Coming up for air

So, where to begin... Well, I guess the obvious place to begin is here: We've decided to sell our house. Or at least to attempt to sell our house. It's been a tough decision for a whole bunch of reasons. And what comes next is still a work in progress. But that's another post.

I don't know how it'll go really. To determine a fair market price, real estate agents normally look for comparable properties that have sold recently. But what to do when there aren't really any comparable properties?

We've got almost 9 acres. Most places around here are either under 5 acres or over 100. We've got a stocked pond. We've got tons of high quality fencing. We've got all the little things we've been doing that are hard to figure in. Some people would be thrilled to have dwarf fruit trees, or a chicken pen in the pole barn, or an arbor on the back of the house, or loads of extra insulation in the attic. Other people wouldn't care a bit.

And just to make it harder, there have hardly been any sales around here over the last couple years. This is an area with a low population density, and people who live here don't tend to move very often. In the four years since we moved in, I think only one house on our road has sold.

Not that people haven't tried, on occasion. But this is just a very low volume real estate market. Which may not bode well for us.

On the other hand, our place has a lot going for it, especially for the right kind of buyer.

Theoretically, we can come out ahead on this place, despite the rough market. But as with many things, you can't know the true worth of something until you have a buyer.

So that'll be interesting.

It's been a rough month or two for me. I was working 60-70 hour weeks for all of September and part of October, including at least five weekends in a row and a number of late nights, while at the same time trying to help get the house ready to sell. Four years worth of crap in the basement, including quite a few water-damaged items from a flooding incident. Half-finished projects that I wasn't sure what to do with. Leftover scraps and materials from finished projects. All the stains and marks and dings that kids can inflict on a house.

Throw in some midnight cow chasing, subsequent fence repairs (plural) and the resulting ruined garden, car repairs, computer repairs, fraudulent transactions in our bank account to the tune of over $2000... I guess you could say I'm a little tired.

Selling this place is the first in a long string of question marks. I'll get to more of this story as time and energy permit. But the good news is that we're in the home stretch on house prep.

Anybody want to buy a house?




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