I am embarrassed to admit that it has been almost two years since we purchased our new (much larger) farm in Tennessee. We bought it with the idea that we would come home to Alabama, put our alpaca farm on the market, and move to Tennessee. We were hoping it would take a year or so.
Well, here we are. 23 months later. Still no sign in the yard in Alabama. Why? You might ask. And that would be a great question. It boils down to three things:
- We really love our town. There are very few places as special Fairhope, Alabama. It truly is a hidden treasure. With excellent schools, a friendly, wholesome, artistic community, and a SuperWalmart a mile from my house…I’d have to be out of my mind to want to move! The status quo is super here, and the move seems, well, daunting. Inertia has ruled.
- Try getting a house staged perfectly and ready to go on the market with four children and two creative types living in it. This is not laughable, it’s cry-able. Being the mom, I am expected to drive this train. And I’m a terrible engineer. My tidiness skills are less than stellar. I’m like the absentminded professor with stacks & piles of paper (and some stray bits of hay) everywhere. Plus I get sidetracked almost daily by real-life emergencies on the farm or with our family.
- There is always a big reason that comes up to keep me from moving ahead with the listing. For example, the Artist is going to France for a month, or the dog is getting really old so the house smells like a hospital, or I haven’t gotten the carpets professionally cleaned yet, or we decided to replace the carpets instead and it won’t be installed for two more weeks, or the dead bushes need to be replaced. The list goes on and on.
In case you think I’ve been a total failure at this task, I have actually been diligently working on it for about 10 months. In the process of decluttering, I have taken 20+ van loads of stuff to Goodwill. I have participated in at least 5 “Mommy” Sales which involved tagging and carting off a truck full of baby & kid crap stuff. Each time, the back of the pick-up looked like the Clampets heading to Beverl-y.
I have no idea how I still have anything left in my house, but I do. Even with my monthly Ebay kicks and the scores of black trash bags that I fill…there is still stuff to clean up. Daily. Hourly.
In addition to massive de-cluttering, I have also been engaging in another activity which I believed would be certain to help me sell me house. (I know, putting the sign in the yard would be a good one, but I’ve been in a state of denial, so bear with me)
Watching Real Estate TV Programs on HGTV.
My Tivo has a season pass for:
- Designed to Sell. This show has a small budget, and they go in and do a makeover of a property that is currently for sale. At the end they have an Open House and it usually has a happy ending. The hosts Clive Pearse and designer Lisa LaPorta are clever and helpful. Wish they’d come over here and make this more fun.
- Get It Sold. Is there anyone more adorable and fun to watch than Sabrina Soto? I think not. Plus she gives you staging tips like making neutral wall art from wrapping paper, and spraying your dead grass green with spray paint. She’s perky, helps me feel like anything’s possible. *Sigh.*
- Secrets That Sell. This show was a guilty pleasure. I’m not sure it’s on anymore, but it featured a snarky mother and daughter real estate team who visited houses that had been on the market a long time without selling. After they evaluated the situation, they told Sellers why they thought their house hadn’t sold, and gave them advice on how to fix the situation. This was a fabulous show! Loved every minute of it, and I did learn some serious mistakes NOT to make.
- Real Estate Intervention. This is the new one. And it scares the pants off of me! Bald, no-nonsense Realtor, Mike Aubrey tells Sellers in today’s market what they need to do to sell their property. And it’s usually, “LOWER THE PRICE!” Yikes. He tells it like it is, and it’s like setting a broken limb. It hurts! …but it has to be done.
Though I watched zillions of hours of real estate TV (mind you I multitask so I also folded zillions of loads of laundry) – this activity did not get my house sold. You’re shocked – I know.
Since this wasn’t working for me, I decided to add a little fluff to my real estate TV viewing with Tatianna at The Property Shop. This is a reality show about a realtor, but it’s the only one that has gotten me off my duff and DOING something. How? Tatianna showed a pricey house that was owned by college kids. The beds were unmade, pizza boxes everywhere – it was a disaster. The Buyer saw through all of that and made an offer. THAT made me realize that my house is never going to be perfect (like on the other shows). At least for longer than 24 hours.
So I’ve got to act. Now. No more waiting for perfection. I’ll do my best, and it will have to be good enough. A friend on Ravelry who used to manage a real estate office gave me some great advice. She said, “The person who buys your property will buy it for the same reasons you bought it. Market it that way.”
We bought our place because it was gorgeous, it had 10 acres, it was in the fab school district, and there were no covenants and no restrictions so we could have our alpacas.
It wasn’t for the bushes.
Please leave a comment with any tips you have for getting a house ready to sell. I can use all the help I can get.
September 10th, 2009 | Tags: alpaca farm, Alpacas, Get it sold, HGTV, Mike Aubrey, Property Shop, real estate, real estate intervention, Sabrina Soto, selling the farm | Category: Moving the farm | Comments (11)
Gorgeous views. But can you see how steep this is? This stunning piece of land was on the side of a mountain! We could barely walk it, much less drive a tractor over it. Alpacas are used to mountains, but the severe grade was an insurmountable obstacle for the humans involved. 
