Your foyer is absolutely beautiful! I'm assuming the rest of the interior is as much or more so. And I understand your wife feeling like this "The furniture and furnishings I can't touch!" So she'll need to decide if she'd rather have your home on the market longer or sell faster and "stage" it. For staging, I'd take all the furnishings out of the foyer except for the mirror and something on the mantel that would compliment your railing color and something that would compliment your wall color and that's it. And I'd put them together arranged in the middle of your mantel. You want the buyer to focus on the beauty of your house, not the beauty of your furnishings. You want them to be able to imagine their furnishings and pictures in your house. I'd do the same (stage) with the other rooms. Minimal furniture, minimal art. Nothing that is personal (such as family pictures, religious, etc.) It is a hard thing to do to stage your home for others. But it also helps with the separation of it not being your home soon. Think of someplace impersonal (like a model home). They have the furniture, pictures that compliment the color scheme, and a few well placed items that go with the overall effect of the room. That's it. That's so you can concentrate on the architecture of the house instead of how nice it was decorated. That's what you want. I'm sure you have the items in your home to bring about that effect. It might be worth talking to your wife about it or print out this thread and see what she thinks. Otherwise, like others have written, hopefully you will have a potential buyer come in that can visualize the house as their own regardless of what furnishings are in the rooms. Good luck!!

I certainly do.... I'm in nursing school with two children under the age of three and a husband who detests the word CLEAN. Sigh. I haven't managed to leave the house in show-ready condition every day- I just can't do it if I'm to study and care for the kids. We always operate on a keep-it-tidy and then clean-like-mad when an agent calls for a showing. Some days I think if an agent were to call and want to come over immediately I'd have to stall them somehow because it would be impossible. I actually had an agent call my cell phone last week, but I missed the call. I was getting ready for school and had just gotten the kids all packed and ready to go. Suddenly, my front door opens and it's an agent and a buyer wanting to look NOW. Aaaaah! Like I said, I haven't been able to keep up with leaving the house show-ready every day when I leave and this was one of those days. All of the bedding for the kids' beds was being washed, there were dishes in the sink, and toys strewn everywhere. I had to let them in. How embarrassing. Anyone else experience this? Or am I a total slacker?

Xine, I'm not too concerned about BofA, although dishonesty and not playing fair doesn't sit well with me. What I am concerned about is being a pawn in someone else's game. And if there is something dishonest going on with the first contract, I would like it to be declined by the bank. The home is wayyyyyyy underpriced, suspicously underporiced.........nothing in the neighborhood has sold for less than $140,000 (not even the towhomes one street over). And this home is in far nicer condition, on a larger lot, and newer than most of the others. I am prepared to up my offer to the bank, I just want a fair shake at it. I honestly don't believe that the agent/broker ever really intended to sell it on the MLS, I think everything has possibly been pre-arranged w/ the seller, including possibly cash on the side. (the seller purchased it as an 80/20 and HAD a second mortgage, which has mysteriously disappeared...she has been in dire financial straights and there was no way she could have paid that off on her own) I think the house might just be on the MLS to put a show on for the bank. Being encouraged (by the listing agent) to put in a backup offer is not fair play if this is all just a pre-arranged investor game. As for my financial housing situation...My current house is prepped and ready for sale, I just won't put it on the market until I have another house to go to. (I have 2 large dogs and a cat and being put in the position to have to find a rental that will want my menagerie does not seem feasible) My current home has no mortgage, and the new home is to be a cash purchase...so no mortgages are involved on either side of my housing equation.

marys1000, we were not getting the rate we wanted at the end of all the documentation and qualifying, our loan broker was not understanding what the delays and the rate issues were, this was a well known local broker and personal friend of our real estate agent, not an indymac loan officer. He was having delays and indecision, plus the rate wasnt what we wanted. We couldnt figure out what was going on because we thought that bank loved us, making a good easy hunk of money on us on two prior loans. But this one was with a different division, not the construction division, then Im not sure, our broker just said we cant close with this loan, so we started up with a different bank. It was like an Abbot Costello routine dealing with the re-verifying dept there, total chaos. They left my HR line a message, 2 mintues later I was returning the call, then while on the phone with the lady who left the message, another person from her department was calling me on a different line, they were all over their phones in a sort of rush. Very unorganized and chaotic over there. I dont know why but I got bad vibes right then that they were in some kind of rush. Anyway we werent getting the rate we wanted and should have been getting, so maybe thats why our broker went to another source right away, and then the news of what was going on at Indymac hit. Long ago for construction loans we tried WaMu, but their documentation was ridiculous if you wanted to GC yourself, you had to get 3 bids written on every aspect of the process, way too much hassle and paperwork, Indymac had a review process which took in local costs by cities and checked to see if you were in line or not, then questioned line by line if necessary. All in all they were reasonably responsible, so it would seem to me that the construction loan division should not be under scrutiny now, but with the current cautionary trends and changes leads me to believe it will almost be impossible now for someone to be an owner builder and get a construction loan with out actually hiring a GC and paying that extra money.What they did use was Buildmax, dont even know if they are around anymore, but they guided and helped you get your bids and helped to present the package, the first construction loan we used them at a cost of 3 to 4 thousand not sure, but then on the second loan my husband had already become a GC, so we didnt even use anyone like Buildmax and they had no trouble with our loan docs and bids etc. I think it was mostly getting in over their heads with debt like everyone else, then a run on the bank didnt help.