Your House is Ready for the Market, Are You?

 

“All things are ready, if our minds be so.” William Shakespeare

Bob and Shirley are ready to move.

Their home is too much house and has too many stairs.

They’ve lived in their home for nearly 30 years. The house holds every significant moment and memory…

But they’re ready to move…they’re getting there.

Over the last several months they’ve been hard at work. Giving the house a fresh coat of neutral paint, making some needed repairs and updates. They’ve been going through 30 years of things…the things their girls left at home when they moved out…going through the things that once belonged to Bob’s mom…china, furniture, books and papers the things that made their way to Bob and Shirley’s house when Bob’s mom passed away.

 

It took time to sort through…the sorting through things was a task of memories. Memories of the girls’ childhood…the toys played with, the books read. Memories of mom and the china she loved to use for Sunday dinners. It took time to decide what to keep, what to get rid of…what to pack away, what to give away. It’s not easy…the sorting of things. They’ve gotten rid of so much still, for now, they’ve kept and packed some things they can’t yet part with.

 

Truth is the house looks great, photos could be taken tomorrow…they’ve purged and decluttered, they’ve painted and staged. The house could go on the market by the end of the week…the house is ready.

The house is ready, but Bob and Shirley still have some getting ready to do.

Selling a home, especially a home lived in for thirty years is as much an emotional process as it is a physical one. For Bob and Shirley, the physical work is nearly done…the house looks great, it’s move in ready but they still have some emotional ready to do.

What is emotional ready?

Emotional ready means you can see your house as property, not your home. Emotional ready means feeling though you’ve loved your home, you’re certain you no longer want it. Emotional ready is you are more excited about the next house and next chapter in your life than you are sad to say goodbye to the home you’ve loved.

And Bob and Shirley are getting there…

While they’ve been hard at work getting the house physically ready we’ve been working on getting them emotional ready too.

We’ve spent some time in the market…exploring the different possibilities that might be in store for Bob and Shirley when their house sells. Because being emotionally ready means you’re excited about the next chapter, so you need an idea of where that next chapter will take you. So we’ve had many possibilities to explore…houses and townhouses, houses close to where they live now and houses nearer to their daughter and granddaughter. Homes in 55 and older communities because maybe this next move should be a complete change of lifestyle, not just address. It’s work that can’t be done online…Bob and Shirley needed to get out and see possibilities in person, try them on, see if they fit…see if they could see themselves calling the possibilities home.

We’ve been at it for months and the result? Bob and Shirley will be buying a home in a 55 and older community closer to their daughter…when the right one comes on the market. It took us time to get to this community and we haven’t found the just right house yet but the process has been incredibly helpful in getting Bob and Shirley emotional ready. In discovering the community and seeing the options that exist they’re excited about the next chapter, the new lifestyle it holds for them and excited to find their new home. It will be easier to put their home on the market knowing where they’ll be going…they’re getting ready.

We already know a ballpark price for their home but before we put it on the market we’ll spend some time in the market again. This time we’ll be looking at the possibilities from the perspective of the potential buyer of their home. What choices will the buyer have? What do properties offer? How does Bob and Shirley’s house stack up? Do they need to do anything more to their house or reconsider pricing to win a buyer over?  The process will help them see their home as a property, one in competition with the other properties on the market. The home they’ve loved will become a property for the market’s consideration.

 

And once they can see their home as a property, once they are ready to say goodbye to the home they’ve loved, once they’re excited to get to that new community and the lifestyle it offers…it will have taken months…but they’ll be ready!

Being ready…a house being ready, a seller being ready,  is the surest way to a successful real estate experience…physically, financially, emotionally it’s most important to be ready.

 

Think you want to move?  Give us a holler…the Amy Curtis Group can help you get there…it’s one of the things we do best… we can help you get ready!