Thank you for your suggestions.

Trudy

Our main problem is that I sleep at night and my husband works the night shift (at home) so he's asleep from 3-11pm. That's why we bought first and planned on listing after it was vacant. You can specify showing times, but you always get a few people that think the rules don't apply to them. :)

I'm going out the last week of Nov. to get the paperwork done so I can start building. I'm soooooo excited!!!!

patty_cakes, good luck with your upcoming build. That sounds so exciting!

We had a stager give us a consultation today and he was really good. I think I need him when I decorate the new house - he'd let me know all the mistakes I was making! Ha.

The worst part for us is there really isn't any comps to give a good idea of what the price should be. All they can do is guess as not much has sold in the neighborhood. There are a few pending and the last sold ones were a couple of years ago.

Well OK. You can be an honorary member. We're pretty welcoming here, I think.

charlotte_sometimes,

It seems like just a few months ago you were moving to Austin and building. I hope you aren't competing with new construction on your sale of that house.

lyfia, where are you? Have you tried zillow.com to check on any prices of nearby homes?

bethesdamadman, yes, visits count too. :-)

The worst part is they all use the tax records as a base too, which for my area is nowhere near reality. Too boot I decided to go look at it and see that the tax records have only 2 baths listed (we have 3 full) and shows the garage as being a carport.

I'm guessing I could contact them and try to correct it. If I go through the zillow estimate it gives me more than than the realtor said. I do think it was the real quick sale price.

Just got an e-mail from a neighbors friend who is looking in the neighborhood. Cross your fingers that my house would be a good fit.

Our house is listed on the tax record as a 3 bed 1.5 bath, but it is really a 5 bed/3 full bath. We have a walkout lower level so the initial tax assesment (built in 1970s) must have added the rooms and divided by two; irregardless of what level the rooms are located-most living is upstairs). Some people we've met at the community beach appear to think we paid too much from the tax record, but they don't know the real size of the house. I'm not saying anything to get it adjusted, around here our taxes would go up another $2400 a year.

I don't care if the tax records are correct or not and if it really mattered I would pay the extra, but I would think it would be nice for the next owner to pay less in taxes.

charlotte_sometimes, can you give us any suggestions on what your stager said that might help us? Thank you!

We are in the Covered Bridge subdivision which is pretty much built out now. There are a few of the same model as ours on the market, but we are going to price ourselves competitively. One is extremely overpriced IMO and the other ones are missing our media room and we can price under them with more square footage.

Most of what the stager said was pretty specific to our house, but I'll try to think of a few things. He said to look for areas that feel "heavy" and lighten them. Like we have two dressers and an overstuffed chair along one wall of the bedroom and he suggested putting one dresser in the garage. He wanted half the books gone out of the bookcases. He suggested everything be in odd numbers. 3 mini paintings in a grouping, 5 books stacked sideways, etc. He definitely was into de-cluttering. There were a few areas that looked overly empty and he suggested greenery (which I took to mean plants, fake or real, not flowers) in those spots. He said it should be very clear what each room is. My art studio had a lot of stuff put away, and he wanted a painting set out on an easel so people could see how we used the room. Put away evidence of pets. White sheets are best, big fluffy pillows, and turn down the sheets at the corner like people are ready to climb into bed. He wanted us to add new mulch outdoors.

I guess he did say a lot! We aren't using him right now. We would be using him to bring in some furniture when we move in a few weeks. It was really nice of him to give us bonus advice! Our house may be a bit of a challenge. It's not very neutral. I'm an artist and went with a glass tile ocean colors backsplash in the kitchen. I have colorful rooms - teal, lavender, even a bright pink bedroom. Everything goes together and all the listing agents we interviewed said to not paint or change any colors, so we are hoping to find like minded spirit who likes light, bright and colorful! Keeping the price competitive won't hurt.

I'll be in Travis county, also.

So whatcha think? Date/time please? ;o)

Kats - The original post is old, so I'm thinking Patty_Cakes probably just revived it because of the title, which would be of interest to us locals.

As she said, we're pulling together a get-together and we'd love to meet new GardenWebbers in the area. We're a relatively 'safe' bunch ;-)

Susan

My email is linked on my member page. Shoot me a private email and I'll be sure to let you know any specifics when they happen. (If I don't answer, know you ended up in SPAM and please try again.)