Home Sweet Home

Last month, after a few years of looking for the 'right' place, my spouse and I purchased a new (actually 5-year old) house in suburban Des Moines.  We loved our residence of the past 22 years, which we located and built, but it was time to move on.

In those two decades, we've gone from a family of five with three teens or pre-teens, to a family of two.  We neither need nor want a large 2-story house on a big corner lot.  We want something newer and easier to maintain.

It's been a while since I've been engaged in all that comes with selling and buying a house.  Of course. I have a bulleted list of the my thoughts:

• After living in the same home with three children for 22 years, you accumulate A LOT of stuff.  Some of of it qualifies as valuable, some as keepsake, but way too much are long forgotten items with no reason to be kept, much less packed up and moved.  Get started early with packing.

• Even the keepsake items don't all deserve to be kept.  Some things I thought I'd keep until I was old to look back on as a fond memory.  And then I realized, that's what I'm doing right now!  So it was time for some of it to go.  It's hard, but take a picture and digitize it forever, and it'll be fine.

• Take it from me -- don't have a garage sale.  We did, but let's do some math.  If it takes two days to get it ready, two days for the sale, and one day to clean up what's left, that's five days times let's say eight hours equals 40 hours.  (A low guess.)  Then if you have very above-average sale of mostly $10 or $5 or $1 or less items, let's say you end up with $600.  That's $15 an hour -- not bad, but I value my time at 5x or 10x that.  It isn't worth it.  Sell the higher priced things, and donate or toss everything else. 

• As for the move in part, if at all possible, spend a few days cleaning and making any repairs to the new house when it's empty.  So much easier than maneuvering around boxes.  There's so much ancillary stuff to do anyway, like re-key the doors and connect the Wi-Fi.

• Last but not least and probably most, we need reform in the residential realtor industry.  Just a month ago the industry agreed to more transparency in the commissions they charge, but transparent doesn't mean less expensive.  Realtors have coalesced around the idea they are entitled to a 6% commission on the sale price, regardless of their time or effort.  There is no substantive negotiation about whether that commission percentage should apply based on the actual sale price or the length of time it might take to sell.  They think they deserve it, even before doing anything.  I think they should be embarrassed. 

It's tough to say goodbye to a place where so many milestones occurred.  That's what the memories are for.