I wish I knew how difficult it would be to handle putting my dogs away. For showings we ended up keeping one dog in her crate, and putting our big dog in the garage with a note on the door NOT to enter b/c of the dog, but that he would be removed for any second showings. The dogs did not handle the stress well, and on one particularly rough day with multiple showings, my big dog had diarrhea all over the garage. The HVAC unit was in the garage, and it was pulling the odor from the garage and wafting it through the vents all through the house. Niiiiiiiice.

I didn't expect to have multiple showings per day. That was HARD on all of us. You basically get dressed, clean the house, put the dogs away and leave for hours and hours.

Thankfully we sold in a week. I couldn't have handled that kind of stress for very long.

Probably the hardest thing I had to learn was that if you want to get your house sold, make sure the property is always available to view, even with a realtor calling from the driveway. When we sold our first home long ago, I insisted on 24 hour notice. That quickly went out the window when I'd get very short notice for a viewing. In this market it's even more important to be available. The number of homes on the market means if they can't see yours when they want to, they'll likely move onto the next one.

So keep your house neat and tidy, so that at the last minute you only have a few items to pick up or put away.

I wish I'd know how unpredictable/inconsiderate the agents and potential buyers would be. I, too, was in the position of having to get two kids and two dogs out of the house for showings, and try to keep the house clean and picked up. I had agents show up at my door without any appointment ("Oh, we were in the neighborhood and thought we'd stop in..."); this happened once when my toddler was sick and the agent didn't seem to care at all, still tried to come in the door! We had appointments who showed up ahead of time or, more often, way too late; after I'd been riding around in the car with kids and dogs in tow for 1 1/2 hours, I was furious to come home and find the agent had just pulled into the driveway ("Sorry, we just got a bit off schedule....). We also had a number of people who made appointments and never even showed - not even a phone call to cancel. My personal opinion is that many agents know you are desperate to sell your house, and don't have any problem with inconveniencing you, as the seller, because their priority is to make their commission and move on to their next sale. I know many of you on this forum are realtors, and I don't mean to lump all agents into one catagory - but our overriding experience was that most agents were very rude.

When I sold my mother's home, I learned so much the hard way. The problems I found are probaby not valid for most sellers, because they are selling property that has been sold before & has already been through a title company. My mom's property (2 lots) had never been sold before. So I would double check every detail that I would expect a realtor to take care of -- such as 1. Is my property financeable? -- way to late, I learned mine wasn't because one parcel was raw land. 2. Can I get title insurance for my property? 3. If the realtor is handling any details (such as survey issues), speak with the surveyor (or whoever) directly. 4. Have the realtor get you a preliminary title report immediately & check to see what liens are on the property. (I found out at close, that there was a bogus lien.)
So these were my main mistakes in selling. I encountered more realtor errors that anyone I know. So I would say that you need to double check every thing. These things happened in California

So now to my mistakes in buying.
My family needed a 2-family home in a very specific neighborhood in Colorado which had very little inventory -- we had been searching for around a year. I like the property we bought, but I ended up feeling like a huge doormat, we caved, & caved. I think that I should have walked away -- even though it would have caused other family members a lot of pain. I think that I was influenced too much by my realtor (who, of course, wanted the deal to close). So I would try to take all the emotion out of the buying propcess & make decisions based on good business sense. Make the realtor show comps & comps & comps & prove the price that they are promoting.

Good luck. I think that you're really smart to ask for the lessons others have learned.
Susan

Good info here. Keep it coming!

Reno fan, I have to ask if you have any more words of wisdom to share, given that you sold your house in a mere eight days. (!) I guess I shouldn't be surprised--I've always enjoyed your posts with examples of the beautiful work you've done with your home--but aside from having created a gorgeous home was there anything *else* that helped sell it so quickly? Is your market not as tough as most out there or did you price it/promote it in some way that helped?

We learned alot over the years. We've bought and sold seven homes in different parts of the country over the last 30 yrs. all due to job changes.

The biggest thing I think we learned is to trust your gut whether you are buying or selling.

Always allow for a cushion in your time line.

Stay on top of people, make sure papers get where they are suppose to be even if it means making a pest of yourself and calling about due dates and times.

ALWAYS double check the paperwork/math yourself. Won't tell you how many errors we've found in the math alone!

READ everything BEFORE you sign it and if possible sign nothing unless you've had time to think it over.

Only hire a agent for the shortest amount of time possible unless you've worked with them before and are sure of their committment to you and in doing a good job.

Know that no matter how much you love a house there is ALWAYS another house that you can learn to love too.

Include a walk thru before closing even if it's not the norm in your area and have it written into the contract.

Be specific in your contract, get what is important to you in writtng, don't assume anything or think that a verbal agreement is binding.

Siobhanny, we're in a very good market. Sales are up from last year. I know that's not the case everywhere!

We did what I call "outperforming and underpricing" the competition. We could have asked many thousands more, but I wanted it sold quickly, so we underpriced. It's really all about the market, though.

Some of the insider "tricks" for showings:

-Lighting. All lights were on, but not on full-blast. (Most of our lights were on dimmers.) LOTS of lamps. They're decorative, and they can illuminate small corners that give the impression of bigger spaces.

-A/C (We were selling in the middle of summer) was COLD. With people coming and going, we kept the A/C super cold to combat all of the door opening.

-I know it's hokey, but I played wordless jazz very softly. Not loud enough to detract from conversation, but just loud enough for a restaurant-type ambiance.

-Outdoors we had a fountain going.

-Fresh flowers in front and back, etc.

Basically, it was "selling a lifestyle". A well-lit, jazzy, relaxing lifestyle, lol!!

On the note of rude realtors, there are plenty!! But there are a million reasons why showings get delayed. I showed up at a house to show a client, and their realtor hadn't bothered to tell them we were coming. The owner proceeded to scream at me in the driveway for 10 minutes before finally deciding we could see the house. (I showed her on my cell phone log that I'd tried calling her realtor not just once but twice; once to confirm the appt, and secondly to let her know we were behind. The realtor never even told the owners!!) So that can set a chain of events making each appointment later and later. I do try to call the other realtors so they can let their owners know, but *ask* me how many times I get their voicemail and they don't return calls....UGH!

Oh Reno, that's quite the dog story! Gave me a good laugh while I was taking a break from sanding the formerly wallpapered walls from h@ll. BTDT with the canine stress reaction, though I can't say we had it piped through the house.

I love the well-lit, jazzy, relaxing lifestyle image. That's what I'm shooting for too. Where the heck are you, btw, that the market is so good? (I'm in FL, where it ain't!)

What I've learned is that the Realtor who was great at helping you find a house won't necessarily be great at selling your house. In fact she could be resting on her laurels as a relo specialist or be ready to retire in the nine years that have elapsed or whatever.

I guess the one thing I wish I had known was that I should have been more pessimistic and cynical overall. Selling your house is definitely a potential way to get your faith in the goodness of humanity bruised. Don't forget that unless you are in a strong seller's market or you can afford to tell them to go pound sand and wait however long it may take for another buyer, the buyer has the upper hand and you're pretty much at their mercy! Don't count your chickens before they're hatched - an offer is pretty much worth the paper it's written on and not much more until you have closed, so don't get too excited. It's getting so darn easy for people to walk away from a purchase agreement and getting so hard for the seller to keep the earnest money if they do! There's been more than one person on this very forum who's been left dangling literally days before they were supposed to close, in some cases without a red cent in compensation.

We've sold three houses and bought four. Overall, buying and selling can be extremely stressful. Prepare for the unexpected. Buying the fourth house (the one we currently live in) was a pleasure because we had a fantastic realtor (Louisville). We finally closed on the Tucson house (10/30) after 2 failed contracts, and the whole process was really frustrating as our first set of realtors didn't do the job.

I learned that if you are unhappy with your representation (as either a buyer or a seller), move on! Make sure in your listing agreement that you have an "out" clause that allows you to get out of the listing if you are unhappy with your realtor.

Do your homework! And sometimes even this doesn't always mean success. We thought our first set of realtors would be terrific. They were recommended by neighbors who had used them to sell their homes, they had lots of awards, they had been in the business for more than 20 years and when we first contacted them about listing our house they were very responsive. The minute we signed the 6 month listing agreemnt, they seemed to disappear. It was like pulling teeth to get them to answer our e-mails and phone calls. And in Tucson, the market has never been as bad as it has been over the last year or so. In an up market, realty companies hand out awards like candy so the list of awards doesn't really mean anything.

So interview several realtors, get recommendations from people who have used them, make sure to have an "out" clause in your listing agreement with them, ask them their average DOM for their listings, ask how many open houses they plan on having, ask them about their marketing strategy and make sure you get several comps (sold houses not currently listed houses).

Roselvr has a good thread on here somewhere about questions to ask your potential realtor.

The biggest lesson is patience. And I agree with johnmari on counting your chickens. Even if you have a contract, don't assume anything until it closes and the money is in the bank. If you can, don't buy before you sell.

And check these boards. Aside from the rare Grinch, there are some really fantastic people here who can help you! I wish I had found this board before we listed. These folks could've saved me a lot of frustration. As it is, they helped me stay sane for the latter part of our selling odyssey.

Educate YOURSELF about the market. See what houses have actually sold for and what the pricing trend is. I read forums where realtors post, and although there are a few w/ actual knowledge of market dynamics, there are plenty that don't really have a clue. If there is a huge inventory of homes on the market, prices will not be going up, they'll be going down. I read realtors who say things like "I think the market will be better next year." They base this on nothing except their hopes.

As someone who sold two houses this year, both in Eastern Iowa, I wish I had known ahead of time how HARD it would be so I could have been better prepared to handle the frustrations. I'd heard the market was slowing down, but I never expected it to be so tough to sell a house! I sold one house I'd bought in a pretty strong seller's market and I expected it to sell fast. It took 4.5 months to get an offer and, since it was my only offer, I took it. On the second house, we had one failed contract and that was REALLY HARD to deal with. Fortunately, we got another offer shortly thereafter and the deal went through.

Also, I agree wholeheartedly with Johnmari on counting your chickens...NOTHING is final until you've handed over checks and keys. And even then it's hard to remember to breathe. What a frustrating process! My DH and I closed in July on our current house and we do not anticipate moving again for a very long time. In fact, I'm fine with never moving again.

I agree w/others who've said to do your homework and to hire an experienced, knowledgeable, personable, and successful realtor who pays attention to you.

Good luck!

Could someone explain to me what the abbreviation DOM stands for? Thanks in advance.

Lots of excellent advice. Print this out for review--
Now, try not to deal with friends as agents, or neighbors friends/relatives etc. I did and what a disaster. Get an agent who knows your area, has listings in your area, is available by email, phone and if on vacations has back up. Even as acknowledgement is good, and I will get back to you and does.
Read everything, get everything in writing, especially from other agents. If you have pets keep the house as clean as possible, also if someone smokes--fresheners are good.
Start getting rid of the stuff now, lock all valuables up, clean out drawers, closets, yes people will look.
If someone in your family is sick, let people know and if lookers appear to be ill, let them know and reschedule
Don't let people in without an agent. If an offer is made, and the other people "need" to sell, set a limit. Keep on top of things.
Do a search on selling real estate--you will get additional help.

As said before, ALWAYS show your house. A realtor called from the sidewalk the first day we were on the market, said I didn't even have to leave. The mom & son took a 10-minute walkthrough, came back the next day for a longer view, and on the third day put in an offer that we ended up accepting. Good luck to you!

 DOM is 'days on market', referring to how long a specific house has been listed.

Know beforehand that the selling process is disruptive to your lifestyle, and relax about it. My fish-and-onion-loving, newspaper-hoarding husband swore off stinky foods when we were on the market, and managed to get through the paper every day instead of saving the whole stack for the weekend. Late-riser me learned to get up early and get the place tidy to show, in case of short notice from our broker.

On the tidiness front, clear out enough closet and cupboard space to put away the day's mail, the paper, that UPS box that arrives unexpectedly (we don't own a car, so the car trunk was not an option for emergency stashing). I kept an empty space in the front storage closet for boxes, and a clear shoebox for mail and papers. And get your cleaning routine down - I streamlined and got so I could blitz through the place in 15 minutes with Fantastik, a bottle of Windex, a damp rag and a dry rag.