selling the house - progress report

Single family home, looking for a LTR...

We've had our house on the market now for a little over three weeks.  On Sunday, January 29th, we had our first open house!  It wasn't exactly the best feeling in the world, as I noted on Facebook, but I know it is a necessary evil.  After everything was said and done on Sunday, we had a total of 5 families come through so I guess that it was successful open house.

Aside from the open house, we've had a total of 9 appointments and I think one couple was pretty close to making an offer before deciding the house was too small.  That's the main feedback we're getting - great place, just a bit too small.  I don't know if I should be happy that this is the only negative feedback or frustrated.  If the feedback was "orange is a hideous color for the laundry room" or "there are way too many pictures of that ridiculously adorable baby up" then we could address it - paint the laundry room, remove pictures, etc.  There is nothing I can do about the size of the house!  It is a little over 1,200 square feet, just like most every other house in the neighborhood.  If someone is looking in our neighborhood, they aren't going to get much bigger than that.  Every house was built in the same cape-cod style.  At least our house had dormers in front and the back of the house was raised (for lack of better word) so the pitched roof is only in the front.  It opens up the bedrooms a bit.  Admittedly it is a smaller place, which is one of the reasons why we are looking to move, but when we were looking in 2007 we understood that it was the standard size for the neighborhood.  The market is different now, and buyers can afford to be pickier than we were in 2007 - we looked at a number of houses all over Bucks county and found that if we didn't make an offer the same day the house was gone.  This is obviously not the case now.

All told, I think the process is going good so far.  I was really worried we wouldn't get any traffic through, so the fact that we've had so many people in is a good sign, regardless if they think its too small.  This at least shows us that people are looking and their looking in our area.  Everyone who has left feedback about the price has said it was priced right, so our concerns about being priced too high for the area are quieted.  I will say that it is a giant pain in the ass to keep the house in Alimmatiri Show Ready condition.  I understand from when we were house hunting in 2007 that not everyone thinks their house should be absolutely spotless when people are scheduled to see the home.  John & I go absolutely crazy when we get the call/email that someone wants to see the house.  Almost every night we vacuum and put away wash (though we fell down on that job last week), but we almost do everything all over again (or at least double check everything again) in the hours leading up to a showing.  Here's the checklist we follow prior to someone arriving:

• Bathrooms: wipe down counters, dust mop floors, dry shower/sink (if needed), make sure toilet lids are closed, fix "queen mother" towel displays, hide "everyday usage" towels, Windex mirrors, Windex sink in downstairs bathroom (the glass gets spotty)
• Bedrooms: make our bed, straighten comforter/pillows/pillow-pal on the bed in Ari's room, fold Ari's awesome quilt over the end of the crib, arrange his animals, dust visable surfaces, turn bedside lights on in our room, vacuum again if puppy/kitty fur and/or Andrea's shedding is visible
• Kitchen: Windex counters and stove-top, wipe down fridge, microwave and dishwasher, dust mop, wipe down sink, make sure all dishes are put away, take down "everyday usage" dish towels & put up "queen mother" dish towels
• Living Room/Dining Room/Office: vacuum area rugs, dust mop hardwood floors, dust, vacuum couch & dog beds, leave the door to the closet in the office slightly open so it looks like we didn't close it all the way (the door sticks)
• In the 30 seconds before leaving the house: collapse pack & play, collect dogs, hide baby gates, put dogs in car, blow out candles, put Ari and pack & play in the car, grab entertainment for the sit-and-wait, grab any remaining random bags (laptop bag, diaper bag, Andrea's work bag).

It is a lot of work!  I wish John & I could be slightly less OCD, but I just can't imagine leaving our house in anything less than pristine condition when people are coming by with the intent of purchasing our home!  It would be like trying to sell one of our cars and not having it detailed before having someone stop by to look at it.  Cleaning out the poppy seeds from my AM everything bagels that fall in my emergency break lever-well-space thing could make the difference between someone buying my car and leaving it.  So making sure every little corner in our house is spotless could make the difference between someone liking our house and loving it.  I don't ever want someone to refer to our house as "remember the place with the cat/dog hair on the couch", just like John and I referred to one house we saw as the "split-level with all the laundry on the floor in the one bedroom".  I want someone to say "remember that amazing house on Hillcrest Ave?  Not only was it awesome, it was spotless.  Let's make an offer right now".  

Fingers crossed kids.  Hopefully this house will be gone sooner rather than later.