TheBanyanTree: Lessons Learned

[Margaret R. Kramer]

Our home is still languishing on the market.  Our real estate agent’s
contract is up in a week and a half.  I think our home is a bit over priced,
but after discussing it will Ray, I think it would cheaper for us to
re-carpet a couple of the rooms to get rid of the dog smell than it would be
for us to drop the price.  People who have looked at home have been staying
in our home longer, since Ray lurks outside while the house is being shown
and watches how long they stay in the house, but we haven’t had any bites.
One of the comments from this week’s showing was that we have too many
trees.  Well, I can’t do much about that.

Another thing that we’ve been discussing is putting the dogs down.  Both
dogs are 12 years old and fairly arthritic.  I think we’re about one or two
years away from putting them down anyway.  I’m not sure what to do about it.
We never had any problems with our dogs urinating in the house until
recently.  CoCo has been peeing on the downstairs carpet fairly regularly.
We do lock him up in his kennel, but he seems to do it in a sneaky kind of
way, so we can’t catch him at it.  The vet told Ray that CoCo is mad at us
about something, it doesn’t seem to be a health problem, but since CoCo can’
t tell us what’s bothering him, we can’t fix what he wants fixed.  Hence,
that’s where some of the smell is coming from, even though we’ve bought
about every dog pee cleaning supply there is.  We can’t have CoCo continue
to do this, but we can only buy new carpeting if he’s not around, so we
might have to put him down.  I guess we could take him to a shelter, but
they would put him down eventually as well anyway.

Saydi is another problem, since she can barely walk anymore.  I just feel
sick about it, but I can’t see any way around this, unless we just take the
house off the market and try again when the dogs pass away on their own
clock.  I know it’s also annoying to potential home buyers that the dogs are
kenneled in the house.  We have signs stating the dogs are there, but the
dogs do bark constantly at strange people in the house, and I’m sure that’s
irritating to someone trying to look at the place, but we have no where to
put them.  It would cost a fortune to board them and we really don’t know
anyone who would to take in two big dogs that shed constantly.  That is one
of the biggest lessons I’ve learned during this house selling process – dogs
are a detriment to selling a home.

So I spin like top, trying to decide what to do.  It’s agonizing and
inhumane and I don’t like to think about it.

Another lesson learned is that I will interview several agents before hiring
one.  My former co-worker’s recommendation didn’t work out.  Our realtor has
done the surface work, but in the areas where we’ve really needed her help,
such as the dogs, she is vague and lacks answers.  I’m surprised, since she’
s been in the business for so many years that she doesn’t offer better
direction.  I think the personality type which worked for my friend doesn’t
work for me, so I’ll try to get a better feel for an agent who can
understand where I’m coming from.

I want to know why houses aren’t selling in this area and what an agent will
do if the house is languishing on the market.  I want an agent who can give
me a direction instead of  vacillating between one extreme and another.  My
agent called me this week and went from perhaps we should the house
ourselves to wanting to change the commission to 7%!  She thought 7% would
bring in other agents, because the shared commission would be higher.  So
where does that leave me?!!!!  With no money!!!!!  I can’t believe she
actually suggested that!!!!!

Sometimes I feel like I’m doomed to stay in this house forever.  I wonder if
no matter what improvements we make, no one will buy this house.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy
enough people to make it worth the effort.  ~Herm Albright