Selling Houses by the Square Foot
Apparently, house prices are set by the square foot. How nice the square foot is matters some, as does where the square feet are located but in the end, the price is worked out with simple multiplication. This many square feet x the value of a square foot in that neighborhood = house price. Square feet are now more expensive here than they were five years ago and although five years ago we managed to get ourselves 1400 of them, if we were on the market now (in the financial position we were then) we’d only be able to buy about 650.
And what are these square feet? A place to put your books, your table, your head. A place to close the door on and be glad in the stillness. A place that keeps the weather outside and the warmth in. A house is shelter, safety. A house is respite, a holt.
But when you’re swinging your machete through the jungle of the housing market, a house turns from a shelter into a list of numbers, digits that dance their little calculated dance from column to column, minueting their strange and confusing routine. A house becomes a commodity, a price, a deal. Having to sell a house takes what is simple human need and turns it upside down and shakes the spare change from its pockets.
This little house is our home, but it is also a sum of money that we will trade for a new home. Yet, it has no value at all until and unless someone else wants to trade their money for a new home for themselves. And in the end, what we all want is a quiet place to put our books, our keys, our head.
Weird, isn’t it?? I find the whole real estate / home transaction COMPLETELY bizarre.. If no one wants to buy your house, is it worthless? If no one thinks you’re pretty, are you ugly?
there’s something weird going on here.
Rachael
Oh my, you’ve entered that existential canyon known as selling your house. Your house is the sum total of its repairs and attributes less its faults. And, you don’t know what it all adds up to until it sells. These are definitely the times that try women’s souls.
Keep your chin up and try to establish a routine or a quick-exit plan if your realtor calls with a showing. I would suggest stashing stuff under beds or the like and not in closets, where potential buyers will inevitably look.
The house will sell, when it’s supposed to. Find that zen place within yourself and occupy it. Enuf woo.
Tough stuff, but no way around it.
A little over 5 years ago, I sold my home is Texas. I had lived there 15 years and had redone EVERYTHING…that house sold for about what my 100 year old farmhouse in Virginia appraised for BEFORE the plumbing, electrical and heating system was replaced. Different areas have drastically different property values!!
Just pick a home that feels good now or one that you can comfortably mold before you get too old to have the energy. Good Luck!
bit of a paradox, innit? hope you find somewhere that will embrace you all – and with plenty of space for books!
I think you’ve just captured at least part of the reason why buying a new home is pretty much THE most stressful life experience. I’m thinking of you. Good luck.
It seems unbelieveable to me that someone could NOT love my house as much as I do. Glad I am not the only one who sees it that way!
We just sold our house and are in the process of finalizing the purchase of The One — the house we have been looking for for three and a half months. I completely get this post, and what you have said is why this process is so. goddamn. stressful.
Good luck. Hang in.
You’re tagged for the real moms meme! If you want to and haven’t already, of course…
OH, house buying/selling. When we bought our first house together, 3 years ago (we’d both owned a home with our previous spouse), my husband couldn’t understand why it was such a panic. He didn’t believe my excuse – fear of commitment – knowing we’d only dated 3 months before getting married.
House selling? Even scarier to me. Yet, somehow, when we sold that same house, it was on the market (okay, never officially on the market) about an hour before we had a buyer. And I thought we’d never sell it.
If you love this house, it will sell, and quickly. And to someone who will love it like you. But in the meantime, wine helps, as it does with everything. And if this doesn’t make any sense, I shouldn’t have poured that third glass.