<p>Drelnis – What made the move easier for my D is that we wound up selling to a couple with one D a few years younger than herself – the same configuration as our family. The fact that the new girl raved about my D’s bedroom design made her feel good, as if she were passing a torch (the torch of purple paint!). It’s nice to think they are making memories in the same house, sitting by the fire or on the porch, tending the trees we planted, making it their own. We wish them well.</p>
<p>
Whether it comes off easily without damaging the drywall will depend on whether the sheetrock was sized or primed properly. If it wasn’t, the adhesive will absorb into and bond with the paper covering, and it will make a big mess when you strip it.</p>
<p>We sold our house in 8 weeks in the spring of 2009. Without getting into the appalling details, we got out for only 10% less than it had cost us to build six years before. It was the only house in its (high) price range to sell in that area in all of 2009. How did we sell?</p>
<ol>
<li>Full inspection, full repairs. That process took about three weeks. We were fortunate that the original builder was willing to do those repairs. </li>
<li>Cleaned thoroughly. Took FOUR days for two highly competent cleaners. And that’s not counting the window cleaners and the pressure washing of the driveway and roof. </li>
<li>Landscapers pruned and cleaned up. Took them four days as well. We even took out tree limbs that were obstructing parts of the view. </li>
<li>Full website with floor plans; we bought a domain name that would help with search: <townname><viewhome><.com>. (DH did the website, but we paid a professional designer to do the layout and draw easy-to-read floor plans from the original building plans.) There was a page for each feature, including schools, neighborhood, appliances, landscaping, view, etc. Each page included multiple photographs.</viewhome></townname></li>
<li>We priced the house somewhat aggressively but with room for negotiation. (While we were getting the place ready, our agent looked at every house with ten miles in our price range. We knew square footage prices for all of them.)</li>
<li>We moved out. We also moved out most of what we owned, leaving only a few pieces for staging in each room. The stagers were assertive; we removed every family photograph and every potentially controversial item. The house was not bland when they were done, but it was neutral.</li>
<li>Real estate agent arrived early for every showing (it was not possible to see the house without being pre-screened) and turned on gas fireplaces, turned up the heat, fluffed the towels, etc. She then let clients and their agent in and went out for coffee, rather than hover. If she had enough notice, she called our cleaner to come out and make sure everything was spotless. (We paid him a bonus for doing this, above and beyond the weekly payment we were making.)</li>
</ol>
<p>In the end, the people who bought the house had clearly spent a lot of time on the website; they didn’t ask any questions that had been answered on the website. They also knew how to negotiate: they told us that if we didn’t accept their offer, they were going to make an offer on another house (which we’d seen and identified as competition). We accepted.</p>
<p>^^^ I have sent this post to my husband, who DOES NOT GET IT!</p>
<p>We won’t be listing our house any time soon, but I am starting to prepare him.</p>
<p>Drelnis–I think I know exactly how you feel. Leaving a chlidhood homes is difficult for lots of people. I left my first house 12 years after I bought it. We built a new house 1 mile from our old house. Both of the next two owners trashed <em>my</em> house and yard. I was young and poor when I bought it, but I had fixed it up cute and made the yard a showplace. I cringed when I went by it every day. Unfortunately, both couples had gotten into drugs and divorced and lost the place to the bank.</p>
<p>12 years and it was still giving me pain. It went up for on line auction from Fannie Mae last fall. I bought it back for 1/2 what I sold it for in 1998! Added bonus, the next guy had sided it and put on a new roof and windows. Rough living on the inside though and oh, that yard. We are fixing it up now and S2 is renting it. We were very lucky. Small town–lots of folks have thanked me for buying it back because they know the place will be maintained.</p>
<p>sryrstress, congratulations, that’s a great story. Good for you, and everyone benefits: your son, the neighbors, and you! …1/2 of what you sold it for in '98! WOW!</p>
<p>Thanks. It was kind of amusing, as the realtor who showed it to us had never been in it, and my S and I were pointing out lots of stuff to him. We let him go awhile thinking we had ESP…</p>
<p>The furnace is 40 years old and still going. I thought it was at death’s door when I sold the place in 1998. Heck, I’m on furnace #2 here and this house is 12 years old. I couldn’t think of a thing for the bragging thread. Maybe I should move this over!</p>
<p>It has been a lot of fun re-doing it. I have learned sooo much construction stuff building this house and now I have some $$ and knowledge to put into that house and give it its due. The cabinets I removed 10 layers of paint from w/ a heat gun when I was 22? Gone–new kitchen! Really fun seeing 100 years of history–layer by layer. My funky, newbie 1986 plumbing??–fixed!</p>
<p>Housing prices in other parts of the country astound me. On this thread, people are lowering their asking prices more than houses cost here. In the sake of full disclosure, I bought the house for $19500 in 1986, sold it for $50000 and rebought it for $25000–so my “half” might not be as good as it sounds to some of you. Starting wages around here are $10/hr though.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of asking my own listing agent to arrive for each showing. Is this something she readily agreed to? Or is it standard in your area? </p>
<p>I think the agents around here might faint if we asked them to make themselves available for each showing!</p>
<p>Givings, I expect it depends on the price range, the house, and the commission. We asked for the agent (or her co-agent) to be present at all first showings as part of the marketing plan.</p>
<p>sryrstress – that’s amazing. I hope your son really enjoys living there.</p>
<p>I’d love to buy my grandmother’s former house in Connecticut – tiny, deep in the woods, but I have such amazing memories. Totally impractical – we live in the Rocky Mountains — but it would be such a pleasure. I peek at it on Google streetview periodically, and keep an eye on it on Zillow. </p>
<p>dmd77 – I’m curious what your agent or the stager told you about interior painting? My living room is painted a light butter color (maybe flan-colored would be a better description) with white trim on the woodwork, which I think gently warms up the space. But an article I read said that neutrals - white, off-white – were important. Also, did they stage the patio/deck area (if your house had one)?</p>
<p>Givings- listing realtor almost always shows the houses in our area. The only lockboxes I have seen are on houses that are empty.
One thing not to do- Our neighbor down the street is trying to sell their house. The big blue tarp covering half the roof is not a good selling feature.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice on the sheetrock. I suspect it was not properly prepared (which has been typical of the previous owner, who was a DIY guy with limited skills), so I am in for a fun time.</p>
<p>arabrab: the realtor said that neutrals were better than the colors we had… orange laundry room, purple playroom, blue bedroom, whites and creams elsewhere. We declined to paint because in our area colors are becoming trendy and we figured anyone buying would want to repaint anyway. In the end, it wasn’t an issue. </p>
<p>The stagers staged everything, inside and out … pots of plants at the front door and on the patio… nice chairs to sit and admire the view (but just two and the nicest ones we had–the rest were in storage).</p>
<p>Most of our house was neutrally painted but not the basement (<em>two</em> bright colors), the dining room, or the D’s bedroom. Turned out the purple bedroom was a plus as their 13 yr old daughter had always wanted one but, like most moms, her M had always said ‘no’. So that was a surprising plus as they didn’t want to buy a house their kid didn’t like.</p>
<p>Do realtors get a cut when they recommend a stager, a painter or a contractor?</p>
<p>In my area realtors generally have a list of people they like who they can refer people to. My neighbor is a realtor and sold two highly-staged houses on my street. She worked for months to get the houses in shape. She put together a little packet with names/phone numbers of all sorts of services she recommended, and passed this out to the entire neighborhood. It was done as a courtesy - she didn’t get a kickback from anyone for doing this. I ended up using her painter after seeing the excellent work he’d done on one of the houses.</p>
<p>Some agents will recommend a particular stager, and others will give a credit to the homeowner for staging that can be spent on any staging service. In other words they pay out of their pocket (ie future commission) for some amount of staging to be done.</p>
<p>Some contractors recommended by agents should be carefully checked out. The agents are motivated to have repairs done quickly and cheaply, which isn’t always in the best interest of the seller or the new buyer.</p>
<p>the agent is not paying for the stager…
I am</p>
<p>but the agent really likes a specific person…</p>
<p>and the stager is also a construction person and wants to make me a showplace before I sell it…</p>
<p>Well, there’s a bit of a conflict of interest, wouldn’t you think? 
You’re under no obligation to use any of an agent’s referrals.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention that the 2 houses in my neighborhood sold with multiple offers 3-4 days after they went on the market, one last year and the other the year before which were both tough times to sell. I have to give credit to the agent who worked so hard for months coordinating all of the fix-up work.</p>
<p>It’s very difficult to come up with a cost/benefit analysis of staging because there’s no control; you don’t know what the house would have sold for and how fast it would have sold if you hadn’t fixed it up. But investing in paint is usually worth it, as is fixing everything or giving an allowance for issues identified during an inspection. Unstaged/unfixed-up houses stick out like a sore thumb in my area and to tend to sit on the market a long time.</p>
<p>People post pictures of their houses here for advice as far as what’s worth it to change when putting a house on the market: [Buying</a> and Selling Homes Forum - GardenWeb](<a href=“Buying and Selling Homes Forum - GardenWeb”>Buying and Selling Homes Forum - GardenWeb)</p>
<p>“Well, there’s a bit of a conflict of interest, wouldn’t you think?”</p>
<p>That’s why I am asking. I am getting suspicious. ;)</p>
<p>“It’s very difficult to come up with a cost/benefit analysis of staging because there’s no control; you don’t know what the house would have sold for and how fast it would have sold if you hadn’t fixed it up. But investing in paint is usually worth it, as is fixing everything or giving an allowance for issues identified during an inspection. Unstaged/unfixed-up houses stick out like a sore thumb in my area and to tend to sit on the market a long time.”</p>
<p>I agree.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link…looks interesting…</p>
<p>and I like this quote…</p>
<p>“The best way to realize the pleasure of feeling rich is to live in a smaller house than your means would entitle you to have. - Edward Clarke”</p>
<p>
I could see where you might think so.</p>
<p>My DW, who is an agent, will only recommend people that we have used personally or that she knows from multiple transactions that they do a good job. And she does not take referral fees or bird-dogs or whatever.</p>
<p>So I don’t view it as a conflict of interest, she is letting her customers benefit from her/our experience. Especially for services like home inspections and mortgages, how many people use them often enough to have found their own quality people?</p>
<p>If you don’t trust your agent, why are you using them?</p>