A Glimpse at the Competition

GREAT NEWS!  My mom researched the other townhouses for sale in our area.  To protect the innocent, I'll just call them by letter names.
Property A: Exact same layout as ours, listed at $57,000- couldn't get in to see it because it already has 2 offers on it, so that's not our competition
Property B: Exact same layout as ours, listed at $79,900- couldn't get in to see it because it already has 1 offer on it.
Property C: Different layout, but still a 2 bedroom, 2 bath listed at $67,000- it's a bank owned property, and they have pulled it off the market temporarily presumably to do work on it.
Property D: Exact same layout as ours, listed at $74,500.  We walked through it.  It is not right by the pool, which to me is a selling point, but to a young buyer would not be nearly as cool.  The carpet is a teal blue throughout the house and smells like... a nursing home?  The kitchen is nicer than ours (boo) but our bathrooms are more up to date.  There is a really funky light hanging in the living room that matches the carpet and the front door.  I don't know the age of their air conditioning unit, but I doubt it is as new or as efficent as ours (just installed it in May/June).  So, this is our strong competitor. 
Property E:  It's on the other side of our community, listed at $99,000.  It doesn't have a garage- just a carport. (+1 for us).  The bedrooms are smaller (#1 for us) and the unit does not connect to the carport.  The fixtures in the bathroom are older, but their kitchen is bigger and nicer, and they have a really really nice patio area- with a nice mature tree to give shade.  And they have tile throughout the first floor. But this is priced $10,000 more than we would price ours (I think).
On a side note, it's weird to walk through other people's homes.  When they are not around, I mean.  Judging their lives, seeing if you could live like them, what you would do the same, what you would do differently.  Whether or not you like their tastes in furnishings, decorating.  Seeing their kids on the wall, vacation photos, books they read. Property E in particular has a baby boy- he has some of the same toys, some different.  Much harder to store these things in a smaller closet (both our bedrooms have walk-ins)
Definitely going to thin things out. I want the next owner to think it's easy to store everything in our place. (Not a lie at all- I have waaaay too much stuff)
So, now the pressure is on to get our listed now, not after the first of the year.

Location:E Driftwood Dr,Tempe,United States

Honey Do List

Well, my mom/realtor did a walk through of our place.  We got a laundry list of things that need to be fixed or updated.  The good news is that it is not as bad as we thought.  Yes, there are other places on the market for less than we were hoping to list our place.  However, it's going to take time to get our list of thing done.  So, we are going to list the house after the first of the year, and take our time to get the house done right.

You might be thinking: Good Lord!  You live in a townhouse!  It's only 1200 square feet- what could you possibly have to do to it?  Well....

1. Get a New Front Door
2. Make the front a little more welcoming.
3. Repaint the outside lamp
4. Paint the living room
5. new mirror in the downstair bathroom
6 New sink in kitchen
7. new countertop in kitchen
8. new garbage disposal
9. fix all the cabinets so that they close all the way
10. new sliding glass door or fix the lock on the one that we have
11. fix the seal on the door leading to the garage
12. remove the screens on the windows in the baby's room & the downstairs living room
13. wash the window treatments on the upstairs hall window.
14. Take some of the pictures on the wall down
15. thin out all the stuff
16. thin out the toys
17. Do a deeper cleaning- make sure there is no hair dye on the walls in the bathroom- my bad.
18. new countertop in the 2nd bathroom upstairs
19. Find a new spot for the desk in the master bedroom
20. Do something to make the patio area more.... appealing.

So yes, most of it is cosmetic and not all of it is very expensive, but it's going to be hard work, especially since I don't think I'll get much professional help... unless you count the therapist I'm gonna need

Realtor walk through

Well, my fabulous realtor/mom came today & brought us a Lou Malanati's pizza from Chicago for signing with her. Ha ha- as if we had a choice, but frankly, yes, I can be bought with the right pizza.
She also brought 3 listings she found on the MLS site- the site we don't have access to as lay people. Those places were listed well below what we wanted to ask. A bit disappointing, but what can you do?
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Ducking & Blocking From All the Hits

I talked my husband Andrew into getting the Realtor.com app for his phone. I have it on mine and it's just too fun to see what's for sale in the area.

But that came back to bite me in the butt this morning. He looked at what the other units in our community are selling for & needless to say, a few lofty dreams were dashed.

A few years back (before the real estate boom) he bought this place for 100k. At one point, he could have sold it for 180k.

Today, the three units identical to this one are listed from 57,000 to 79,000. We knew we would have to pay a "sign of the times" tax for trying to sell in this economy, but that would wipe us out of our down payment on the next house. We just can't take a hit like that. It wasn't happy news, and hung over out heads like a cloud.

My mom's coming in the morning to talk to us about listing this place. We have to keep optimistic about prospects until then. For now, I think it's best to power down our apps.

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Dreaming of a place

Today I went to see my friend Julie. She has a nice house with a cute little pool in the backyard. It's a great neighborhood. I sat on the edge of the pool with my daughter sitting next to me, both of us dangling our feet in the water. I thought, I could do this. I could have a little pool like with playdates. Sigh. This is the life. I took the long way home making mental notes of the communities I passed. It would be so great to live only a few minutes away from my friends. Looking forward to tomorrow: realtor/mom coming to really look at our place and tell us what we need to do to get it listing ready, and see what it could be listed for.


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New Adventures Await...

I left my job as a flight attendant to raise my daughter.  Let me be clear: I liked my job, and I love my daughter.  I honestly would have given everything to make that work together, but it didn't, and I had to make a hard choice.  

Time will tell if it's the right one.  

The best advice I received in deciding between my two happy lives was when picking between doing work and spending time with your kids, always pick your kids.  Your work will be there for you later.  I believe that was actually in reference to housework, but I applied it in my case.

My choice was somewhat abrupt too.  It now feels like it was ill thought out.  Especially when I realize that being a stay at home mom or SAHM  is more than playing with the baby and walking around the mall (which was how I spent my maternity leave)  I had to handle the house.  And in our case, the house was handling me.

2010 was the year of change in our lives.  We were engaged to be married, and happily dreaming of a future full of fun, laughter, and maybe some kids down the road.  By February, our fate was already sealed.  I had barely put the invitations in the mail when we found out we were pregnant, and all the horror that went with that- the morning sickness, the mood swings, the throwing up, the trips to the bathroom, the nausea, the getting sick anywhere and everywhere, the morning sickness that lasted nine months.  I gotta tell you it doesn't instill much confidence from the passengers in you when you already have your head in a sick bag during taxi out. 

Then come April was the big day: Our beautiful wedding and a trip to Ireland for the honeymoon.  In May (upon our return) I officially moved in. June held a new job for my husband which meant he was leaving a company he had been with for nearly 10 years to start anew. Best choice he could have made. 

In July, I stopped flying because I was considered high risk for early delivery & my doctor didn't want me stuck in Costa Rica or Mexico or Canada for that matter with a premature infant. But, she (a girl) hung out til October where after a somewhat dramatic birth, we got to bring her home.  And all her stuff. 

Who knew babies needed so much crap? And all that stuff started to accumulate into my husband's home.  I say my husband's home because it was the one I moved to, the one he has owned for 8 or 9 years.  It's a 40 year old condo in a really cute older community in the Phoenix area. And the place hasn't been touch really by me, because I never really felt completely comfortable to do so.  For instance, there are photos of race cars in my living room.  I don't like racing- it's loud and smelly in my opinion.  But to each his own... except that there are pictures of race cars in my living room.  And he loves them.  And there is no other place to put them.

We picked out the couch together, and yes, my books and bookshelves are in there.  But it is still not my house.  The only room that feels like me is the baby's room, which sadly was to be my office.  There are piles and piles of crafting crap in there, along with a cargo shipment of baby stuff from my sister- enough to last her until age 3.  But I picked the furniture and the wall color and hung little ladybug things in there, so it feels the most complete. (if not crowded) 

Now, comes the exciting part.  After much deliberation, we have decided to buy a new house!  There are several factors that go into that, I'm sure I will get into later, but the big one is space.  The condo is perfect for a young couple without kids, a single person with or without a room mate, or an older person or couple looking to downsize.  It is not good for 2 people that are attempting to combine 2 households and throwing a baby into the mix, let alone thinking about someday having a second child. My husband was in his mid twenties when he bought this place and lived here with his best friend from high school.  It has that laquer of bachelor pad I just can't scrub off the walls.

So here is our quest from start to finish(?) of selling our condo and buying a house and fixing up both.  I hope you will enjoy following our little journey home.