our worst house showing ever…

would be this afternoon’s showing.  showing number eleven.  this one was scheduled to be right in the middle of the kids’ naps.  great.

the whole procedure has become more than a little old and with each subsequent showing, the place gets progressively less *spotlessly* clean.  can ya blame me?!  thankfully, phil was home this afternoon (started emergency dept and has a lot of evening/night shifts) so he took the kids outside while i ran around cleaning up, putting away, turning on lights, opening doors.  when i was done, i asked him what he thought.  phil replied, “it’s okay.”    i asked again.  he upgraded to, “it’s pretty good.  but i can see a little dirt around.”    i swept and mopped the floor TWO days ago!  just not in the mood to do it again…

but i digress.

so we left the place as good as it was going to get and hoped for the best.

phil went off to work while the kids and i went to the park.  we returned home well after the end of the scheduled hour and i discovered that this realtor hadn’t left a business card and all the lights were still left on.  but the more pressing matter was getting mikey and allie in their beds, so i didn’t think much about it beyond slight annoyance that they hadn’t called to cancel.  after the kids were settled, i came down and fixed myself a good stiff drink.  just kidding, it was raspberry lemonade.

as i took my first sip, i heard voices approaching our front door.  then i heard the doorknob start rattling as the talking continues.  i froze.  my mind raced as i thought, “did i write down the wrong time?”  “did they tell me the wrong time?”  “where do i go?!”  i jumped to turn off the house alarm and came out of the kitchen to answer the realtor’s “hello?”

turned out i DID have the correct time and they were an hour and fifteen minutes late.  they apologized profusely.  i told them they’re more than welcome to see the house, except that my kids were sleeping upstairs.  (not to mention the fact that i’d already turned off all the lights and closed all the blinds and mikey had overturned his bucket of a hundred cars in the living room).

so i hung out in the kitchen while they looked around, poking in closets, and checking out the garage.  i’ve always wanted to be a fly on the wall for one of these, but this was a bit ridiculous.  especially since they felt the need to whisper due to sleeping kids so i told them they didn’t have to.  i also told them they could pop their heads in the rooms where mikey and allie were since i didn’t think they were sleeping yet anyway.  i’m sure mikey enjoyed the interruption.

after a cursory walk-through, they started putting on their shoes getting ready to leave.  but then they started asking me some questions which i was happy to answer.  questions about how long we’d lived here, why we’re moving (making sure to emphatically answer, “noooo” when the realtor asked if we’d not be moving except for my husband’s job out in ca), what we’re hoping for a closing date, what the neighbors are like (turns out all those walks around the neighborhood with the kids has been a good thing since i’ve met many neighbors and could give her some information on each of the surrounding neighbors), and so on.

the shoes come off again, and the daughter tells me her mom wants to look around a little more (apparently it’s the mother who’s the potential buyer).

i kept hearing, “it’s really cute!” as they looked.  were they looking for cute? 

when they did leave, i thanked them for coming and thought, “well that’s the end of that!” since this showing was considerably less than ideal and only lasted fifteen minutes.

fast-forward to this evening when i get a phone call for another house showing for tomorrow afternoon.  right in the middle of the kids’ naps again.  the girl tells me it’s a second showing.  only later did i realize that the people who came in today were the ones coming for a second time!  part of me thinks it’s more like part two of the first showing since they didn’t really get to see the rooms upstairs where the kids were.

fast-forward a bit more to tonight when our realtor sends me an email with the following comments from the buyer’s realtor:  We are coming back for a 2nd show tomorrow sunday 2:30-3:30 home shows very well – right now our top pick thanks.

and a bit more feedback from her:

Met Buyer’s Criteria: Mostly
Rating of Condition: Excellent
Opinion on Price: Priced OK
Overall Interest: High

and so, we’ll see what happens after tomorrow’s showing!  so maybe it ended up being a good thing that i was there to give them a little more information about the place!

for now, i leave you with a few pics from tonight’s walk at the park.  it was a lovely evening– just the right temp for shorts, slight little breeze, no bugs, no humidity.  just lovely.