to be relatively happy with a good soaking that often, and still look nice. Not sure how to deal with that. I wish I could find a good teenager, or a retired person who would like a watering/gardening job a few hours a week. This is a challenge remotely.</p>
<p>My realtor told me that it was really active in our area until a week back when I started listing mine. Must be the recent stock market down turn.</p>
<p>Our house is getting photographed tomorrow and those of you talking about stagers are making me feel bad. We haven’t done much in the way of staging. Most of my wife and my efforts have gone into cleaning out closets, cabinets, and drawers in order to lighten our load when we move up to Walnut Creek, after we close escrow on 7/2.</p>
<p>congrats, jshain!</p>
<p>jshain–at least for the photos you can remove everything that usually lies around in a normal house–mail, clothing, extra chairs, even some things off the walls. Make it look real simple, uncluttered, roomy, and ready to move in!</p>
<p>The photos of my house are amazing. It looks like you could land a 747 in my kitchen. It’s a big kitchen, but goodness!! Good luck, jshain. If the photographer is good, he’ll make your house look fantastic.</p>
<p>We saw a house yesterday that was a DISASTER. The pictures made it look beautiful, but once we got inside we realized it would have been a complete gut job… I don’t know how anyone could be living there. It needs new floors throughout, new kitchen cabinets, all new appliances, new doors, new tub and shower-- it had a whirlpool that looked rusted and broken, the backyard was a jungle that would need to be ripped out, water damage galore-- it looks like they tried installing skylights themselves that leaked. It was originally listed for just under 140k, they just recently reduced the price to 127,900. I’d guess that house won’t sell for more than 100k, you can get houses in that same neighborhood in just about move-in condition that just need a cosmetic fix or two, maybe a little updating, but nothing major-- for 125k. I don’t know what those people are thinking asking so much for it! I thought the house might fall down on us! In such a desirable neighborhood, too, they could easily have made 135-140 on that house if it had been maintained.</p>
<p>Just goes to show you what a difference the pictures can make! Some houses we’ve seen looked much better in person… others not so much.</p>
<p>It is interesting to me to see what people spend their money on when they’re getting ready to sell. In this house, they had just recently put in new windows that were beautiful but didn’t open, and they took all the bedroom and bathroom doors off upstairs and replaced them with clear glass doors-- no privacy. And they put in the skylights, which are very unique but were obviously poorly done. The craftsmanship throughout the house was awful, and they left the moldy carpet all bunched up, and the baby maple trees growing in the gutters.</p>