Over time, I've learned a few "tricks" when showing a home - especially when you have very little or NO notice. Allow me to share them with you....
Throw any extra stuff laying around the house, including the training potty because NO ONE wants to see that - YUCK!, in the back of your car before leaving.
It's the laundry baskets full of CLEAN clothes that you haven't had a chance to fold and put away yet. It's also the DIRTY clothes hamper removed from the boys' bedroom, both to "create" more floor space AND to remove the smell!
Stash extra "stuff" under the bed.
Or underneath the pile of pillows on your bed - that's a good hiding place, too -
And this new development didn't get started on schedule, and then the homes in the earliest phases weren't selling fast enough, either, so their "two-year-plan" was no longer a reality. But, we didn't mind because that gave us more time to stay in our current home like we had wanted to - and to build more equity/pay our mortgage down further and to save more money, etc.
And this new development was getting further and further behind schedule, and they weren't opening up later phases until their current phases were all sold which just wasn't happening very rapidly. The builder had been struggling through this project for four years trying to stay ahead of their bank obligations that they have on this development. It had certainly been a lot different from what they had projected from the very start of
this project. But, we had reached the point in our lives and the time that we had planned on moving. We had wanted to move BEFORE Ryan started High School, even while he was still in Jr. High, and get all the kids settled in schools before they got too old and it became harder to leave. So, we kind of gave up on the new build idea.
We had our Realtor show us many, many houses. On multiple occasions. We probably looked at 40 or more houses. The whole time, I had prayed that I would
KNOW when we saw the
RIGHT HOUSE. That
I would feel good about it. I was looking for the same experience I had when we walked into our current home - within my
first few steps into this house, I blurted out,
I LOVE IT! We even went back to a few houses a couple of times. One house even changed their kitchen paint to a neutral beige color since our Realtor had told their Realtor that we hated the
Orange Kitchen! But, the paint overhaul still didn't cause me to
feel good about it. There
WAS one house that
I thought was IT - my heart
stirred within me right there in the front foyer - but it turned out Matt had some
serious objections about it, mainly because on the drive up there, we passed
THREE BMWs - no lie! We even stopped looking for a while because we were kind of disheartened when we never could find
THE ONE that
I felt good about. On multiple occasions during this time, the thought/voice came to my mind,
You felt good about building [in the corn fields.] But, our current home wasn't selling anyway, so the urgency wasn't there.
So, time went on, and
we continued to look at houses. We had first included
four cities in our search; Bountiful, Centerville, Farmington, & Kaysville, but truth be told, whenever I thought about leaving Farmington,
I was SICK - even though Bountiful is my beloved Alma Mater! And then our oldest, Ryan, really started talking about how he didn't want to leave his school. At the time, his Jr. High fed into two different High Schools, and he said he'd be fine going to either of those since he had Jr. High friends going to both, so that narrowed down the cities where we could look and move down to
three.
AND THEN, our next son, Kyle, who typically is hesitant to tell his feelings, revealed that he
really didn't want to go to any other Jr. High except for the one we currently lived in the boundaries for, so that eliminated one more city from our search.
And then they changed the Jr. High boundaries, which left us with
only Farmington to work with. Which is
the place we LOVE and have
always felt the best about anyways. We just weren't finding the "perfect house" so we had tried to broaden our search. People were telling me there was no such thing as a perfect house. To which I silently thought,
Unless you build your own "perfect" house. Then the little girls begged to stay in
their same Elementary School...and then later, our same ward.
Now, where were we suppose to look for a house?
About 15 months ago, in Feb. 2011, our ward boundaries changed (enlarged) to
include the new build site. At that time, many of our ward members were asking us,
Why don't you build in the new neighborhood? Then you can still be in our same ward! Well, because, 5 1/2 yrs. after announcing the project, they were just
barely plowing some dirt roads into Phase 5. Our phase, Phase 6, was probably still
at least 2-3 years off, and we were ready to move
now. But, interestingly enough, the more people asked me that question, my answer began to change to,
We might. Who knows [if we'll ever be able to find an existing house we like and feel good about]. And the thought,
You felt good about building, was brought to my remembrance -
again! But, the new-build project didn't seem to be working out, so it didn't seem like a viable option.
Then 6 months later, I was released from my
Primary Presidency calling and immediately called to the
Young Women's Presidency in our ward.
In the Bishop's office, when I was extended the calling, sitting beside my husband, I remarked,
Does THIS mean I can't move?
To which the Bishopric member responded,
We hope so!
That day, the newly called Young Women's President came to talk to me. She shared with me the
very strong spiritual experience she had had when given the task of choosing counselors for her presidency. She said
MY NAME came to her mind and heart
immediately.
Strongly, almost forcefully.
Deliberately. And
without a doubt. She admitted to me she thought,
That's crazy! Her house is For Sale and she is going to move. But, she
knew. And she submitted my name anyways.
When she relayed that to me, it caused me to wonder also.....
WHY ME? What does this mean? Am I supposed to be HERE?
With that thought on my brain and with this new calling, it PUSHED me towards considering the building option again. It OPENED MY MIND to the idea that I could just change Phases. I had been stuck on Phase 6 all along, thinking it was that one or nothing. But, then, all of a sudden, Phase 5 began to be attractive to me - and I couldn't get it out of my mind.
We switched gears with our Realtor. Instead of looking at existing homes, we told her to now approach The Builder about making a deal with us to build in Phase 5. The finding-a-plan and the negotiating process took several months, but finally we came to terms and our plans were sent to the city for approval. And they got
stuck there -
for months! But, even that ended up being good because then the
great wind storm of Dec. 2011 came and took off our roof & siding and broke a window and we decided to take our home off the market - since it didn't exactly have great curb appeal in it's current condition. Then it took
4 1/2 months to fight with the Insurance company (and call a hundred times) to get all the repairs approved, paid for, and completed - all the while our new house had started to be built - and I was stressing because I knew we needed to get our current home back on the market! But, after it was all done, the projects, our new roof especially, really improved the look and condition of our home. So, the storm was really
in our favor! :) A $1,000 deductible for $15,000 worth of work!
We got our home back up For Sale in April - almost half-way into our new home's completion. We had always prayed, and fasted several times, that our home would sell, but at this time, Matt & I started to pray
even more fervently.
I was getting annoyed with the kid's prayers because they would go something like this,
Please help that our house will be clean and look good for those who come see it, so someone will want to buy it.
AND THEN THEY WOULD NEVER DO THEIR CHORES & COMPLAIN WHEN ASKED TO DO ANYTHING!
What? Did they think that the "house fairy" would come to visit and that every day the house would just magically clean itself all up?!!? I told Matt that we needed an "intervention" during our next Family
Home Evening. He gave a lesson using the scripture in
James 2:20,
Faith Without Works is Dead. To explain the meaning, we gave some examples:
What if you prayed,
Please bless me that I'll get straight A's on my report card. And then you never ever studied, did homework, or turned in assignments?
What if you prayed,
Please bless me that I'll lose weight. And then you sat around all day, inactive, pigging out on chips, Big Macs, and ice cream?
What if you prayed,
Please bless me to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. And then you never even opened up the book nor read one word?
They all were making fun of those scenarios and thought those "people" were RIDICULOUS! Then we informed them that
THEY were those "people" in the way they had been praying/failing to act.
It was definitely an,
"AH HA!" moment for them.
And then we spent the rest of Family Night clearing out closets and wiping down every floor board and shelf in our home!
We're ALL in this together! :) (Are you thinking about High School Musical now?)
As the days followed, they improved and started contributing to our home & family, so now I felt that their prayers were not
in vain. I did a calculation of our new home completion time and also the time it takes to complete a deal after an offer is received, and I came up with a deadline of June 8th
(Matt's Birthday) as the date we
HAD to sell our home by. And we started praying accordingly. (More like
pleading.)
Then during the first weekend in May, I went to a scrapbook retreat with a bunch of friends - something we do about 3X a year. During the course of talking about my situation, one friend told me it sounded like it was time for me to do what her Grandma always taught. Her Grandma swore by it. It was her
secret weapon in times when an
extra measure of blessings was needed, and
specifically when a house needed to sell. Her Grandma had done it - and it worked. Her parents had done it - and it worked. And she had done it - and it worked. (There's my
THREE witnesses!)
The secret is THIS:
DOUBLE your Fast Offering.
Don't just increase it by 15%. Or 20%. Or 30%. Or even 50%. Completely
DOUBLE it.
(I had never heard of this theory in regards to selling a house. And I was
intrigued!)
I texted Matt the idea, to which he immediately replied,
OK.
And the following day
just happened to be Fast Sunday. Perfect!
I have heard it said of
Tithing before that it is not a principle of
MONEY, but rather it is a principle of
FAITH. That came to my mind when I was embracing my friend's Grandma's "golden nugget of knowledge." Yes, doubling our Fast Offering
DID involve money, but it was
really another way - a harder way, a more out-of-our-comfort-zone way for us to demonstrate our FAITH to Heavenly Father. It was something
in addition to the prayer and fasting that we had already been doing for a while.
And it brought our desired results! 15 days before our deadline!
And talk about TIMING, the people who we have an accepted offer with, are in a contract with their current apartment until July 31st, so aren't in a rush to move. That is the same time our new house will be done. They have agreed to close in June (more security for us) but let us live here until July (more convenience for us with only moving once!) AND we have two "back-up" offers.
Sure, I posted about some
changes we made to our home, which surely helped the appearance, but I
believe the
real reason, or the beginning of getting the ball rolling is the Fast Offering part. Clearly those ideas/inspiration came to me
after showing forth the necessary faith. Other home selling strategies felt right to us, also,
as a result of our actions....which all worked together to lead to a SALE!
And the fact that each of these circumstances, thoughts, events, conversations, and opportunities happened in the
just the way that they did, over the last 7 years, led us to exactly the point where we are
right now.
My mom used to always say,
There are no coincidences. Everything happens for a reason.
The Lord is in charge.
