[graciegirl]

I have great sympathy for any and all of you who are going through this process. We sold our home in nine days with multiple offers and I know WHY that happened. We had worked for three years getting it ready and trying to make it look like a model home. We repainted all of the walls to neutral...an UP TO DATE neutral and took down all wallpaper and borders. We had the carpet restretched and cleaned...and repeated the cleaning every three months. We got rid of furniture and accessories and made the house practically useless to live in but very model like. We got rid of almost half of our clothing and hats and shoes and boots and coats so as to make the closets roomy and neat. We did NOT agree many times as to what HAD to go but we soldiered on. Sweetie was asking about the guys family over at the Goodwill store as he was seeing him about four times a week. We hid ALL pictures of relatives and took down anything personal...including golf trophies and diplomas. I watched HGTV and Henry listened and followed the list made out by our realtor...Took up perennials that were overgrown and not flowering, had trees trimmed and trimmed back the bushes so they looked small and just planted. Removed bird feeders and little statues and stuff that we liked from back yard. Bought new cushions for outdoor furniture and recovered others. Put away ALL appliances in the kitchen and made everything sparkle. Company clean is NOT clean enough to sell a house. Brand new is what it needs to look like. Check the area around the door knob on front door and both sides of the garage door. We are serious here.

When the house was shown we packed up three unwilling cats and took them with us....along with the food dishes and the litter boxes. YES we did. OUR REALTOR said it was important.

You may want to consider paying for staging. I think it is a great help.....a GREAT help.

We priced the house fifty thousand dollars less than what it would easily have sold for five years ago and after studying what Zillow and Trulia said it was worth and most of all what our realtor, a family friend for 40 years said it was worth. We went under what we thought was reasonable a year ago.

We were fortunate that the people had half the money to put down because we didn't have to worry how it would be appraised. The short sales have devalued everyones neighborhood, no matter where you live.

Then the unfair inspection and the dumb stuff you had to do. And the serious stuff that you thought you might have to do............

You wonder why we are so grateful and happy to be here?