Selling Our House Is Not Frugal! (1)by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 20 Dec 2006 01:00 PM
Why am I sharing all of this? Partly it is to vent my little frugal heart, and partly it is to show you how having a perfect-looking house, all of the time, costs money. Here are some of the non-frugal practices we have put in place in order to sell our home and make it look perfect to potential buyers. Leaving all the lights on for showings. Showings typically last for an hour, and we can have more than one showing in a day. Yes, that is every single light in the house. This helps illuminate the house and show it as bright and cheery. Sometimes we have errands to run or church to attend, so we put all the lights on before we leave, even though the showing or showings may be later in the day. Just last Saturday, our lights were on from 10:30 in the morning to 7:00 at night, as it didn't make sense to keep returning home to turn lights on and off. Going out to eat. it is tough to plan and cook dinner when you have showings. You have to avoid cooking smells and keep the house spotless. Plus, most of our showings are in the 3:30-7:00 time frame--exactly the same time range for making and eating dinner. Extra Gas. When we have a showing, I might go to a friend's house or try to run some errands. When the weather is nice, I take the kids for a walk. But with so many showings, I've run out of places to go, so I often find myself driving around the neighborhood a few times, to keep us all warm. Extra heat. No one likes a stinky house. Unfortunately none of the tricks in the world will clear the air during a stinky diaper change, except one: fresh air. Opening the windows freshens the house but costs us more in heat. In Selling Our House Is Not Frugal! (2), I'll share even more ways we are not saving. Related Articles The Families.Com Real Estate Blog Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments No comments on this article yet. Be the first to comment! Community Tags house, moving, real estate Discuss this article
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Ah the adventures of selling our house. From last minute (literally) showings to offers that come with shady financing, it has been an interesting ride. One thing that has a frugal-minded person like me panicking is all of the money we are spending to keep the house perfect and ready for showing to potential buyers. That is something I didn't quite anticipate fully. 
