I always knew that moving would be stressful, but I didn't realized how incredibly stressful it would be. Basically, we had MONTHS of hard work - as soon as I had accepted the job in Montana back in March, we started picking away at packing and repairs. We picked up the pace in early April, and by the end of April we were working from the moment we got home from work each day until the moment we went to bed (which was later and later every night). We stopped all our hobbies - I didn't read a single book, nor did I bake a single cake or batch of cookies - for literally months. Both Husband and I confessed to feeling guilty every time we sat down, even if it was something we needed to do (like paying the few bills that aren't on autopay, or reading Kid her bedtime stories each night).
It. Was. Exhausting.
But we kept the end of May in our sites as a beacon of hope. We had been assured by our friends, our family, our coworkers, and every realtor we met with that our neighborhood was "hot" and it was the strongest seller's market our area had seen in decades. We were told to expect to sell our house immediately upon listing, and possibly even with multiple offers by the end of the first weekend.
So we made plans to list on Thursday, June 1 (rather than opening on Memorial Day weekend, which we were told is historically quite slow), and then promptly got out of town on Friday morning in order to allow for unlimited showings. In the following days, we remained cautiously optimistic and checked our phones regularly for updates on showings.
But it didn't sell! I think we were both a little flabbergasted. I know our expectations were high, but that was what we had been told to expect by EVERYONE! We tried to relax and remind ourselves that the median days on market was more like 20, but it was still hard not to worry. We were already under contract in Montana! We had a deadline for moving! We had to sell!!!
We had a few more showings the following work week, but surprisingly few the second weekend. At this point we (mostly I, but also with the support of Husband) started to freak out. We called an emergency meeting with our realtor on the second weekend Sunday and made a plan to regroup since time was of the essence: we dropped the price significantly, added a video tour, created "welcome home" brochures for showings, and we took it off the market for 24 hours so it would come on "fresh" at the lower price point.
Lowering the price by $20K was particularly hard. First, because we were lowering it to what we had originally planned on if we were going to do a FSBO, so it felt like we were paying a realtor a huge fee for nothing. Second, because we had heard time and again that the WORST thing you can do in selling a price is to start too high, because then buyers start to think something must be wrong with it and they expect an even lower price. Third, because we really thought that it was the right price we had chosen in the first place, if only we had had more time. But we didn't have more time, so we knew we had to do it.
Our house went back on the market on Tuesday, we had four showings scheduled for Wednesday, and on Wednesday night we got an offer for $5K over our asking price. Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!
We finalized the deal on Thursday (we just countered by $2K, which they accepted, and we also changed the closing date to what work work best for us), and on Friday we finally started to allow ourselves to relax.
Now we just have the inspection, the appraisal, and the closing to get through.... :)
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