White Knuckle Run

Got up Saturday morning to an e-mail from the realtor about a proposed house showing later in the day. Nothing like a hard deadline to get the gears engaged. We were close enough to feel okay about doing it, but it would be so much better if we could wrap up a few things.

We managed to wrangle our friend Jim over with his truck to help move the desk and credenza out of the office, which also gave him an opportunity to look at our broken sump pump at the new house. He confirmed its demise, by the way.

Stress  --  Upon leaving to return home a second showing was offered, this one a half hour earlier than the first. The next few hours were filled with us frantically getting the last things ready. Ultimately we had to let the garage go. It never seemed to be a big concern of the realtor anyway. At one point I looked up and realized the first showing was 30 minutes away. We frantically buttoned everything up and left, passing what I'm sure was the first realtor on the road out of our subdivision.

Contrived -- I got a text from our realtor in the middle of all this to leave a note for the first showing to leave lights on for the later showing. This was a tactic to let both know there had been another showing. I did it, of course, but....it kind of reminds me of a lot of the decor things we've done. Most of them are more attractive than practical or realistic. They just look contrived to me. A little of this goes a long way in my opinion. A bit too much and I begin to wonder what's being covered up. Why are they trying so hard to sell me this. Still, it's a fine line, and a lot of it works -- can't ignore proven practices.

Scorecard -- The house has been on the market for three days, and we've now had two showings. Not a bad start. It will be interesting to see if there is any feedback from those. I'd love to hear if there are a couple of easy things we could address that would make it show better. See?! I'm sucked in to the process myself. HA!