Resurrecting the old blog....with focus on moving out of Kelso

So here we are, our heads still reeling from the process of selling our Kelso home.

We decided to downsize and move off the mountain we've called home for the past 27 years.  A huge step!  The first step was to declutter and deep clean.  Our home had broken a basic law of physics: Newton's law.  For every item that was inserted into our home, there should've been an equal and opposite reaction (another item already in the home should fly out....or be removed).  Our home has a ridiculous amount of storage.....and all of it was full.  It was crazy!  I had just been surviving the last seven years of my career and the house truly reflected that.

Several trips to the dump and the local women's shelter thrift store resolved the clutter issue.  Deep cleaning (omg the carpal tunnel aches I gave myself) took a few days and the results were great!

Finally!  We were ready for our realtor and her camera.  We had our home on the market eight years ago, two different realtors.  Let me tell you, find one that not only knows the business and strategies necessary, but one who can take amazing photos!  Sherri Kingsley did an outstanding job with photos....and I had two previous sets to compare....and hers were way and above more pleasing.

The local real estate market is ultra crazy with too few homes on the market.  If you find the home of your dreams, you'd best be prepared to pull the trigger instantly. We had to make a decision: get a loan arranged ahead of time, set up a mortgage and then try to sell our house......or sell our house first, maybe move belongings twice, but will be ready for our new home with cash in hand.

Since our home is located in a very rural location, thereby automatically reducing the possible buyer pool, we elected to get our home on the market asap while the inventory is still quite low.  Less competition!

So we listed our home.  It took Zillow (for those of you still using that app), TWO days to find our listing.  That's two precious days, folks.  My preferred app is Redfin.  I receive instant email notifications whenever a home that fits my criteria comes on the market.