HennyPenny's random thoughts. New set of goals!

[keljonma]

Golden Campines are the prettiest chicks I've ever seen....

 

[Beekissed]

Henny, your chickens are beautiful!!! I like the fat gals!

 

[hennypenny9]

Today's the day for rants, not really much to do with SS, I hate to say.

-I find it terribly rude to chat on a cell phone while expecting a clerk to help you. If I had my way, I would not help anyone as they talk about their boyfriend problems to their sister.

-Cat decided to use a newly re-potted plant as a litter box. My only thought is the amount of fresh soil was tempting, because he's never done that before. Lots of time spent trying to save the silly plant.

-Someone buy the house, this is driving me nuts.

My one redeeming thing I did, was NOT to stop at Subway as I really wanted to. Oh, and I checked my accounts on Mint.com. It's this really cool (free!) site that tracks your spending. It only really works if you don't use very much cash, though. It breaks everything up into categories like bills and utilities, groceries, entertainment, restaurants, gas and fuel... It's nice because I can see not only how much I spent on groceries this month, but last month and so on. I used it to figure this months spending.

72% of my spending was on utilities and bills.
18% on groceries
3% on entertainment
3% on shopping (JoAnn's and Dollar Store)
2% on fuel
2% on miscellaneous (Goodwill)

This is why my energy/natural gas bill needs to go down! Yuck.

 

[keljonma]

Keeping track of your expenses is always a good idea.

We used to have a cat many years ago that always used the potted plants for litter box. I got so sick of transplanting that she was transplanted to a friend's farm.

 

[hennypenny9]

So the house I live in is for sale. I may not have mentioned this, but the house next door (which is owned by a realtor as a vacation home) came on sale a day before ours. It's vacant, about 50 sq ft larger and has a three car garage. All those factors work against us. Plus, this person has owned it for at least 10 years. So she could take a larger loss than we can. What I mean by that is that at this point, we may have to sell for LESS than we bought it for. But if we do, then we have to pay off the mortgage. So if we take a $10,000 loss, we'd have to pay $10,000 right now. Well, we can't do that, since we're BROKE. Which is why we're selling the house.

I'd like to mention that we did not buy more house than we could afford. My parent's business was SLAMMED by the economic crisis within the past six months. We bought the house almost three years ago, and were totally fine until now. They own a roofing business, and consistently paid extra on the mortgage until recently. The construction industry is horrible right now. Anyway, some people bought when they shouldn't have, but in my opinion, we did not.

We're having at least three open houses this month, and we're already lowering the price. It's been on sale a little less then two months. This process is depressing. I just want to move and be done with it. I want to move where I can get chickens, plant a garden and flowers, and settle in.

 

[keljonma]

Many people are in that same situation, HP. When times are hard you just have to be more creative. Sometimes a house that just looks loved will sell over one that doesn't.

One time a realtor told us that a person who came to the open house of our suburban home didn't like seeing the dog's bed in the laundry room - because she hates animals. She ranted quite a bit at the realtor that there should have been a sign in the front yard that fur-bearing animals lived IN the house.

One year we bought 25 Easter lillies for $1 each after Easter and then planted them in the gardens around the property. They come up every year without much care, and add a lot of beauty to the gardens.

You could still have flowers and a garden where you are. And it might help you feel less "blah" about being there. Put every thing you plant into containers, and then you can take them with you when you sell. We've had veggie gardens in containers on apartment balconies in the past.

 

[Farmfresh]

I sold Real Estate for about six years. I quit because I got tired of working 24/7 - good money, but money is NOT everything!

I would tell my clients to make the house as empty and impersonal as possible (this helps people imagine their stuff inside the house and not look at YOUR belongings)...

as clean as possible (polish the toilet and the windows!)...

and as inviting as possible (plant a few annuals by the door, but get all of the plants you are keeping into pots and out in the back yard or to the new house, bake some homemade bread or cookies or make some stew for the prospective buyers food makes them think of home!).

And be GONE! (People will not REALLY dig into a home with the owners there. They want to look in closets and peek into the attic (this is why it all has to be clean).

Pay to have the home inspected and offer the inspection for all to see. (They will probably have one done anyway, so IF there are problems found the sooner the better).

Make a book with the utility bills in it and any major repair receipts. Put in the books for the furnace and any appliances you are leaving behind. (You can tell them that the furnace is a year old but they will only believe a receipt!)

People are very cautious when buying a house - that is a big commitment. By having everything looking like it is clean and well maintained and by being as open and honest about the house as possible, you remove those fears.

Which house would YOU rather buy? A cluttered dimly lit one where you had to guess about the basement and closets so full you could only see the clothes - or a sparkly house with scrubbed basement ("if they keep the basement floor THIS clean they must really keep up with the big stuff" ACTUAL QUOTE) and a ready to see inspection and utility record?

Sadly the agent can only get people there - YOU are the one who REALLY has to WORK on selling the house. (Although the really good agents even help with that stuff. A friend of mine even repaired garage doors and painted to sell his properties!)

 

[Farmfresh]

One more thing ... paint! New paint makes a house look crisp, clean, and costs relatively little.

I love color in a house... buyers don't.

I showed a BEAUTIFUL house - all of the bells and whistles in a GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD and a GREAT PRICE. No one would even make an offer. The owners of the house were middle eastern (and affluent) and they loved color. The rooms were very tastefully done, but the walls were mostly jewel tones. MUCH TOO sheik for the Joe Blow buyer. They finally painted - white. The house sold the NEXT day!

 

[hennypenny9]

Thanks! The house is as clean as I can make it. We had the carpets cleaned. All windows clean and blinds open. All rooms but two accent walls are neutral. The lawn looks nice, and there are bulbs blooming on the walk to the front door. I need to weed a little, but I will finish that before the open house this weekend. I don't have any personal pictures up, just some landscapes. Nothing on the kitchen counter except the coffee maker and toaster. I'm never home during a showing, because when I looked I HATED when the owner was home! Even the closets look neat. My Realtor really liked how nice I keep the pantries. I organize alphabetically, lol.

We got the outside trim painted, and what I huge difference it makes!

The house next door never has it's blinds up, when we looked at it it was dark looking. The trim is flaking off. The outside has no flowers or anything but some scrubs, and beauty bark. BUT it is vacant. (easier to show, looks larger with no furniture?) So for whatever reason, they have a person interested.

As far as I'm concerned, I've done everything I can. I even bake cookies before an open house, or simmer orange peels in a pot. (Cheaper than cookies, and just throw the pot in the oven-smells better than a plug-in scent) It's frustrating because we get the feedback and they have nothing negative to say about the house! At the end they usually say "buyer is not interested enough to make an offer at this time." So I dunno what else I can fix!

We still have our inspection from when we bought it, about two years ago I think. Maybe three.

Also, the neutral color thing makes me crazy! When I was looking at houses, I didn't give a flip about color. We bought this house with a dark purple room, a dark maroon room, a dark pink room, and a dark brown room. I painted every single wall. Light sage green, beige, beige, and burnt orange. Yeah, I know, paint the orange. It's two small accent walls, that I would kill myself if I tried to paint again. KILL. I know that some people have a really hard time with it, but for the life of my I don't know why. Our Realtor says that the walls aren't a problem, so I'm going to leave it. It's hard to describe it, but I do totally know what you mean about neutral colors, and I think these walls are okay.

Anyway, thanks for your advice. I wish there was something new I could try, I but think I've done about all I can. :/

 

[Farmfresh]

Also, the neutral color thing makes me crazy! When I was looking at houses, I didn't give a flip about color. We bought this house with a dark purple room, a dark maroon room, a dark pink room, and a dark brown room. I painted every single wall. :/

My own house was entirely dark olive drab green, burnt orange and yucky brown.

We must both be visionaries!

It sounds like you are giving it your all. So now just sit tight and the right person WILL come.