Selling house, while working at home with kids or pets (agent, investment)
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.
This thread will probably fade into oblivion very shortly but it occurred to me that I might have found it useful if I'd seen it at the start of our house-selling process. It's simply this: If you are selling one house before you buy your next one, and you have pets or kids at home, I strongly recommend making the investment of renting a place to live with them on a month-to-month basis after the house is all fixed up and ready to list. We could not afford to buy our new house until we sold our old one, but I think we could have afforded to rent month-to-month for at least 3 months or so, and it would have saved a WORLD of trouble. (After 3 months, you might be thinking about pulling the listing anyway, depending on your finances.)
We had our house listed during terribly hot weather (summertime, Texas), we work from home, and every time we got word of a showing, we had to dash around and clean up, and then figure out where to escape for an hour with the dogs where they would not overheat. We were of course delighted about the showings, but it was really stressful and inconvenient. In retrospect, I think we should have asked our listing agent to find us a place to rent for that period and felt a whole lot saner.
I would still advise asking for notice before every showing (as we did) so you can go over to the house and make sure it looks good. But other than that, I highly recommend NOT living there while it's listed, if you and/or pets are home during the days.
See? Not much to this. But still, I'll post it in case it helps someone later on down the line.
I have a client that is retired and has 2 large dogs. She gets it show ready every morning, then takes the dog for a walk or ride when someone comes for a visit. It's a pain, but not worth it to them to find another place to stay. Plus homes show better furnished, so they would have to find a furnished place to rent which can be quite expensive. It might be cheaper and easier to arrange a doggie day care during show hours if the weather doesn't allow walks or rides.
When we sold in Texas, we had 2 dogs, 2 cats, and a 2 year old. Not fun, but we made it work.
We had our home up for sale, with no kids, a dog and spouse worked from home. It was quite large, so every morning we would go through and get it "show" ready. We had requested a 30 minute notice before showing and other than three times most adhered.
Although we had a home in another state we hadn't moved the majority of furnishings, very nicely "staged." Interestingly, we sold the house after we moved the majority of furnishings and house was practically empty.
This thread will probably fade into oblivion very shortly but it occurred to me that I might have found it useful if I'd seen it at the start of our house-selling process. It's simply this: If you are selling one house before you buy your next one, and you have pets or kids at home, I strongly recommend making the investment of renting a place to live with them on a month-to-month basis after the house is all fixed up and ready to list. We could not afford to buy our new house until we sold our old one, but I think we could have afforded to rent month-to-month for at least 3 months or so, and it would have saved a WORLD of trouble. (After 3 months, you might be thinking about pulling the listing anyway, depending on your finances.)
We had our house listed during terribly hot weather (summertime, Texas), we work from home, and every time we got word of a showing, we had to dash around and clean up, and then figure out where to escape for an hour with the dogs where they would not overheat. We were of course delighted about the showings, but it was really stressful and inconvenient. In retrospect, I think we should have asked our listing agent to find us a place to rent for that period and felt a whole lot saner.
I would still advise asking for notice before every showing (as we did) so you can go over to the house and make sure it looks good. But other than that, I highly recommend NOT living there while it's listed, if you and/or pets are home during the days.
See? Not much to this. But still, I'll post it in case it helps someone later on down the line.
Sounds good in theory, but the additional debt you take on could significantly affect the type of house you are looking to move into.
Everyone has an issue when they show their house. Often showings are on weekends or at night, when every one is home anyway. It's hardly feasible economically to rent a house just because yours is on the market.
My DH worked from home and we had 3 kids and we really didn't find it that difficult to show the house. We kept it ship-shape every minute we could - in fact in that respect working at home is an advantage because if someone happens to come during a weekday you can double check the cleanliness.
In the town we left 18 months ago home rentals start at $3500 a month. Can't really say that would've been workable. Nice fantasy though.
It's hardly feasible economically to rent a house just because yours is on the market.
Quote:
Originally Posted by twingles
Nice fantasy though.
Feasible for some, not so much for others... That's life!
I think the OP's point was that if she had thought of it, she would have done it - so it was economically feasible for her. And it might be a helpful hint to other families who are in the same position.
Hmmm. Well, maybe it is a fantasy, I don't know. $3500/month would definitely have been prohibitive, but somewhere around $1500/month might not have been, especially if the lack of interruptions allowed us to be more productive during our work days (which were often pretty well shattered). I assure you, we did keep the house within 30 minutes of "show ready" all the time, but still . . . .
We'd have looked for something furnished, with internet, but much smaller than our house, simply to have a different "home base." The hard part probably would have been getting something furnished that also allowed dogs, but who knows. Because our realtor in Chicago (destination city) made it sound like such a thing would be highly feasible if we needed it on the purchase/arrival-end of the deal, it struck me that it could also work on the selling-end of the deal.
I am impressed by those who say it was not that difficult to show the house. I feel like I am usually a good sport about things, but that phase was one of the biggest hassles - in terms of daily life disruption - that I've ever had to deal with. I felt like a refugee, always escaping into 106-degree heat with the dogs. We had a wonderful accommodating neighbor who let us come to her house often, but we couldn't go there every time. Yuck.
Oh well. Enough on this, I guess. I am very grateful it's over (for now, at least!).
When selling our last house, my wife and I used to anguish over that we had two cats and would someone say no way based on that.
The realtor said all houses have "some issues" to "someone".
She said she has had a cat run through a front yard when she pulled up for a showing and the looker did not even want to go in the house The realtor assured the looker that there were no cats that lived in the house and it was just one that ran through the yard. The looker woiuld not go in. Was that the real reason?
We had a pond in the backyard. Some said the pond was to small, others said it was dangerous. Yes we had a pond and we could not change that. Were those the reasons?
We had an 8 year old home. Some said it was "dated" Was that the reason?
While there are basics like curb appeal, uncluttered, clean, etc. you cannot control all. The bottom line is in this day and age the average "buyer" wants champagne for beer prices be there a cat in the house or not..LOL
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.
