Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We just got our offer accepted on a rural house in Massachusetts. We live in California in a house which needs a lot of furbishing to be ready for sale (mostly painting and cleanup but there's a lot of it). We have three indoor/ outdoor large hairy dogs.
Our current Plan A is to winterize the MA house and close it up until spring, meanwhile getting all in order on the CA house to put on the market in early spring when everything looks pretty and fresh.
I'm just not quite grasping the logistics. I know I need to get those dogs out of the CA house and get the dog smell etc out as best as I can, and leave some furniture there for staging. Then I suppose we just pack up the rest of our stuff, and get ourselves and pets across the continent while the realtor manages the CA house? Would that be how it works?
I have never sold a house in my life . . . we've been here for almost 40 years.
We just got our offer accepted on a rural house in Massachusetts.
Our current Plan A is to winterize the MA house and close it up until spring...
If you can afford to do that...
Quote:
We live in California in a house which needs a lot of furbishing to be ready for sale ...
We have three indoor/ outdoor large hairy dogs.
I'm just not quite grasping the logistics.
One room at a time in sequence (kitchen last).
Thin out all the stuff you won't be hauling to MA. Sell it or give it away.
Pack up (almost) everything else in each of those rooms for the move.
As the clock winds down to move date it will be like living in a motel.
CLEAN each room thoroughly. Fix what needs to be fixed. Paint what needs to be painted.
Rinse & Repeat.
Once the dogs are out then you can dispose of all the fabrics (incl carpets)
that harbor dog odors and bring in a PRO CREW to deal with the residual.
Quote:
I have never sold a house in my life . . . we've been here for almost 40 years.
Then I suppose we just pack up the rest of our stuff, and get ourselves and pets
across the continent while the realtor manages the CA house?
If your finances can afford, I would pack up what I'm taking to MA, haul myself and dogs to MA, then hire someone to clean, paint etc, fly back to check everything out and list with realtor.
If your finances can afford, I would pack up what I'm taking to MA, haul myself and dogs to MA, then hire someone to clean, paint etc, fly back to check everything out and list with realtor.
Great idea but my husband would never do it. It's enormously difficult for him to let anyone do anything that he could theoretically do himself. Amazingly, this is the same reason we have 25 years of deferred maintenance to catch up on.
I think it's really stupid but I'm married to him. I'm giving him a few months to do what he can and then I am going to follow your advice!
I've got dogs and what I do when I sell is to get everything out of the house. Then I have a bare empty house to paint, clean, and replace the flooring. That makes the renovation easier and the sale much much easier.
I don't stage. A very clean vacant house has always sold very well for me.
I suggest that you pack everyone and everything and move all of it to the new place. If your husband wants to do all the work, he can stay with one car, a suitcase, and a sleeping bag, or stay in a cheap motel. He can eat at the fast food places while he does the work and then he can drive himself to your new home and leave the house to your agent to deal with.
You will never get the house sparkling clean with 2 large dogs. Every renovation you do will get dog hair and dog smell. Move the dogs out and sell a house with carpet that a dog has never set foot on.
You can do actual repairs and fix broken things while you are still there, but move out for the last cleaning and painting (and most likely new flooring ). It will be cheaper to have the movers move everything at once and pay for your husband to stay for a couple of weeks than it would be to pay to move most and then do a second move of the stuff you left for staging.
You have been there for 25 years. Is the roof 25 years old? Banks won't finance a house with an old roof. If the roof needs replacing just do it. You will have to replace the roof anyway if your buyers are financing and in the meantime you get to advertise the house for sale with a brand new roof.
New roof is a big deal when a person is buying. It is a very attractive sales point.
( but, of course, only if the roof is showing it's age )
The roof is original but is a 50 year roof. It is fine. I'm not tearing off a roof with 25 years left in it. It looks great.
We have no wall to wall carpet, it's tile downstairs and cork upstairs. But I agree about the dogs getting out of there while the house is refinished. No matter what there will be dog hair in the paint and varnish.
I take your points however, they are all good ones.
Great idea but my husband would never do it. It's enormously difficult for him to let anyone do anything that he could theoretically do himself. Amazingly, this is the same reason we have 25 years of deferred maintenance to catch up on.
I think it's really stupid but I'm married to him. I'm giving him a few months to do what he can and then I am going to follow your advice!
Your husband is planning on doing all of the cleaning and painting himself? Have you explained to him that if you hire someone, you can get it all done in 3 days.
Your husband is planning on doing all of the cleaning and painting himself? Have you explained to him that if you hire someone, you can get it all done in 3 days.
Yep. He's a highly intelligent person but he just can't let go of control. Which is why I finally prepared to move with or without him, instead of waiting for him to be ready. He'll never be ready and he'll never be finished. It's sort of like waiting for a hoarder to rent a dumpster. But we have to sell now, there's no other option, which I hope will drive him to make pragmatic decisions. If he doesn't, I'm still moving!
To be fair, there is no way anything will take 3 days. This is not a conventional house, it is a hand-built 'craft' house. Lot of very fiddly stuff like sanding a couple dozen true divided light windows.
Last move we vacated the old house, stored most of the stuff and lived in our 5th wheel on the new property for much longer than I had anticipated. Our new house had to be gutted, so it was nice to be on-site. It was easy for us being in the same Zip Code.
After the first 6 months of trailer life and the old house was long sold, I insisted my husband get help. I knew at that point with him doing all the work at his age, after work and on weekends that I was likely to die in the trailer. My husband has all the skills, he built other houses from the ground up, but that was many moons ago and his full time job then.
For your own sanity, I would suggest you move out to MA with the dogs and let your husband clean up and ready for sale or, if finances allow, put the dogs in a kennel for a week or two in MA and return to help hubby. Do put a time limit on that, otherwise it could go on much longer than you hope.
I think empty homes show well, just make sure you label the rooms in the pictures and provide measurements.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Our new house had to be gutted, so it was nice to be on-site. It was easy for us being in the same Zip Code. 
