Likely everyone who wanted to keep their flowers blooming for a week or so longer covered them up before retiring for the evening last night. I’m glad I did since the flowers are enjoying this Fall weather in bringing forth more beautiful blooms. The day nearly flew by with the number of appointments I had since mid-morning. There’s likely a number of buyers out in the market attempting to get themselves settled before the holidays. There were more people at my public open house today and likely so due to the price reduction that was just signed earlier this week. That home is much larger than it appears from the outside and certainly is one of the cleanest I’ve had listed in quite some time. I can’t stress enough the negative impact soiled homes have on final sale prices.
Some of my sellers listen and some don’t, and unfortunately some of those that listen really don’t know how to clean their homes to the point where a first look by a buyer would say, “Wow! This home is really clean.” That’s the point I would love every home I have listed to be. I can’t begin to tell how many times I’ve lifted a toilet seat in a vacant home and found fuzzy mold growing on the seat and around the bowl. As I’ve said, “Pets and homes don’t take care of themselves and when there’s a combination of neglect within, we’ve got trouble in River City.”
One of my clients purchased a home some months ago that he’s been working on and believe me, the human filth and cat hair everywhere was enough to make my eyes burn. I said to him when I first viewed it, “The overwhelming smell of cat urine in this house makes me think this to be the home of Pussy Galore.” I was shocked when he told me there was only one cat in the house because the smell reminded me of a house that I’d been in years ago that was filled with a dozen or so. The previous owners likely did little or no cleaning up after themselves or their cat. The return air vents were even matted with hair. He mentioned one of the neighbors saying she didn’t even want to go to their front door because of the cat smell making its way to the outside.
While out driving this evening, I noticed a great deal of lighted Halloween decorations at many homes. I’ve noticed each year more people decorating for Halloween as well as there being a rise in adult Halloween parties. I used to get invited to some but after a while people realized I’m not so much into the party scene. Halloween parties are meant more for the younger crowd who’ve not yet had their fill.
Late this afternoon I ran into the daughter of a long term client whom I’ve done work for and asked how her mother is doing. She said, “She still has her mind but her body is growing more weak and frail.” Her mother will be 97 in a few months and I really do like listening to her vivid recollections of what life was like when she was a young woman. Since she’s in her advanced years, she’s become all the more matter of fact regarding happenings in those times. She had a relatively large number of children even for those years, and all seven of them are still alive. Once she said, “Every once in a while someone in my family would say something about me having so many children and I would sharpen my tongue and tell them that all my children were gifts of love.” What a wonderful way to describe one’s choice to bring a child into this world.
