We’re admitting to a poorly timed project that actually made our house look worse just before it went on the market. Whoops. In this post we also explain the different ways we’re selling three homes—two with an agent and one without—and why we chose each path. We describe why we paid for a pre-inspection on our Richmond property and how that influenced our listing preparations. Plus, Sherry shares an unconventional (and accidental) trick she used to declutter her digital life.
You can also find this episode on your favorite podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, and Spotify.
What’s New
- Our garage has never been this clean, empty, or cobweb-free since we moved in. That’s because we spent time getting the house ready for real estate showings that took place this past weekend.
- Sherry also referenced her post on staging your home for sale, which includes detailed tips for decluttering, neutralizing, and deep-cleaning before listing, plus low-cost DIY projects you can tackle yourself. In one room she simply edited down the furniture—swapping pieces with a nearby family room—and suggested a fresh wall and fireplace color. Here’s the before:
- And here’s the after. Nothing was purchased—everything was borrowed from other rooms and pared back. The space might look a bit sparse, but it also looks much larger. Remember: you’re selling the house, not the furniture. That home went under contract one day after hitting the market following staging.
- If you’re weighing whether to hire a real estate agent, we explore that in more depth in an earlier episode, including mistakes we made selling our first house on our own. We also documented selling our second house by owner and shared general FSBO tips. This week’s podcast explains why we chose agent-assisted sales for two of our three homes and a for-sale-by-owner approach for the other.
- We’ve shared a checklist of steps we took to prepare our last house for sale, and we plan to compile similar prep notes for this house too.
- There’s a whole Moving, Selling & Buying category on our site with posts that cover the process from many angles if you want a deeper dive.
Well That’s Embarrassing
- This is the sorry state of our backyard after we had to reroute the electrical line to the shed a few weeks ago. With better timing or a different season it might have greened up before listing, but at least the shed now has power.
We’re Digging
- We recently started playing Blokus, a game a friend recommended. Both our 5- and 9-year-old picked it up quickly (and both have beaten me!). It’s easy to set up and plays fast, so it’s been a fun addition to our game closet.
- If you missed the Teamocil reference Sherry sang about—“There’s no ‘I’ in Teamocil, at least not where you’d think!”—it appears at the start of a musical montage in Arrested Development.
If you want to revisit anything we’ve recommended in past episodes, there’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from earlier shows. We also maintain a Book Club page with all the books we’ve suggested.
Finally, thanks to Agility Bed for sponsoring this episode. They offered a discount promotion for listeners and related savings during the promotional period.
Thanks for listening, everyone!
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