Confession: My name is Mary and I am an HGTV addict. One of my favorite shows is Love It or List It with Hilary Farr and David Visenten. (For the record, much better than Love It or List It too.) https://www.hgtv.com/shows/love-it-or-list-it
Mike thinks I enjoy watching HGTV for ideas to keep him busy, but the truth is that I enjoy seeing the transformation. The show begins with frustration and chaos and ends with relief and beauty. Everyone is happy.
When the fam began discussing moving in together, I longed for Hilary and David to appear and help us make the final decision: love it or list it.
Our house was located on a long, private cul-de-sac in a good school district. The yard was plenty big but manageable and included a much needed pool and patios both front and back. The house had a good amount of square footage for a family of five but was poorly laid out for two families. The kitchen was adequate for one cook but tight for two and for entertaining. Besides the small family room, the traditional closed concept discouraged guests from using the living room and dining room unless forced by the hostess.
I loved the master bedroom suite with a chaise lounge positioned by the bay window and the accompanying too-large en suite (honestly, we once hosted Sunday morning mimosas in the bathroom after a remodel). The other four bedrooms were decent sized, but we would need another bedroom with en suite for our needs.
Mike wanted to build an addition, but the house was already over-large for the neighborhood. My short stint in real estate had taught me that being the big house in a neighborhood of small-moderate sized homes is not good financially.
I scoured websites futilely searching for appropriate houses, to see if they even existed in our area. Then I went online to find a realtor. We needed someone with experience who knew the area and could handle multiple transactions (sell our house, buy a house, and sell or rent out ED’s). In addition, the economy was just recovering from the recession which hit real estate in our state quite hard. We needed someone who could deal with short-sales if needed. And I wanted them to know how to use technology; it just seemed important to me.
Having endured several moves over the years and tasting the business of real estate as a realtor, I highly recommend using a good realtor if you are considering property transfers. It is much more complex than most of us realize. I know few people who afford to lose a large amount of money in a poor real estate transaction.
Next time: Hilary and David did not show up, but we did find a realtor.
