House Sold!

One of the more stressful and oft-times mind-boggling experiences I could think of is selling a house.  I remember as a child, my father carting us across Canada and into the United States as he was posted from one military position to another.  From a child’s perspective, things were an adventure whenever we moved, every two or three years or so.  I distinctly enjoyed the prospect of discovering a new house and city, making new friends and just generally making the best of things.

My parents were extremely supportive of my sister and I, and I suppose they appreciated my mostly positive attitude to the whole endeavor.  I certainly could have made things much worse, as some of my friends did with their folks.  I developed a very outgoing personality early on and moving simply reinforced it.  I know my sister didn’t quite develop my outlook or facility, but she lived through as I suppose the majority have.

As a homeowner, I found the process of buying a house somewhat archaic and hidden behind a veil or ritual; the real estate agents are the key masters and the gatekeepers.  On the seller’s side this time around, it was a wholly different and sometimes wildly frustrating experience.  With their commission, they hold you beholden to their experience and tradecraft, if you could call it that; mystics in the art of selling a house.  I like a dose of fantasy in my reading and certainly in my writing.  Not when it comes to buying my house, thank you very much!

I did the research in home pricing, and we visited numerous potential homes.  Time and again, we found something rather significant that struck it from the list or made it distant thirds to whatever houses we still may have had on our list to visit.  When it came to selling mine, I didn’t skimp on the research either.  The market was working against us, and our style of house.  I didn’t expect our real estate agent to be causing additional friction to the sale, yet she did.  Nothing earth shattering, but an annoyance none-the-less.  After it all, we sold our home, an experience that left my wife infinitely more drained than I.

All this to say, it is finally off the market, a four-letter placard proudly standing on top of the real estate sign in our front yard.  One of the best and most sought after four-letter words any home owner in our circumstance could hope for: SOLD.

And with a bit of mysticism, things seem right again in the world; my wife is certainly the better for it.