Selling, Surprises, and Real Estate - Time Out #257

It is a well-established fact now, Covid-19 has produced unbelievable human anxiety all over planet earth.

As I have mentioned before, I certainly wan't immune to Covid-19's anxiety blind-side that began in Our Town in mid-March. To be perfectly honest, as this virus pandemic continues, the stress factor hasn't gone away, but time is teaching us various ways to deal with it.

So, going into Covid-19, my bride, Debbie, and I, received an absolute welcome surprise, we finally signed a selling contract on our older home, occupied by our family for over 35 years. I repeat, FINALLY, because by the time the sale closed, it was 2 1/2 years since we first listed our property! And, our former home was unoccupied for almost 3 years when we vacated it in late July, 2017!

In the past, I had never had ANY difficulty selling real estate, and I had had previous ownership experiences in Stillwater, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Bonita, CA, and Jackson, WY. Wow, this last home we recently sold was an absolute doozie to finally place it in our "sold" column.

For starters, I was extremely over-confident, and had a mind full of nothing but "surely it would sell, and sell quickly" thoughts. The biggest reason for my totally positive feelings along these lines, was how well our home had been shown to family, friends, and visitors over the many years we owned it. All that success goes to Lady Debbie, who has an incredible, home decorating skill/talent. The compliments she received over the decades were numerous! I vividly remember many home service-type workers coming through our red wooden front door to repair something inside our home, and routinely, the person would quickly remark how lovely they thought it was to them. Based on these consistent verbal responses, I figured we would have a buyer almost as quickly as the "For Sale" sign was placed in our well-landscaped front yard?

Quick answer; the buyers didn't come!

Why?

Well, for that exact answer, I'll have to return to the reply I have used many times, for many questions;" I don't know", which is code for my magic crystal ball is in the shop.

I do, of course, have a possible theory, folks.

Earlier, I wrote of what a showplace it was because of my bride's ultra-sharp decorating skills. Well, that bling/wow factor went bye-bye when we removed all the furniture out of the cozy home, and either placed it in our new home, or disposed of the furniture in various other ways. Therefore, our "magic" long-time home was transformed on the inside into a big, empty, somewhat plain-appearing, 40-plus year old home. Certainly, NOT the best first impression without furnishings.

Oh, my, I really "paid" for that shortcoming of not listing it for sale when it was beautifully decorated. For month after month after month, I faithfully made the trip over there as the regular caretaker. I would do my routine walk-through, adjust the heat or air conditioning, check the many bathrooms for any water related issues, monitor the outside lawn/plants, and the pool, etc., etc, etc. These duties were, of course, in addition to paying the various monthly utility bills, yearly property taxes, house insurance premiums, along with occasional maintenance/repair costs.. Making that 3-4 times per week visit to the old place, did take a fair amount of my time, energy, and willpower.,

However, wishes really do come true, and I am super happy to report Ms. Debbie and I no longer own two homes in Our Town. Thank you, magic genie!!