As I enter the world of staging...

Well I'm about to enter a new world...a world of staging!

Long (many years) story short I finally talked my very conservative husband to put our house on the market and "just see if anyone is interested" because of what a good market it is to buy bigger for less.

I've never hidden the fact that there are five of us in a 3 bedroom house. This wouldn't be a big deal (many people share bedrooms - I did growing up) but our bedrooms are not quite the size for sharing when you are reaching the tween stage!

So, that being said we had our old Realtor that sold us the house five years ago come take a look for me. She immediately started telling me what would "need to come down" and how I should "tidy up this or hide that" and then she handed me a number for a STAGER! "Oh it may run you anywhere from $200 to well you could spend a $1000 for moving new furniture in." I hid my look of panic from the sweet Realtor in her bling shirt and wrote down her suggestions.

So, she gave me two weeks to get these things done...put a new floor in the bathroom (should be pretty cheap), "thin out my 'wild' landscaping" (I thought it was beautiful), hide ALL of my sweet little angel's pictures, and then she suggested we paint our living room a lighter color but seeing how there is like a 50 foot steeple in the middle of it I don't think I'll be getting Nate to do that!

As for the stager...as soon as she left I got on the phone and called up a friend whose mom and aunt are stagers in the fancy city of Franklin. Then I walked next door and recruited my neighbor to ask her sister, a "master gardner of Rutherford County," to come take a look at my yard...I'm calling out the troops for this adventure!

Will I be terribly upset if the house doesn't sell? No...I actually love my house and I LOVE my neighbors and neighborhood. Will we need to live in this house five years from now? No...probably Eli and Ian will get tired of using a bunk bed and sharing a tiny closet at the age of 12 and 14 when they are almost 6 feet tall so...I'm going to act now and see where it gets me.

As I walk down this road of for sale signs and real tracks.com I am very aware of the friends that have tried and are still trying to sell their houses not just for convenience but out of pure necessity. I know many people have lost their houses during the economic crisis over the past years. So, I am most sensitive towards all of them as I join the rat race of the housing market.

Now...if anyone is interested in a three bedroom....large kitchen...most beautiful fenced in back yard...with sweet neighbors and a dead end street....please come see me!