Tag Archives: For Sale By Owner

stencil

Thoughts on WALLPAPER and OTHER SPECIAL TOUCHES to Get an Offer on Your Home in 48 Hours!

Neutral colors, Selling a Home, , , , , ,

When was the last time you heard someone say, “Oh my gosh honey THIS HOUSE HAS WALLPAPER…I LOVE IT!” Ummm…NEVER.

Remember when I talked about neutralizing coloring in one of my previous post?  Well along with that is getting rid of tacky wallpaper.  And I’ve found that in order to determine if wallpaper is tacky or not, you need to ask an honest friend.  Preferably a hip one that will give it to you straight.

In our house we had three rooms with wallpaper.  We had our master bedroom which we had taken care of the wallpaper issue before I had the baby, the master bath and the hall bath.  The master bath and the hall bath weren’t something we wanted to tackle and at first thought we’d just leave alone.  But the more we looked at it and the more we considered we opted to change it.  See when we first bought the house the wallpaper in the master bath struck us as horrid.  Nothing changed other than we got used to it.  And in a market where people can’t see past horrid, we opted to get rid of it.  In the hall bath, the wallpaper was actually cute, but it had started to separate and peel.

We found that the person that painted also removed wallpaper!  So for less than $500 we had the wallpaper removed and the rooms painted.  A true bargain for us we decided.  Some people find wallpaper removal soothing…I find it wildly infuriating.  You decide which you are and if you find that you’re in the infuriated camp with me post on Facebook and see if any of your friends are the insane ones that think its soothing.  Or maybe they know someone.

Some of the other special touches that we removed was stenciling and odd curtains.  The person that owned the home before us was apparently the STENCIL QUEEN!  So we took some time to paint over and rid the house of any of the stencils.  Though they were once the rage “back in the day” you probably should get rid of anything that can use the statement “back in the day”.

UGLY light! At first glance it has some appeal, but as you live with it, it certainly doesn't grow on you. It become a thorn in your side or as one friend put it, it really "photo bombs" on your pictures.

FIX ALL THOSE THINGS YOU’VE BEEN MEANING TO DO To Get an Offer on Your Home in 48 Hours!

Selling a Home, , , ,

You know what I’m talking about. Those things you said you were going to do when you move in.  Or maybe that nick you put in the front door when you moved in.

We had a few little projects to take care of.  Doug’s dog took a small nibble out of the baseboard while Doug was studying, the stone border in the backyard had to be straightened up and we had a light that definitely need replaced (I can’t believe we lived with the ugly thing for 2 years).

Just start to go back and look through each and every room.  Make a list of to do items or if you’re like me you’ve been toting one around for months.  And then start one by one.  If you need help, hire a handyman to do it.  The list is going to be your best friend and your worst enemy until it’s all done.

Miss yesterday’s post?  Check it out here: How to INCREASE CURB APPEAL to Get an Offer on Your Home in 48 Hours!

Or if you’re just starting to think about listing your home for sale check out the whole series from the start!  Ten MUST DO’S TO Get an Offer on Your Home in 48 hours!

UGLY light! At first glance it has some appeal, but as you live with it, it certainly doesn't grow on you. It become a thorn in your side or as one friend put it, it really "photo bombs" on your pictures.
UGLY light! At first glance it has some appeal, but as you live with it, it certainly doesn’t grow on you. It become a thorn in your side or as one friend put it, it really “photo bombs” on your pictures.  And it forever had one light that would go out.
Look at that nice light all flush to the ceiling. Honestly, it changed the look and feel of the whole room. Kicking ourselves for not doing it earlier!
Look at that nice light all flush to the ceiling. Honestly, it changed the look and feel of the whole room. Kicking ourselves for not doing it earlier!  And that change only cost $40.  Peanuts really compared to what other home improvements could cost.

 

The Offer and Riots in Old Saint Louis

Selling a Home, ,

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So last night we received an offer on our house.  In total that was less than 48 hours from the first showing!  I can’t say we’re too disappointed!  So we’ve now entered into the negotiation phase or the “don’t scare away” the potential buyer phase of the process.  I always feel like this is a dance between buyer, seller and realtors.  The guessing game of how much were they approved for, how much they want to spend and how much do we get.  So we’re back to waiting for the phone to ring to see if the buyer has accepted our counter offer.  In the meantime, I’ve done my due diligence and Googled our esteemed “first time home buyer.”  Though it looks like he was a good student at college that was pretty much the only information I could gleam about him.   He’s one of those smart ones that actually looks into his Facebook privacy settings!  So back to some honest waiting!In other news, we generally don’t watch the news in this household (or TV for that matter).  The news is depressing.  I think that the more you fill your life with paranoid, depressing thoughts the more likely you are to feel that way and become that way.  I’d rather think the best of people and the world, then to run around everywhere afraid and paranoid.  So I have to say yesterday I was surprised when one of my friends from Ohio sent me a message to ask if I was okay.  Apparently not too far from my house (10 minutes) was a fatal shooting of a teenager by a police officer.  I work in the not so friendly section of town at a manufacturing facility so they got worried when they heard whole communities were rioting after the ordeal.  Thankfully the plant continues on its boring march (other than those pesky Union folks) and no riots have come this way.

But I went ahead and read some news about it against my better judgment.  Groups of people are breaking into stores, burning down donut shops and in one place they were looting and stealing WIGS!?!  What is this world coming to that people feel they should loot to get WIGS of all things!?  My mother also called me tonight to tell me to lock myself in the basement…umm mother, this is not a tornado, just some crazy folk doing crazy stuff!  So for now, we’ll try to stay out of the crazy part of town other than having to go to that whole work thing.

Houses for Sale and the Tale of the Sneaky Neighbor

Selling a Home, ,
Notice how the mulch really accentuates the plants and the house
Notice how the mulch really accentuates the plants and the house

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It’s 8:30 pm and I can’t wait for the phone to ring.You see, my husband I just put our house up for sale here in Saint Louis.  It was listed in the MLS on Friday and we allowed no showings until the Sunday open house.  Now, for those of you that know me you know that pulling off an open house is no small feat.  We’ve literally spent the last week cleaning like wild people and the house looks amazing…the garage on the other hand looks like HOARDERS!  The Realtors said to “minimize” aka get rid of almost EVERYTHING in the house.  Well, what can I say…we have a lot of STUFF and that stuff now all lives in the garage.  I’m not quite sure how we’ll get it out of the garage when we move, but we’ll save that for another day.But a few days before the open house a lady came to the door to inquire.  She said she had a friend that was “very interested” in homes in the area.  I knew something was off during the conversation, but still I asked for her name and phone number and said I’d have the realtor contact her.  So on a scrap of paper she wrote “Valerie Smithe” and included her number for our realtor to reach out to her.  A couple of days before the open house our realtor put up signs all throughout the housing division with pathways to our house for the open house.  Low and behold though a day later someone else had signs up for their own open house with a path leading to one street over from ours.  We took a drive by the house to see the competition.  Who did we see in the front yard????  Valerie aka Dana the county auditor website said with her “For Sale By Owner” house sign and the intruder signs.  What a piggybacking sneak!So after days of cleaning, a broken glass shard in my foot (minor flesh wound!) and hiring every friend’s child to wash walls and pulls weeks the house is on the market.  But being on the market means we have to evacuate the house for each showing and pretend no person and no animal lives here.  So with each showing we have a 10 point checklist that includes things like: Pack 4 dogs in car, hide two cats in crate under steps, put cinnamon rolls in the oven, rid house of pet hair (SHELTIE!!!), clean nose prints again from windows, turn dog room into baby play room (dog room is not kosher in home sales), turn off cinnamon rolls in oven (burned rolls would not be good!) and drive away all before the next realtor comes.  Oh wait, and pack up Isaac into his car seat next to the dog crates.  And then repeat process a few hours later for next showing.

But after Sunday’s open house with 12 people going through (3 of which were Dana/Valerie and family!), and two showings, WE HAVE AN OFFER!  Let the games begin!

Have a home buying or selling story you’d like to share?

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