still selling the house - a lovely Cape Cod

So as I previously mentioned, I'm a little behind on the posting so just hang tight, I'm slowly updating you on everything that's been going on.  I've had a few people reach out about the progress on selling the house, so I figured it should have its own little post...

Our house has been for sale now for a little under four months.  In that amount of time we've had over 30 appointments plus our open house, so we're definitely getting a lot of foot traffic through. On two separate occasions we had people that were pretty close to making an offer - two different buyers asked to come back a second time to see the house with their parents.  The first couple came back a second time with their parents, after the apointment their realtor noted "they really love the house but have decided it's just not quite big enough for them. Lovely home", which means their parents talked them out of it (you don't come back to see a house for a second time with your parents and then realize it's too small; mom and dad pointed out it was too small).  Another couple came back, again with their parents, and the feedback from that second appointment was "She loves the house, but he really wants a basement OR a garage. They are still thinking about it and I will keep you posted".  I can't blame this one on the parents; I guess magically between the first appointment and the second appointment our house was going to grow a basement or a garage.  Hmm.  Anyway, the second appointments got both John & I pretty excited, we really thought we were going to get an offer!  It was kind of a let down to read the feedback and see the "they love it but..." statements and know we weren't going to get an offer from either couple.  Sadly, the disappointment we would feel over not getting an offer is greatly overshadowed by the disappointment of getting a shitty offer.  A few weeks back we did get our first offer in, but it was insultingly low.  The couple offered us 30k less than what we were asking for.  Now at the time, our house had been up for a little over two months, we're anxious to move so we can get on with our lives, but we're far from "lets take any offer that crosses our plates".  Best part?  Their realtor told our realtor that their max price was 25k less than our asking price.  Really people? 

Lovely Cape-Cod, looking for a LTR...

So what has this whole process taught me so far?  There are a lot of reatlors out there who are complete ass hats.  I'm amazed with some of the feedback we get, for example the showing from Sunday left the following feedback "while the house is beautifully done, she does not want a Cape Cod".   Why in God's name are you showing your client a Cape Cod if she really doesn't want a Cape Cod?  Seeing it in person doesn't change the fact that it is a Cape Cod style house.  Or to another realtor, "my client really liked the house, but she needs to get comfortable with the area".  Why are you showing your client houses in a neighborhood that they don't like?  We've had realtors show up insanely late (the cape-cod lady was here 5 minutes after her one hour long appointment window ended) or some not show up at all.  At the end of the day we still live here!  Please respect our time by showing up on time, canceling appointments if you have no intention of coming and, above all, know your own client and don't show them something they would have ZERO interest in!  Ugh, it annoys me so much I even brought out the ctrl+B on that one.  Asshats (my guy excluded). 

As far as where we're looking to go, I'm started slowing down my searches on Realtor.com etc.  I've fallen in love with a number of houses, one in particular that's in Woodstown Borough, but I'm afraid to get too excited.  We've watched other houses we like be sold and we haven't even had a legit offer yet.  At this point I'm frustrated, but I'm trying to keep a good outlook.  John and I didn't expect to have the house on the market for less than a year, so to be in month 4 and to be this antsy is a little silly on my part.  I guess I didn't expect to have so much traffic through the house, which is why it is discouraging.  To have so many people come through and not one make a legit offer is what gets me down about the process.  We've had others leave awesome feedback ("top of their list, when do your clients want to close?" or "they love the house, keep us posted") but it hasn't turned into anything.  One of the appointments this past weekend, obviously not the one who hates cape-cods, expressed interest so time will only tell if anything comes out of that.  In the meantime, I'm trying to be patient!  

catching up - how I need to get my shit together

Well, my resolution of posting once a week has been shot to shit considering it has been over two months since I last posted.  I apologize to all seven of my trusty readers out there (Hi Mom) that I left you hanging for so long, but it has been a hectic few months.

Basically, this is all about how I need to get my shit together.

When I found out I was pregnant, I change a lot of behaviors.  I realized that a lot of what was normal for me would not be healthy for the baby.  Some stuff was an absolute no-brainer, I immediately stopped smoking as soon as I saw the positive test.  I also decided to make some less obvious changes - I stopped working all the time and started doing normal hours. I started eating better, I cut out coffee (though I did indulge in decaff as a treat) and I even managed to completely stop drinking Diet Coke which is amazing considering I'd have at least 20-30oz a day (with the exception of a few happy hours, where I cheated and had a DC). I manged to keep some of these habits up for a bit even when I returned to work from FMLA, but slowly they started creeping back.  My good eating habits pretty much went out the window, fast-food has become a way too frequent part of my weekly routine.  DC and massive amounts of coffee fuel my everyday existence.   In January, shit hit the fan and I started smoking again at work (for what its worth, only at work).  I'm back working 11-12 hour days again, yesterday was beginning of week three of me coming into work at 4am.  I'm generally not taking very good care of myself.

So basically, I need to get my shit together.

I keep saying to myself it was so easy to stop these bad habits when I found out I was pregnant, because I wasn't doing it for myself I was doing it for the baby.  You know what?  Just because Ari isn't inside of me any longer doesn't mean he doesn't deserve to have a healthy mom.  You know what else?  I need to change for me.  I have taken some steps to work towards being a healthier Andrea.  I joined Weight Watchers, and I'm down about 15 pounds from when I started.  I've committed to not smoking, and so far today I haven't a smoke at all and only two yesterday and none over the weekend, and no one has been murdered yet.  I've started a couch-to-5k type program and I've committed to doing some sort of activity at least five times a week. When I've gotten my ass up and out, I feel much better. Not just physically but mentally as well.  The hardest thing I'm going to have to do is let go of the work baggage.  My work related stress drives so many of the other things, I have no choice but to let go.  I'm trying to reconcile the fact that I will never be as caught up at work as I would like to be even if I worked 24/7 and there will always be work related stress.  I stopped working all hours of the day when I found out I was pregnant, and you know what?  The office didn't close down, production did not stop.  All was well.  And you know what?   If I stop coming in at 4am, the office won't close down.  Production will not stop.  All will be well.

So this is it.  The last of making excuses and not pushing myself to change.  The last of saying "it was so easy when I was pregnant" or "I'll go to the gym tomorrow, I'm too tired".  I'm not pregnant, but being pregnant shouldn't be the only time in my life when I get my health in check.  There will always be a reason not to change, but none of them outweigh the reasons to change.  This is me, getting my shit together for my son, for my husband and above all, for myself.  And don't you worry, I'll keep you posted along the way.