Marketing our property

It was now time to go public! First, oodles of photographs were taken and edited, showing booklets and brochures were prepared, web pages were created and following my own advice, we decluttered, staged and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. We ended the long term lease that we had had on the guest house, refinished floors, replaced appliances, shampooed rugs, bought new bedding and towels, removed many personal items, weeded the gardens, resurfaced the driveway, filled the flower pots and mowed acres of lawn. We were ready!

After every showing we had, and there were many, our hopes were raised, at least momentarily. Buyers are generally kind, making positive comments and showing interest even if the house was not exactly what they were looking for. Some came back for a 2nd, 3rd and even 4th time but ultimately as the months and then years wore on we became discouraged. We kept reminding ourselves that there was the perfect buyer out there somewhere and in the meantime we could continue to enjoy our very clean house and beautiful land.

At the two year mark we thought we had the buyer and all indications were that an offer was forthcoming. We started to make plans. Even knowing how tenuous all deals can be we still wanted to believe that this was going to be the one. Until this point we had only sketched out our ideas for the new house and had barely looked at them in the preceding 24 months. Now we were poring over them nightly. It was exciting.

But it was not to be! The potential buyers fell by the wayside and we were back to square one and not even any the wiser. This real estate market is not for the faint of heart. The ups and downs, hopes and disappointments take their toll on even the most seasoned sellers. We were in it for the long haul and were able to be patient, but sadly, not all are as fortunate.

Another year and another buyer came and went before the new owners of our property finally surfaced. On November 3, 2011 we handed over the keys to a wonderful family with ties to not only this area but also to our family. They are indeed the perfect buyers and worth waiting for.