Cherries & Gingham

I’ve not been doing a great job of keeping the ol’ blog updated recently. I say this, not by way of apology, because I very much doubt you’re all sitting there hitting the “refresh” button over and over again while muttering, “How long do I have to wait before I see another photo of Amber in a 50s-style skirt?” but mostly to prepare you all for the fact that this is going to be YET ANOTHER post about my attempt to sell my house. GOD.

The House Thing, as I think of it, is the main reason I haven’t been blogging here so much recently. It’s not the only reason, of course: there’s also my complete lack of inspiration when it comes to deciding what to wear (No, it didn’t escape my notice that this outfit is exactly the same as this one, just with different colours…), and my upcoming holiday, which is currently requiring me to write almost a month’s worth of blog posts in advance. Let’s be honest, though: it’s mostly The House Thing. And on that subject…

WHY WON’T SOMEONE BUY MY HOUSE ALREADY?!

Since the last time I wrote about this (so, a few days, then…) we’ve actually had quite a lot of interest in the house. We’ve had more viewings in the past couple of weeks than we had in the first month combined, and, even more encouragingly, the people who’ve been coming to see the house have seemed to really like it. Some of them came back for second viewings. Some of them came back for thirds. (THIRDS!) Some of them ticked the box on the feedback form which says, “Yes, I would totally be interested in buying this house! Where do I sign?” They were even liking the shoe shelves, which made for a pleasant change.

Despite all of this, we weren’t getting our hopes up. After what happened last month, we learned that … well, we learned that The Others are every bit as inexplicable in the realm of property as they are in everything else they do. Possibly more so. And honestly, it’s a good thing we learned that, because otherwise we’d have really gotten excited about those second and third (THIRD!) viewings, and those encouraging noises everyone was making. We’d have spent hours and hours (and hours, and hours…) wondering if they were going to make an offer, and when they would make it, and how much it would be, and then we’d have felt totally crushed when it all came to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Which is, of course, exactly what happened. Every time.

According to what I’ve been reading, we’re not the only ones in this position. Not only does the market just absolutely SUCK right now, the first time buyers (who are the people most likely to be interested in buying our place) are being super-cautious, and super-picky. They basically have so much choice that its seems to have paralysed them, and rather than picking the house they like most and buying it (LIKE WE DID.), they’re so terrified of making the wrong choice that they’re just circling endlessly around and around the same properties, doing second, third and sometimes more viewings, and never actually coming to a decision. There always seems to be one more house to see, then another, then another, and by the time they’re done, they’ve forgotten what the first set of houses were like, so they book second viewings with those, and the whole process starts again.

I have some amount of sympathy for this, obviously. I mean, I’m pretty indecisive myself. It sometimes takes me weeks of deliberating just to choose between two dresses, for God’s sake, and after all of that I’ll probably end up buying both, which you can’t really do with houses can you? So I get it. And I also get that it’s a huge decision, the most money you’ll ever spend on something, your happiness depends on it, blah, blah, blah. But even though on the outside I’m saying I understand, what I’m REALLY thinking here is, OH MY GOD, JUST MAKE A DECISION ALREADY. And also: BUY MY HOUSE. Because, seriously: as a buyer, I know that it’s a huge, huge decision, and not something to be taken lightly. But as a seller, there’s only so many times you can show the same set of people around the same house (We’re doing the viewings ourselves now, after someone turned up unexpectedly, and Terry managed to tap into a side of himself that has secretly always wanted to be a salesman, apparently…) before you start to wonder if they’re going to ask to move in next, “just to get a proper feel for the place”.

Just to add to the fun, that house we wanted? It’s still on the market. The seller let us know that the rental can be cancelled as long as he gives the tenants enough notice, so he’s still actively marketing it. This is good news for us, of course, but also bad news, because this week he started to market it even MORE actively than he’s been doing, which makes us worry that someone will come along and snap it up, while we’re still showing the same people around for the 15th time, only to have them decide that actually, they were never really that interested in the house after all.

Still: there are cherry shoes and there are gingham circle skirts. There’s also sunshine. Sunshine makes EVERYTHING seem better…