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We're on the market (and a ?)
I haven't posted in a while; we've had so much drama with our sellers and their idiot nephew realtor! But we finally got a signed contract with them last week, we changed our offer to "as is" at a lower price.
Since we have two kids we didn't want to go on the market in early Jan like we planned just in case we got an offer right away and had to find temporary housing. So we pushed it back to yesterday and today was our Dealer's Open. I guess we had a really good turn out with lots of very positive feedback. Which is a relief because I have been a nervous wreck the past two days!
How much notice did you request before showings? We asked for 1 hr notice and I figured I could drive around for naptimes if need be. But so far today everyone is calling and only giving 1 hr notice. My REA said we could expect between 12-20 showings the first two weeks at least. I want to be as flexible as possible, but I wonder if maybe I ought to ask for more notice? That is a lot of having to get out of the house with only an hour's notice, and I'm not sure how long my children (and I) can deal with that before we become a cranky mess.
Also, did you eat out every night while you were on the market just to keep things tidier/easier?
Re: We're on the market (and a ?)
We requested 24 hr notice because we have a LO and a dog. It was never a problem (that we know of) and actually seems pretty standard.
Your house could be on the market for way too long to eat out every night. We were on the market for 2 months and lived our lives as usual, but made sure we cleaned really well every night before bed.
I honestly can't believe the nerve of people who give such short notice. As a buyer, I can't even imagine a senario in which my husband and I would be able to see a house with such sort notice. Sorry about the vent. Our house is sold and I went through this myself and I just don't understand it.
I think it's completely reasonable to ask for at least 1 hr notice. Heck, there are people with pets who need 24hr notice. If people are truely interested in seeing your house, they will wait 1 hr.
We did eat out a lot when we had showings around 5:00 or 6:00. Although that did not happen very often so it wasn't a big deal for us. I agree with the pp, you will go poor if you have a lot of showings and eat out all the time. Just make those nights easy meals. Try to do prep for dinner during the day so you aren't doing it in the evening, that helps keep the cleanup to a minimum.
I also cannot imagine requesting a showing with less than an hour notice. I always figured at least 24 hours for the most part- I needed to coordinate my schedule, my realtors, their realtors and the seller's. Every once and a while it worked out scheduling something the evening before for the next morning- but never would I expect an hour!
I'm sooo thankful that we'll be listing our place a couple of days after we move!!! Unfort. there won't be any bedroom furniture, oh well.
Our house is on the market and we have a 24 hour notice. We have two kids, a dog, and both DH and I work full time (45 minutes away). It hasn't seemed to be a problem. We have had a couple showings with less that 24 hours (45 minutes - 3 hours) but have never said no. We've just made it work!
I would honestly suggest doing at least a 12 hour notice. You'll get calls for showings at all hours of the day. We've had showings as early as 8:00am and as late as 8:30 pm. Showings during nap time are the worst! It's hard to do it with short notice with the kids.
As far as keeping the house tidy, it's honestly been pretty miserable. I'm quite anal as it is and keeping the house "showing ready" is getting ready to put me over the edge. I try to get everything cleaned up after the kids go to bed just in case we get a call for a showing he next day. We have a showing tomorrow (keep your fingers crossed!) and just ordered pizza for dinner to make it easier on us.