I am the Bane of Home Sales. I’ve owned 2 houses, and have yet to sell either of them. The first I got rid of via divorcing my husband; he decided he wanted it. The one I’m in now has been on the market since late September. I happen to like Mr. Athena, and don’t want to divorce him to get rid of this one.
The neighborhood I’m in used to be a hot market. My next door neighbors sold their house last August in 9 days. We’re talking full price offers and 60 days from first putting it on the market to closing type things. Of course, when I put my house on the market, it languishes for months. At first, we were saying “it’s because of September 11th”. Then we told ourselves "It’ll pick up after the first of the year. " Then it was “When it gets to be warm and springlike, it’ll pick up.” Lately I’ve been telling myself that lots of people buy houses in the summer. Meanwhile, we’ve been dropping the price and rearranging things in the hopes it would show better. Of course, two weeks ago the #!#!@ roof started leaking, which is just peachy. But we’ll get it fixed, if Mr. Athena can get a roofer to call him back.
But today! There was a glimmer of hope today! We had a showing, and, since I work at home, I was home while they looked. They were here almost 25 minutes, and the woman was saying things like “We could put our chairs here… the end table would look good here…”
About an hour after they left, I got a call from my real estate agent. Seems that this was a second showing. The people are relocating to this area, and had our house and 2 others they were revisiting.
About 30 minute after talking to my agent, I stumble down the stairs in my pajamas with wet hair after taking a shower (ah, the joys of working from home - 3pm showers). I see a car pull up in the driveway. It’s them again! Run upstairs, put on real clothes. Come down, open the door, “Can we take another look?” SUUUURE! Be my guest! Can I get you a drink? Want me to cook you lunch? How 'bout sexual favors? Will that get you to buy this #!#!@ house?
They looked. While they were in the basement, their agent whispered to me “They LOVE this house!” and asked when we were wanting to move.
Cross your fingers, pray to the God of your choice, wish me luck… I GOTTA SELL THIS THING!