When Selling Your Dream Home Becomes a Total Nightmare

I know we’ve mentioned it before, but this Austin Mom is soon going to become a Boston Mom (I will always consider myself an Austin Mom, though, so do expect to still hear from me!). Well the days are flying by and I now find myself with T-30 days left in my gorgeous city. You know that whole “everything’s bigger in Texas” thing? In my 11 years in Texas I never realized just how true that was until I signed the lease this morning on a 750 square foot, 2-bedroom apartment in the South End of Boston for my husband’s job relocation. No, I take that

back. Homes may be bigger in Texas, but the price tags are much, MUCH bigger in Boston.

Sticker shock and logistics aside (yes, the washer and dryer are in the bathroom in our new apartment, and yes, I realize that I’m lucky to even have them . . . and did I mention this  apartment is a third-floor walk-up??). Okay, so obviously I’m still processing the changes coming our way, but I don’t have time to dwell on that because I have a house to sell down here! There are tons of TV shows on HGTV about first-time home buyers, but I’m thinking there should be some about first-time home sellers. You know, watch them completely unravel under the stress of getting their house ready to sell. That’s some good entertainment right there! Throw a toddler and a dog in the mix and say sayonara to mama’s sanity!! I would TiVo that for sure.

Unfortunately I am a walking episode of that madness, so I put together a few tips for you to keep in your back pocket in case someday selling your dream house becomes a total nightmare.

1. Get out the checkbook. Touching up a paint spot takes on a new dimension of difficulty when you’re trying to keep your toddler from dumping over the paint can. Unless you have grandparents around that remember what it’s like (and sorry, but do they ever?) who will take your tiny tornadoes off your hands for a weekend while you DIY yourself into oblivion, then seriously, just pay someone else to do it. There are “make-ready” companies that will fix the towel rack your husband has been meaning to do for years at the same time that they clean your coffee stain off your ceiling (don’t ask). It may cost a little bit, but isn’t your sanity worth it?

2. Get firm. I’m a mom now. If a worker wants to come while she is sleeping then there are plenty others who want the job who respect my kid’s need for sleep, or at least see the crazy in my eye that tells them that hammering during nap time is NOT going to cut it. Moving can be stressful for kids, especially when our little ones feed off of our stress, and I’m just trying my best to keep her on her routine to cut down on that. If you can’t respect that, then there is someone else who will.

3. Ditto for showings. Sorry, Roger the Real Estate Agent. You see a crib in my pictures, so calling to see if you can show my house to your client in the next 30 minutes in between 12 and 2 just might not work. I turned down two showings today because of my faNAPisicm, and I don’t feel at all sorry.

4. A box a day. When we first met with our real estate agent, she gave us some great advice: just work on filling one box a day. I love those shows where people pull out tarps and make those organized piles of keep, toss, and sell . . . Well when I tried that business I just had a little helper who had a blast moving things from one pile to the other and then throwing things off our balcony. (I guess that was her “undecided” pile?) Grand-scale organization was off the table for me, but I could totally handle a box a day.

5. Go on vaca. After the mad dash to the finish line (getting the house actually on the market) we got the heck out of dodge. We didn’t really mean to do it– the house went on the market last Sunday and we had to go to San Antonio for a graduation party that afternoon– but then we just never came back. We were staying with family and planned on coming back Monday, but the thought of keeping that place spotless with a toddler and a dog sounded like a complete nightmare, so we bought some diapers, did some laundry, and went to SeaWorld. Best decision ever . . . I didn’t have to keep the place clean and rush out with the kid and the dog every time an agent came calling. In the meantime we got a few offers on the house (the Austin real estate market has turned in sellers’ favors in the past week), and I did not even have to be there for it!

Of course now all the emotions are hitting me– selling V’s first home– leaving all her neighborhood friends– losing that great park just steps away– saying goodbye to our yard and to my beloved Austin . . . But I can’t even go there or this will be a different blog entirely.

SOOOO, before I cry myself to sleep over here (although Ferber would approve of that, ha) what advice do YOU have for moving and selling your house, especially with kids around? And what about that cross-country drive???

I’m just wondering where the $8000 first-time home SELLER’s incentive is, President Obama? I could really use some cash to get myself to a spa after all this!! 😉