04/06/2008
Selling Home
Well, today I thought I’d write about my experience so far at selling my house. Due to circumstances beyond my control I found myself in a situation that I have to sell my house. I can no longer manage it in various aspects {long story}.
The first thing I had to do was swallow my pride and tell somebody. So, I decided to tell Joe I figured if anyone would have a solution Joe would. He came over and went through my house. He told me we can fix it up enough to sell it. So he proceeded to tell me what to do next and when I would finish he would tell me what to do next. Now he has been working along side me but he also is pushing me. If it were not for Joe I’d still be sitting here thinking “OMG I have to sell my house!” but that’s as far as I would have gotten. One of the side effects to severe clinical depression is that you know what needs to be done but you don’t do it unless you’re pushed to do it. Joe kept asking me if he was over stepping his bounds. He kept saying if he was to tell him to back off and he will. I told him no, what he was doing was exactly what I needed. I needed somebody to take control because I felt like I lost all control.
Well, the first and hardest thing I had to do was to get rid of Sable. Now Sable is a Huge Pure Breed German Shephard weighing in at about 120 lbs and she was not fat. She was just huge. But I had her for six years, she was my partner, my roommate, my best friend, my company and my companion. There was no way I could put her down just so that I could sell my house and move. So I asked Fran if she could help me and she did. She told me about an adoption agency. I called the agency and they came and inspected and tested Sable and she passed the exam as well as the obedience test so they took her. I am not supposed to know this, but I do know that she has already been adopted too. This makes me feel good, I know she’s in a good home and being well taken care of.
Now, once I got rid of Sable the work began. Joe came over and we started our plan. His first plan was for me to clean up the house. He helped me to wash down the cupboards and he helped me with other things. He kept calling me and coming over and checking on me to make sure I was making progress. Once all that was finished he was very pleased with the way things looked and said the house was presentable and ready to sell. But I wanted to empty out the cellar first. So I rented a dumpster and Joe got a crew of men from church together and they threw everything in the cellar into the dumpster. The cellar is cleaner than it was when I bought the house. They not only threw everything away but they also vacuumed and swept up all the loose paint and dirt. A job that was just impossible for me to do was done for me.
Now I am ready to call a realtor. Joe had a name of a realtor so I called her. She made an appointment to meet with me and I told Joe. He offered to be here in the meeting if I wanted him to be. I was so relieved there just aren’t words to express how relieved I was. I said yes, I would love it if you would come to the meeting. I do not know the first thing of what I am doing. So he came over and sat in on the meeting. Then he asked some questions. One of his questions was is the house presentable for showing. The realtor said not really. She said it needed a “woman’s touch” and she suggested that I hire a cleaning woman to come in and really give the house a good lick and a promise. Once again Joe came to my rescue as he knew a lady who did just that. So he asked her and she agreed to come over and clean the house for me. She took two days but she did such a good job that I am afraid to touch anything.
She liked the house so much that she went home and told her sister all about it. I got a telephone call the next day wondering if she could bring her sister over to have a look at the house. I said sure that would be fine with me so they came and I showed the lady the house. She was real excited about the house and seemed genuinely interested in the house and asked for the realtor’s name and how to get in contact with her. So I gave her all the information she needed. Well, on that Friday the house was shown back to back to two people one of whom was this lady I showed the house to.
Then I got a telephone call and it was the realtor telling me that I had a bid on the house already and she wanted to know what my counter offer was. So, I played this game for a few rounds then I told the realtor that I thought haggling was rude so I made an offer and told the realtor to say that is my final offer. Which the lady accepted. So, the house is already sold. It only took two weeks and two showings to sell the house. I asked the realtor how come and she said because I did everything she told me to do.
So anyway now my job is to pack. I have so much stuff to pack that this is taking me forever to get anything done. It is harder than I thought I keep running out of breath. I have so many CD’s and so many DVD’s that it took three boxes just for them. Now I’ve been packing books and I still have one bookcase left to pack then the books will be all packed. All the house looks like now is just a bunch of boxes. The scenery around here is getting awfully boring with all these boxes to look at.
Joe has been such a help to me. He has done so many things and has done so much and I have called him so many times and he has come over so many times that there’s just no words to describe it all. I cannot believe how good this man is being to me. I cannot believe that there is actually somebody in this world willing to help me like this man is doing. And to be honest I want to pay him back but there’s just no way I can repay him for all he is doing for me.
Not only is he helping me with the house but he also is counseling me. He is literally counseling me one hour a week. Our relationship has gone from counseling to friendship and now it’s both counseling and friendship. He is just an amazing man.
Well, I think I wrote a lot and this is the short version. There are so many details that I have left out. I could write a book on all that has been going on. But again, I know if it were not for Joe I’d still be sitting here thinking that I have to sell my house. But because he has been so willing to take charge the house is now sold. The closing is scheduled for May 1st so that really doesn’t give me much time to pack. I am packing as much as I can a day and it doesn’t seem like much but today I was looking around and it seems I really do have a lot of stuff packed. There’s still a long way to go but I am making progress. And to top it all off I weighed myself and I lost 10 lbs!! Wow! I was real excited about that and I can’t wait to tell Joe.
So, that is me for now. I know I will have more to write about selling the house about packing and about moving. All this is going to give me plenty to blog about. Until then…
