Real estate update

Like my friend Jess over at Sassy Pants, I've been resisting the urge to use my blog as a real estate diary. I'm trying to pretend there is more to my life right now than Windex-ing, vacuuming, picking up after my kids, leaving my counter tops spotless, and making sure the fake flowers are arranged just right. However, enough of you have asked what the latest is in our endeavor to sell our condo, so I suppose it's time for an update...

Days on the Market: 38
Number of showings: 14 (with the 15th scheduled for tomorrow afternoon)

We had a couple of dry weeks in the middle of June with no showings. I started to grow lazy, apathetic, pessimistic in letting the place go. I didn't worry too much about making sure things were cleaned up before we left the house every single time.

But on Friday it came back to bite me. I got a call for a showing with only 45 minutes notice. Yikes! Fortunately both kids were napping, so I raced around, putting things away, stashing stuff in the dishwasher and clothes dryer, and making the place presentable. I wasn't able to get to the floors, but the kitchen looked pretty good, and the beds were made. I've been trying to leave home at least 10 minutes before the showing times, but I had just woken the kids up and had them by the front door while I got my purse and keys when I heard voices in our stairwell. For those who may be seeking advice on showing you home, the way to greet potential buyers is NOT by a frumpy-haired girl, a crying baby boy, and a sweaty mom. They admitted they were early and graciously said they'd take a look outside for a few minutes as we made our way out. Ugh.

Saturday's showing went a bit better. John was out of town, so I took the kids out to the mall to burn some energy in the A/C on a hot Denver day. This time I walked out the door having left the condo in relatively good condition -- clean and presentable, but not perfect. (I did some deeper cleaning after we got home on Friday.) We had been at the mall a while and I was about to offer to buy Lucy lunch in the food court when I got a call for a showing. This time I had an hour and 15 minutes notice. We left the mall and went back home. I left the kids in the car for six minutes while I ran in to put away the highchair and the rabbit ears and a make sure it all looked good. Then I took them to Wendy's for lunch and afterward they both napped in the car while I read a magazine. Not bad!

On Sunday John was still out of town. I needed to run some errands and was going to try to make them fun since I had to drag the kids with me. This time, I left the condo in spic-and-span shape. Just in case. And when I got the call saying there was an agent currently in my neighborhood with some clients, asking how much time I needed before they could see our place, I was able to say with confidence, "Right now is fine! It's all theirs!" Beautiful!

During this past week we had two more evening showings, and another is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. The feedback we've gotten has been positive: priced right, beautiful unit, blah, blah blah. The biggest hangup is that we don't have a garage.

Please, people, if you MUST have a garage, DON'T come look at our condo and get our hopes up that you might actually be interested!!!

And so we continue to wait while we work on things like creative napping and practicing patience.