The next step to my escape was to put my house up for sale. For the last nineteen years, my home has been my safe space. Well, with the exception of my lousy, thoughtless, smelly, noisy neighbors. My first trip to Tucson produced no rental options which made selling my house absolutely frightening. "What happens if I end up homeless?" I bought a t-shirt with the saying, "Fear is Not Interesting" and wore it all summer, every day, to give me confidence and courage.
As I might have mentioned in a previous post, the prerequisite for listing the house was to get rid of my art history book collection totalling nearly 200 books. I started selling on e-Bay the year before. By the time May 2024 rolled around, I sold most of them, but I was left with a few boxes. I took them to the used bookstore in the university district and they bought all but a handful. The leftovers I took to Half Priced Books and unloaded. I was ready. Was I? Not really, but determined.
Selecting a real estate agent was a nightmare. I interviewed three from outside my county plus three from my area. I chose the least stinky who was from my town. She didn't smell of perfume or scented whatever, but she did smell of laundry chemicals. What was I to do? The other five never once even showed my house and the two from my area made a point not to show my house because my agent put right on the listing to be fragrance free as if they were offended by the request. How rude they can't go without stink for one day. I seriously didn't think my house would sell at all with all these challenges.
When I finally had the house photographed and listed, there were few houses on the market in my area and I was happy about that. By June nearly everyone I knew and most of the local population decided it was time to sell. The competition was gruesome especially watching my neighbors' houses sell while mine just sat there. However, I kept having complete strangers ask me if my house was the colorful one, the artistic one, the unusual one. They all claimed to love it and wished they could buy it. That gave me a little confidence, but I also know "unusual" can be a turn-off to many.
Although the listing requested people be fragrance free, this was ignored. It was frustrating. And smelly. I bought some new air purifier filters and ran them for hours once the stinkers left. Keeping my house spotless was a nightmare. Getting agents who would make an appointment, expect me to leave, and then not show was frustrating.
After four months I lowered the price $20K and for the next month I got ZERO showings. I lowered the price another $50K. I really thought I'd be able to hold out for a better price, but once the nightmare of showings and constantly cleaning started, I just wanted it to be over.
The fall season came too quickly along with the monsoon rains. I was so disheartened! Would I really be forced to live in cold and rain for another winter? I worried constantly what might go wrong with the house before someone would buy it. I worried about everything!
Finally, I got ONE offer. ONE! I negotiated a closing date of 50 days a little longer than the normal 30 days because I still wasn't sure I'd be able to find a safe rental. I was told the buyers could cancel right up until the closing date. It was so stressful not knowing if they'd cancel and I'd have a house and a rental to financially maintained. But it closed!! Whoo Hoo!
I feel exceptionally thankful! Now to find a place to live!
