It’s Not About You
Fake fruit, how yummy!
One of my favorite shows, after House Hunters, is Get It Sold. People who are having trouble selling their house call in Sabrina Soto to stage it and get it sold. Hence, the title.
I’ve been watching since I got cable a few years ago, so I’ve seen a lot of episodes. It always starts out pretty much the same. People don’t know why their home isn’t selling. So, the cameras go inside.
A scene of crazy clutter, unfinished projects, and decorating from the early 90′s is the usual.
Sabrina goes in and the first thing she tells them is to get rid of the clutter. Then she de-personalizes and modernizes.
So when it came time to put my condo on the market I thought it would be no sweat.
I can’t stand clutter, so that wasn’t a problem. I moved the magazines I usually keep in the bathroom to a respectable spot on the coffee table and put the garbage can under the sink. All the photos of family and friends went in boxes and I re-organized my closets, just in case people peek.
And I thought I was done.
I was ready for the realtor to come in and tell me there wasn’t anything to do. I’d say, “Yeah, I watch a lot of HGTV.”
That wasn’t exactly how it happened.
My realtor is also a stager and she had her own ideas about how to set up my condo. She wanted to go for the model home look.
I thought mine already looked like a model home.
Apparently, I was wrong.
She brought in her own staging things to use. Some of it I loved right away. The stools were perfect for the breakfast bar and her idea to put my dining room table on an angle, genius.
I told her she was the expert and I trusted her, so I’d let her do what she thought was best.
And then she brought out a basket of fake fruit.
I almost stopped breathing. Plastic fruit in my house. The only place that belongs is in the pretend kitchens of pre-school and kindergarten classrooms. I think it’s tacky and weird. Not to mention the bad feng shui.
My face must’ve given me away because she told me that if I wasn’t comfortable with something, we didn’t have to use it.
I thought about it for a second, while she talked about color and bringing the eye around. She knew what she was doing. And this wasn’t about me.
I took a deep breath and told her it was fine.
I can live with fake fruit if that’s what it takes to sell my place.
But it is a strange feeling to live in a place that is set up for someblody else. A place that looks good in pictures and during showings, but doesn’t feel like home anymore.
And everyday when I walk into the kitchen and look at those plastic apples I have to remind myself, This isn’t about you!
Because it’s not, anymore.
Have you ever sold a home? How do you let go of something being yours? Do you ever struggle with giving up control over how things should be?
There always seems to be an awkward period when you are selling your home that it no longer feels like “home” or your own…but you are right, it’s all about the sale! When we sold our home the last time, I put a huge amount of stuff into storage…and the house felt so empty but deep down, I knew it made it look bigger and more inviting….and it sold in a week! So we do what we gotta do to make the sale. You are smart to be able to detach from it personally and do what’s smart. I never get why people on Get It Sold don’t see it themselves. LOL!!
Wow! A week is great! I don’t want mine to sell that fast, though, because I need a place to live until I move.
I am glad to know that the weird feeling is normal. Thanks!
I’ve never sold a home, but I actually feel this way about editing projects. When I do an edit or a critique for a client, I use MS Word track changes and often include a lot of comments and written feedback as well. I always send it back feeling like I’ve done my best to help make their work as good as it can possibly be. And then sometimes I see it once it’s out in the world, and find they ignored certain suggestions I felt were key. I’ve learned to remind myself that it’s really their baby and not mine. In the end, what they’re comfortable with goes because once it’s out of my hands and back into theirs, it belongs to them. Great post
Thanks for pointing out the connection to writing, Marcy. I guess that is something we’ll have to get used to. Because I have a feeling that if an agent or editor tells us to change something, it might not be a suggestion. I would think letting go of our babies would be hard! By babies, I mean stories, of course!
I like your attitude, Emma. As you point out, it’s worth some minor discomfort to show your property to its advantage. It’s also natural the place doesn’t feel like your home anymore–because you’ve already made the mental move to Miami.
So true! I have already made the move in my mind. It makes these gray days go by a lot faster.
This is a great attitude. At first when I read about the bowl of fruit, i thought why not put real fruit or something that you like– and then I realized just as you wrote it–that you’re right, it’s not about you. A little sad, but a little freeing, right? You’re getting closer to Florida Emma!
I feel the same way about fruit! Why not just use real?!? But, there must be some reason. Maybe the plastic fruit lobby has a lot of pull in the real estate community.
It is sad and freeing, both, which is such a weird combo. That pretty much describes life right now. I’m excited to go, but sad to leave people behind.
We’ve sold two homes, both of which we’d already moved out of before they went on the market. In both cases, the right person came along and paid about what we wanted.
Next year, we will be putting this house on the market and trying to sell it while we live here. I dread this with all my heart. Mainly my dread comes from the fact that I’m going to have to do what Natalie did–put a bunch of stuff in storage. My husband is a hobbyist. He makes beer; he reloads bullets; he does photography. Short story, we have a lot of stuff that isn’t junk, but it is clutter.
However, I want to get out of this house (and this neighborhood) so badly that I would put a basket of bronze doo doo on the dining room table if that would sell this house. LOL
Good luck, Emma!
A basket of bronze doo doo on the dining room table! Hilarious! I almost spit my coffee out when I read that. I think it probably would be easier to sell if I didn’t live here. I have a feeling of never having down time because someone could call at any moment and say they want to show my place. Or just show up. And I’m someone who likes to be in my pjs when I’m at home. Not exactly how I want to be running out of the house so it can be shown.
But, I want to move to Miami with all my heart. So I will remember the bronze doo doo! Thanks for that.
Staging our house made it the house I’d like to live in. No clutter, no kids toys everywhere.
I’m far too addicted to my stuff, but I’ve made strides.
There was a similar show in Canada called “Take this house and sell it” where the people would often get offended and argue about paint colours and certain changes to “their” house. And I’d yell at the TV, “You won’t want to live there anymore.”
It’s hard to let go. Good luck with the sale and move.
Yes, the nice decorations are fun to look at. But it’s the feeling of always having to be “on” that gets me. A friend came over the other day and I had to tell her not to use the new towels in the guest bathroom. They’re just for show. I remembered shows like that when I was listening to my realtor. I didn’t want to be one of those.