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I hope you are better at caring for the animals than you are at written communication, as that is clearly not your strong suit.
Why, in a sentence discussing the circumstances of your property, would you include information about a feral colony that is NOT on the property? Do you recognize how this confuses the issue?
It does not confuse the issue at all!! Please re-read what I wrote and how I wrote it as being in a certain context: Why we feel unable to move at present. It is you who is confused:
OK, I will take this step by step since you do not seem to understand: Some posters could not understand why we were not moving in 2 years. (The following I explained to the realtors, by the way I mentioned the feral colony as being one of the reasons why we don't feel able to move right away. It is only one.
You don't just move away from a colony that has been depending upon you for food and medical monitoring. I am the member of a city wide loose coalition of people who trap neuter and return ferals and then maintain their health by providing outside care. When someone moves, they need to find someone to take over the colony. This is not easy because most humans don't want to be bothered so we must rely on one another and often there is no one who will be able to take on the resp. of an entire colony for its natural life. Therefore, what I must do is gradually get them ready for possible adoption into my house as ferals and that can take a few years. One must take many steps to adopt a feral and introduce them to the other cats and it usually requires a period of open containment, i.e. in a very large cage in the home. Fortunately, I have discovered that one cat is a "hard stray", i.e. an abandoned former "friendly" who probably will make it here inside one day and the other remaining cat (the others are gone) is far more fearful but I think perhaps also a hard stray who is very fearful. Nevertheless, I have many males and it takes a lot of time and space planning to integrate them all without serious behavioral problems.
I am thinking now that I want to let my two oldest cats live out their lives here in this house before we move, also. Not sure yet. Will see how it goes.
We just came back from a week of looking around at houses in the state where we plan to move, eventually. So, we are still hoping to make that move.
I didn't take a negative view at all. I commented on the facts as you presented them; 8 cats, a dog, a feral colony living outside, house packed to the gills. Your words, not mine. To believe that this doesn't affect the impression made by visitors, and therefore the perceived value of the house, would be a mistake.
I will let you believe what you want to believe. It is useless to argue even if the facts do not jell with your notions.
Start a new thread when you sell your house. Then we will know its value. Until then you have not proven a thing.
Let me point out to you that few posters in the original thread could believe my claims and now, here I wrote to show them that indeed that other house went for far more, and it goes no place here.
Not that I am surprised any longer. But it is very telling, I must say.
"I hope you are better at caring for the animals than you are at written communication, as that is clearly not your strong suit."
This is a personal attack. If you said that you felt that I did not communicate clearly, I would not have any problem. But to say something personal in not called for.
This is one confusing thread. More gets added to the story with every layer.
Yes, you have said you didn't intend to sell the house for two years and yet you took the lid off a pen and signed a listing agreement.
It sounds like you have taken care of many important things in your house (roof, hvac, windows etc.). In your original thread you also say the kitchen and baths are 20 years old. They may be super clean, but this will definitely affect the price. Multiple pets do too. No matter what you do to scrub and change litter boxes, some buyers will be turned off by this. When you are finally ready to list the house, consider hiring the help of a professional home stager. I have a feeling the house isn't presenting as well as you are hoping for. Vinyl covers on the furniture, a house packed the gills, pets...this may have been part of the reason the realtors gave you such a low number. When you see your house you see all the hard work you put into the structure. Buyers won't see the hard work you have done because you have covered it up. No matter what your neighbor's house sold for, yours is only worth what someone is willing to pay.
I hope all goes well and you find a great agent when it comes time to sell.
I don't understand why you need to go over something that was discussed ad nauseum in the first thread. Please read the first thread about why I signed. I do not want to go over it yet again.
I DID tell you that my neighbor's kitchen is AT LEAST 20 years old ( I think, now that I think about it, closer to 30 years with old appliances - ours are all recent.)
The appraiser said it would NOT affect the value of our house re: pets if the house is clean and odor free. Which it is.
Who ever told you my house is "packed to the gills"? I never said that!! Check things before you say them please!
This is going to be a long post: Beware. You don't need to read it, of course, but I would appreciate knowing that some posters might have read it:
I would like to tell a little story here, if I may, because it relates to how you post and how others have here: I contacted a very famous, world famous animal rescue sanctuary about our late little dog (he died in March, sadly, from advanced heart failure due to a mitral valve problem. He was beloved.) Our dog was only 8.2 lbs and mixed breed and it took me years to realize that he was half chihuahua because he had been mislabeled as a pure Affenpinscher by the sanctuary where we adopted him. He had been in a kill shelter, another no kill one and then, finally taken in by a saintly retired child psychiatrist who adopts hundreds of dogs from kill shelters to get them homes - he has a 20 acre spread of land and can do it. Well, we loved our dog a lot and he had had no happy life when we got him and had demodex mange which we had treated and more or less cured by a board cert. dermatologist. But life had been unfair for him and he was a fear biter. I got bit a lot! Many times! I was never even able to put a lead on him. However, he did not fear my husband as much from the minute he met him - even though our dog, Manny, clearly loved me, too - it was me he wanted to be with all of the time -and so he could so it even though he was bitten a few times, too. So, I contacted the dog trainers at this famous sanctuary, the world famous one, for advice (and did this after 2 trainers came here and were unable to help us get him to not bite). The trainer was only on-line. She told me that this dog was very dangerous, etc. etc and that we could not do anything etc. She also gave advice that I felt was very inappropriate such as never letting the dog on the sofa and having him in a more submissive mode. I felt the opposite, that he had had such a hard life that he needed to be treated with much kindness and many privileges and allowed to be on the sofa and not made to submit. When I countered her, she was very critical and accusatory and said I know "very little about dogs". Reminds me of people here who say I don't know enough to say our house will sell for far more than was set by the realtors. Finally, I contacted, this being over a few years, one of the most famous (and few) Ph.D. board certified animal behaviorists, world famous, so famous that I was amazed to be able to use him. He testifies in big court cases as an expert, all over the U.S. and has hundreds of scholarly research articles. He came to our house for 3 hours and told me that the on-line dog trainer was incompetent and knew nothing about animal behavior. He said that trainers often like to train and it makes them, not the dog, feel better! He told me that I needed to do as I was doing, to be kind and INDULGENT (in a certain way, don't start on me here folks, not indulgent in the wrong ways!!), giving him as much comfort and love as I could, allow him to sit on my lap (I could never pet him) or against my leg because he clearly needed that, etc. He said we were doing a fabulous job (his words) and not to expect him to necessarily get all over his early trauma, just to improve. Well, over time, years, our dog did do that (we had him for 5 and a half years till he died and we grieved him tremendously). But, less than a year before he died, I contacted a dog trainer who was hand picked by the much admired Victoria Stillwell from England. She came to our house. She told me that she didn't want to collect a fee! She said we had done everything right, were doing everything right and that it was unfair to charge us! Our dog never let me put on the lead but he started to spin in delight when I came home and was clearly very happy here.
I was told in the same manner I am told by many here that I don't know what I am doing. I hired and fired 2 trainers who didn't treat my dog right in my opinion and got lambasted by the head trainer on-line, someone who never saw me or my dog, about what I was doing.
I feel the same here. People who do not see our house or know things and yet have tried to allege things that do not fit the circumstances here. I have received condescending posts and have not returned them in the same condescending manner. I have tried to listen and reply to all in a comprehensive and respectful manner. Back to the dog: I am glad I got told by this final trainer that we were doing it right. It made us feel at peace. I feel at peace, as well, that I am sure I have assessed the real estate issue here in an accurate manner and am very sorry that some here cannot seem to tolerate that fact.
Last edited by Martha Anne; 07-16-2012 at 08:12 PM..
Let me point out to you that few posters in the original thread could believe my claims and now, here I wrote to show them that indeed that other house went for far more, and it goes no place here.
Not that I am surprised any longer. But it is very telling, I must say.
And as the rest of us are pointing out we have no idea how much your house is worth. And until you sell it we will never know.
See, I suppose I could write a book - it would take that much - but we had 8 cats and a dog plus an outside feral colony, our house is packed to the gills, we were assisting a disabled young adult who lived with us and we TOLD the realtors over and over at that first meeting that 2 years was extremely soon for us. I explained why we called them in detail in my first thread if you can access it. - A quote from our OP
I am beginning to think this whole thread is a joke and "Martha Anne" is having a great laugh over this
OMG, you are right, I did use those words! But that is exactly what I am trying to say in my too-long, rambling last post about the dog: The written word is not able to convey what one is thinking all of the time. My intention was not to imply that our rooms are cluttered and there is too much everywhere. I meant by that that we have many things that take a lot to work on: My husband's model railroading set up and stuff from over 50 years, a huge collection of rare classical music recordings and antique books, much more, but not all over the place or a mess. We pride ourselves on being neat, clean and organized.
I know about stageing. I would not do it: We don't want to have to do the work. I know, I know, I will get all kinds of lectures here for that. I know about staging and was responsible for setting up my parents 11 room house when it was to sell and it was a great deal of work and I don't intend to do that. Sorry! I know, I know: It will for less if we don't is the line...and you will say it is true and maybe it is. I don't care!!
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I mentioned the feral colony as being one of the reasons why we don't feel able to move right away. It is only one.
