09.11.25 How We Sold Our House in Just Two Days

When we decided to sell the house and live in a 5th wheel, we knew we had a lot of work ahead of us getting the house ready to sell. We did a lot of things around the house to make it look appealing to everyone who saw it. That is called staging, which is the practice of styling and furnishing a property for sale in such a way as to enhance its attractiveness to potential buyers, allowing them to imagine themselves living there without all our stuff as distractions.

With that as our goal, we began going through the house, room by room, determining what we would keep and what could go in the yard sale. We rented storage space near the RV park in Livingston and moved everything we could to make every room and closet look neat, attractive, and not crowded.

One thing I did not like was removing all personal photos, religious decor, and political decor. I have no political decor, but the other two were all throughout the house. I am very open about my Christian faith, so removing those things grates on my nerves. But I did it!

In addition to following those guidelines, I also wanted the house to be as clean and spiffy as possible! Our list was extensive and took many hours over several days to complete.

We missed our first self-imposed deadline, but finally, on Wednesday, August 20th, we were ready to advertise the house!

I advertised on Facebook’s Marketplace and asked all our Facebook friends to share. I also posted it in 20 local Facebook groups. Many of our friends shared, and I really appreciated that! I sent text messages to everyone I know, including several young couples who were married this last year.

The plan was to attempt to sell it myself for a week. If it didn’t sell, we would list it with my fantastic agent, Jamie Johnson. Saving the commission we’d pay the agents would help us a lot in the future.

I’ve gone the “For Sale By Owner” route a few times before. I had success and enjoyed doing it that way. I wouldn’t recommend that everyone try that, though. We flipped houses years ago, and since I wanted to understand the selling process to prevent costly mistakes, I took the real estate course and passed it, giving me the knowledge I needed to be successful selling it myself. I was confident I could do it this time so off we went!

The house was on the market for only two days. Unbelievable! I initially thought that two months would be a quick sale, but two days, wow!!

One additional thing we did in the way of advertising was to locate the man who owns the property next door. I didn’t know his name so we went to the Tax Assessor’s office and they looked it up for us. Then I looked for him on Facebook and found 3 men by that name! I sent Facebook messages to all three. All three answered, but only one was the right one! He was very interested in seeing our home with his fiancée. Perseverance paid off!

The first day it was in the market, they came to see it. They wanted it! However, they couldn’t proceed with purchasing it until October. They said if it was still available in October, they would buy it!

At my recent yard sale, a young lady from church came to the house to pick up something, and she liked what we call “Our little slice of Heaven.” When we messaged her and her husband about the house being up for sale, they came that day! I gave them the tour of the inside and out. When we walked out the back door, I think they were sold. The beauty and serenity out here did the trick. They spent time inside checking it out without me being there. When they came outside, they said they wanted to buy it! We are so excited that it is them who are buying it. They also want to buy a lot of our furniture, which helps us and them tremendously! We signed the Agreement to Purchase and were on our way. They have an agent to whom we are paying a small commission and who has been handling all the sales paperwork.

We are making our way through the process now, having had the home inspection on Wednesday, September 3rd. That went well, and we have a short list of things to address. Short doesn’t mean inexpensive. The cost of repairing these items is mounting every day. I have lived here for several years, but I would never have thought there were issues requiring this kind of repairs in my home. I agreed to fix all of the listed repairs that were requested by the buyers. I want them to get the best house I can turn over to them.

The appraiser came today so we should have that information early next week.

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My oldest son, Chad, and grandson, Jacob, came over a couple of times to help us get things fixed and ready for the inspection. Everything they did passed with flying colors.

I laid out on my calendar all of the remaining projects we need to accomplish before the sale date. Today’s task was to finish going through everything in the kitchen, pantry, and laundry room, packing everything I don’t think we will need before we move. Our pantry may look empty, but it actually contains everything we will probably need before we move. Every day has a task so it’s not overwhelming, just well organized!

I’ve run out of packing boxes, so more arrived at our doorstep, thanks to Walmart delivery!

In the midst of all this, I had seven teeth pulled and a new bottom denture now lies on top of those wounds! My work around here has changed to small increments, followed by some rest. Thank goodness for pain medicine!

I’ve been selling several pieces of furniture on Marketplace. The house looks a bit empty, except that there are boxes in each room that are already packed. Today I sold our living room television with the stipulation that they pay half now and wait to pick it up until September 25th, so we can watch television as long as possible! It sold within a few hours, and many people were interested even with the stipulation. Our king-size mattress, box springs, and recliner sofa will be sold the same way, with half paid now, but they can’t be picked up until the act of sale date.

We are planning a second sale of all the things we can’t take with us to the RV. Stay tuned for that fun event. Friday evening, September 19th, from 3 to 7:30. No more hot days for this upcoming sales event! I might sell lemonade that evening! I’ve invited my friend Cindy to bring her yard sale stuff (she has a ton of it) to join me for this one. She has a friend who will join us for the yard sale fun! We’ll have lots to offer those who attend! I’ve already started advertising!

We made an offer on the fifth wheel we wanted, and it was accepted. We also reserved our lakefront RV spot at Lakeside RV Park. I’ll be sharing all about those two events in my next post.

LSU is going to beat Louisiana Tech at 6:30 pm this evening, so I’m wrapping this up to get ready for the big game! Of course, they did sonall is well in LSU sports land!

Ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear!