After returning from the Baja trip, we got busy getting our house ready for sale. We hired a guy to come trim the landscaping in our yard. Juan, originally from San Luis Potosi State in Mexico, made us feel like we were right back south of the border. He gave us an excellent price on the work, did a great job and worked very hard. We told him we wouldn’t be home when he finished so we could pay him ahead of time. He told us not to worry, he would come by some day and get the money.
After Juan trimmed all the hedges, shrubs, groundcover and trees the outside of the house looked great. We debated about painting the interior, but decided to check with some realtors first. We thought they could give us some idea of what we should do to improve saleability, and which things wouldn’t really help. We talked to four different agents about listing the house. It was a difficult decision but we ended up with James and Annette Burns who are with ReMax here in Waco. Besides being longtime friends of my parents, they came highly recommended by a woman who had both bought and sold homes through them.
They recommended continuing to declutter the house. We rented a storage space so as we packed boxes of things we want to move, we took them to the storage. We made plans for another garage sale, too. Annette recommended holding off on replacing the carpet, just getting it cleaned, so we did that. Harold wanted to wait until we had several rooms ready to paint so we hadn’t started painting yet. We listed the house on a Wednesday evening. We had agents bring people to see the house on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Each time, we had to take the dogs and go over to Mom and Dad’s to be out of the way.
Sunday afternoon, Annette brought a couple to see the house and they made an offer. Best of all, they weren’t asking for new carpet or interior painting. After a couple times back and forth we agreed on a sale price. I was nervous all during this process as it’s been 22 years since we bought that house so we were pretty unfamiliar with the process. After the price was negotiated, it was time for the inspection. In Texas, a buyer has the right to a period of time where they can back out of a purchase with no penalty. We finally agreed on who was paying for what and the contract was finalized. Altogether we ware happy with the negotiated price and especially that we don’t have to do any work to the house. Closing is set for August 26th.
Our garage sale went well. While I don’t think I like having one any better than before, we are definitely getting better at pricing and selling. We asked a friend of ours if she wanted to put anything in the sale. She brought some things and also hung around to help us. Having Peg and her son Jonathan there was nice. We could each take turns going inside to cool off and relax. After the garage slae, we loaded a bunch of things in the truck and took them to the Barkin’ Basement, a local thrift shop. We will have to have one more sale to get rid of the furniture we aren’t taking, right before we move out of the house.
We have continued sorting through and packing things. We pack a bunch of boxes, then take them over to the storage place. It seems like the more we pack, the more stuff there is left! Eventually we will get it whittled down. We have found it easy to part with some things and difficult to discard others. I think we are going to end up in Bucerias with a bunch of stuff we don’t need and nowhere toput it. Oh well, some group or another may need it for a bazaar.
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