Holy cow did you guys have questions about the whole selling/moving/buying process since yesterday’s little announcement! So we decided an FAQ post would answer as many as we could. We originally planned to share it tomorrow but you guys are still sending questions our way so furiously that we decided to share this guy today and our regularly scheduled DIY post will go up in the morning. So heeeeeeeere we go! #warningitslong
Q: Will you sell your current house by owner like you did with your first house?
Since it worked out so well for us last time, we’d love to! So other than possibly paying a few hundred dollars to have it listed on MLS again, we’re planning to market it and show it ourselves (we’ve actually already had three showings, so our fingers are crossed). We don’t even have a For Sale sign out front yet since we have been doing private showings to realtors and interested locals who are contacting us directly, so it’s kinda weird. Haha!
Q: Did you consider renting out your current house instead of selling it? We did! But we talked to a few realtors who said that a few homes in our neighborhood that were for rent were having a hard time holding tenants since the lots were so big (renters in our area typically want very small yards so there’s less for them to mow/maintain). So we shifted our focus to selling since things in our neighborhood seem to be picking up in that department (many homes are selling fast nearby, so we’re hoping ours follows suit).
Q: When will you move in?
We have to sell our current house first and think showing it with furniture will help that process (plus we don’t want to move all of our furniture to the new house and then have the sale fall through). So our best guess would be that we’ll (hopefully) move into our new house in June, although it really all depends on when we sell and when our closing date is. But we’re already working on the new house as well as finishing things up around here, so along with all the staging/showing/selling posts about our current house, there will definitely be new house projects, plans, and pictures working their way into the mix. Ahhh, it gets me so excited to type that!
Q: Wait, are you selling your current house fully furnished!? Sorry! I made a comment about wanting to keep our furniture here in order to sell it faster on yesterday’s post and it sounded like we were selling it furnished but I quickly updated it in the hopes of squashing that self-started rumor. Haha! We’re not selling it furnished, we just want furniture in the house when it’s for sale (since empty houses traditionally sell slower and for less money) – but although we’re bringing our furniture with us a lot of things will be in different places in the new house since the layout is so different, which should be fun to play around with!
Q: How many square feet is it? How can it be the same square footage as your current house when it looks so much bigger?! It’s almost exactly the same square footage of our current house, which we love (it’s around 2,500 square feet). It’s just that our current house has an 1,000 square foot addition hiding in the back that you can’t see at all from the front, so that’s why it looks almost as small as our first house (which was half the size). Meanwhile the new house doesn’t have anything hiding in the back and instead has a second floor that’s in plain sight from the street, which makes it look a lot bigger.
Q: Your new house is so pretty on the outside you won’t have a thing to do to upgrade it! That’s the funny thing about cropped photos. Below is a panned out shot that shows that there’s definitely work to be done. So we think the outside will keep us nice and busy too…
Q: Tell me more about what made you love this house in this neighborhood. Would you have taken any house in that area, or did it have to be the right one? We definitely wouldn’t have just taken anything in our budget because we always want a house that works for our family (right house in the wrong neighborhood is sort of the same womp-womp as the right neighborhood but the wrong house). So the sweet spot was finding both. And when we pulled down the street and saw this baby at the end of the cul-de-sac (zero through traffic! a spot for Clara to ride a bike! a bug-hunting mecca for Burger!) we were completely smitten. And when the layout inside didn’t disappoint, we practically lunged for the offer papers. She might not look like much right now, but we think she’s going to clean up real nice :)
Q: How did you keep this a secret?! This was BY FAR the hardest part for us! There were so many moments I wanted to over-share every detail with you guys as we went! This house sort of came out of nowhere, very quickly. We were very casually looking since we anticipated not needing something ’til this summer (or later). Then we saw it we had that moment of “we either go for it or be okay with losing it!” And we realized we weren’t okay with losing it. We actually closed on it in the fall (now can you see how hard this secret was to keep?!?!?) but we had a million balls in the air (a book tour in progress, a bunch of projects for our current house that we wanted to finish before we announced/sold, and a few immediate upgrades to deal with in the new house like a leaking roof, a bad furnace, an alarm install and an opossum in the crawl space (all of which we can’t wait to post about in detail for you guys).
We actually debated spilling the beans about things a lot sooner but we worried it would make us feel torn in half (wanting to stay focused on finishing and selling our current house, but knowing many of you would’ve mentally “moved on” to the new house). We also had to think about things like safety (we just weren’t comfortable telling the entire internet that we had a new house that would be unoccupied for a big chunk of time). So we made the call that waiting, as challenging as it was, was best for our family, this blog, and our new house’s safety. And that way we could focus and knock out what we needed to do here before shifting into “new house mode” when we were ready. Boy does it feel good to be in that mode now. I ran around the house singing this song.
Q: Last time you closed on your current house on the same day that the new owners closed on your old house, but this time it you bought the new house before selling your current house. What went into that decision? Once we were 100% sure that this was The House, we knew putting in a bid with a contingency that we had to sell our current house would weaken our offer. And we didn’t want to lose that house! There was actually another offer on it, so we knew we needed to have a strong and compelling offer to get it and we didn’t want to offer over asking price, so we decided that going into it without a contingency to sell our house would make for a compelling offer. We were so glad that the bank finally recognized us both as full time self employed people (we’ve been doing this blog thing full time together for nearly 3 years), which was a very different situation then when we bought our first and current house (more on that here) – and it was amazing to get the “you guys got it!” call.
Obviously carrying two mortgages for any period of time isn’t fun. But we triple-checked our savings before bidding to make sure we could handle it and found other ways to save. For instance, if we’re able to sell our current house by owner like we did for our first house, we stand to save ourselves more than all the extra mortgage payments that we’ve been making combined (since we won’t have to pay a seller’s agent commission). Plus, those overlapping mortgage payments are helping us pay down our loan (yay equity!), so it’s not like money going out without a return (like renting or writing a seller’s agent check).
Q: I need more details! We know, and we’re itching to give them. But please understand that we won’t be discussing certain identifying details on our blog (like what neighborhood it’s in or specific info about our closing) because we want to keep some semblance of privacy intact, so we’re resisting the urge to over-share in that regard this time! We know that you guys understand that we need to keep some personal details private and we appreciate all of you who respect that. We’d be naive to think someone couldn’t dig up the info if they really wanted to (real estate is public record), but we’re not going to hand anyone anything on a silver platter over here. Haha! Thankfully our current address was leaked even before we moved into this house back in 2010 and we haven’t had a single issue and our alarm system gives us amazing peace of mind (let’s just say it talks to us and has eyes for us). And then there’s our ferocious guard dog…
Q: When was it built? How many bedrooms and bathrooms does it have? It was built 32 years ago and it has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms (so there’s actually one less tub for me to clean). The main bathroom on the first floor is a half bath, which I’m already dreaming of redoing… once we strip all the wallpaper!
Q: How much do you think you’ll make selling your current house thanks to all the improvements you put into it? That would make a fun post! Just like this post that we shared when we sold our first house, we’re definitely excited to see how it all pans out and spill all the details about how much we put into this house in home improvements vs. how much those upgrades affected the sale price. Based on the interest in our current house (we’ve had three showings!) realtors seem to think that our listing price is good so we’re hopeful there might even be a smidge of profit in there this time!
Q: Is it sad to leave Clara’s big girl room without her moving in? From the moment we moved in back in 2010, we always intended for that room to be a playroom (even though it somehow turned into a junk room for 2 years, oops!) so it has been awesome to finally enjoy that space and use it the way we always intended. Even if Clara isn’t quite ready to sleep in there yet, she has logged lots of play-time in there and if she had moved in there we’d have an empty nursery, so either way we knew she couldn’t sleep in both spaces so one would be a playroom while the other serves as her bedroom. The nice thing is that everything comes with us except for the walls, so since we didn’t do anything structural in there (like add a built-in accent wall or bunk-bed system) or cover the walls with anything fancy that stays behind (ex: cool wallpaper or a big wall mural) it can all end up at the new house with us.
Q: What about all the things that you did to this house that you can’t take with you? Like the penny tile and the new fireplace and the pergola? We love love love those things, and will definitely be sad to leave them, but we did them ourselves – which means we can always tackle them again (and alter them in new ways) for the new house if we want them there. We’re just suckers for showing a house some love, so we would never want to live anywhere and “hold back” on doing things just because we can’t take them with us (for us, doing them is half the fun sometimes). So it’s nice to spend the time that we have with those beauties while we live in the house, and know that they’ll live on. I’m deeply comforted by the fact that we can always drive by and wave at the pergola. Yeah, that’s definitely going to happen.
Q: I’d love to see a post talking about which of your recent projects you did for resale value and why you chose them. Nearly everything we’ve done recently has been on our to-do list for over a year. So they weren’t things we added to our roster for resale – they were just things we knew we’d love to tackle, many of them from the day that we moved in. So it was less about which projects we chose to do for resale (none really) and more about which projects from our to-do list that we decided to move ahead with. For example, converting a storage room into a useful playroom and upping the curb appeal wouldn’t hurt, but double siding the fireplace (which would involve a mason and a contractor since it’s load bearing) felt like more of an “if we were staying longer we’d love to do it” item. So there were a few things that we didn’t think made financial sense to do right now but we did pretty much everything else on our to-do list that we hoped to do. We’ll share a final rundown of Listy McListerson with everything checked off, and at the bottom we’re planning to put all the “would have been nice” items that we skipped – but secretly hope the new owners end up doing so we can house crash them. Haha!
Q: Will you guys miss the convenience of a ranch and having everything on one floor? We think it’ll be fun to try out a completely new house layout since our first and second house were pretty similar to each other. And I’m sure there will be tons of things that we miss about having a ranch, but we’re excited to see how a two-story house works for our family. We love that the laundry room is on the second floor with all of the bedrooms, which was one thing we really liked about ranches (not taking piles of laundry up and down stairs).
We also secretly hope that the upstairs will help us with separating work from family stuff, so we think we’ll institute a no-laptops-upstairs rule. Since we’re only twenty steps from our office when we step out of bed in our current house, it’ll be nice to be a whole floor away from it in our new house. And it’ll be awesome not to have to clean the whole house when people come over (if they’ll just be on the main level, we can shut the bedroom doors upstairs and ignore the mess like we did when we grew up in two story houses, haha).
Whew! So that should do it! Hope that helped guys. And we can’t wait to share a floor plan and all the crazy wallpaper-and-blue-trim-laden before pics with you guys while we finish things off at our current house and get this baby sold. Fingers crossed…
Rosemarie says
I’m so excited for you guys and to see more of the new house. It’s a little strange but I feel the same way for you guys as I did when we were moving to our new house. Maybe I’m going to become addicted to moving (my husband would kill me. But I can’t wait to see more!!
Michelle DuPuis says
So you weren’t planning to start looking for a new house until this summer. Does that mean you anticipated finishing everything on your to do list by then? Yikes! I really need to finish painting the trim I started working on like 5 years ago! Just so you know, if you ever get close to finishing up your to do list for the new house, and don’t feel like moving, you’re always welcome to come to Minnesota and DIY some stuff at my house. The trim will probably still need painting…
Oh and Congrats! I can’t wait to see “before” photos of the new place, and I’m weirdly excited to see your updated Listy McListerson for this house. :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, thanks Michelle! We’ll randomly stop in every once in a while to add board and batten when you sleep and slip out before you know it was us! Haha! As for finishing the list by this summer, we did think that was a pretty good guess when we blinked our eyes and only have a few zones left to tackle. It was so crazy! Like “how on earth did that happen?” and then we just estimated how long everything would take and guessed that looking in the summer (perhaps not moving until the fall) sounded about right. And then bam! Crazy deal dream house pops up! Haha.
xo
s
Londen@sixtyfifthavenue says
Hi guys, we might with a capital M put our house on the market. We will do it the same way by paying to have it listed on the mls. Would you mind sharing how much commission you are offering agents bringing buyers? A friend of ours said they won’t even bother to show it for anything under 2 percent. Thanks in advance!
Londen
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, we’re doing 3% (it’s what we did last time). That way realtors will happily show any clients our home, but instead of paying 6%, it’s an awesome way for us to save 50% :)
xo
s
Sneha says
First – congrats to you! Second – congrats to me! Our house is very similar in style to yours and I would love to make updates, but have no vision at all – very analytical minded over here. So I’m just going steal ideas from you two creative types!
Rachel says
Congratulations!! I’m so excited for you guys. I’m also highly anticipating all the new projects because we bought a very similar house a few months ago–same age, two stories, horrible carpet and wall paper, etc. and haven’t had much time to do anything with it. But I have big plans for summer and will no doubt be inspired by your posts!
Bonnie says
Congratulations Petersiks! I know what buying your “dream home” feels like and it’s quite the accomplishment. I can’t believe you didn’t slip this secret out sooner, but totally respect why you didn’t. Readers tend to start thinking that you guys “belong” to them. I’m sorry for some of the criticism you’re receiving on this personal decision. For people to no want to be treated as customers it certainly seems like they’re demanding you to behave a certain way… Of all the things going on in this world and this is what they get upset about? Props to you guys for attempting to maintain any semblance of privacy.
About the house… is it any coincidence that all three houses you’ve owned have been brick? Have you always been drawn to brick homes? I also own a brick home and was shocked to see that you can powerwash it!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Bonnie! As for the brick thing, I think we just have a type! We always look at so many other options but find ourselves drawn right in by a solid brick house with a dated interior but a we-can-tell-it-could-be-cute brick facade. Haha! We also love how low maintenance it is (no need to repaint or redo the siding, etc) so we can focus on other stuff :)
xo
s
Tracy Carson says
You guys are amazing, in such a great way. You don’t owe us ANY of this information and yet you make it so user friendly. It’s almost strange to read, like I don’t even know how to pronounce these people’s last name :) and they just told me about their mortgages! I (@tkcarson) tweeted you a couple of weeks ago after I saw your Real Simple mention and said that I thought I knew you but alas I just read your blog. It is this kind of connection that provides the good and bad of social media. I am a psychologist so of course my brain processes all of this from an interesting point of view, but the “connection” of blogging with a blind (to you) audience is so fascinating. I don’t ask my close friends how they pay for their home and yet you guys just shared that information like you had to, and in the most genuine way. Seriously, you guys seem so kind. Even Sherry’s post about not being pregnant was the nicest thing I have ever read when she had every right to be all, “shut up perfect strangers!” So anyhoo, I guess I just wanted to commend you for your transparency and give you some freedom (from this little reader from CA) to stick to the DIY if you want to! Have a great night!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much Tracy. That’s so sweet of you to say :)
xo,
s
keri says
HOLY @#$%@^#&%*!!!!! I have been so busy this week I haven’t read the blog, so I went to catch up and saw the the pic of John from selling your first house — and though, well why they heck are they reposting about selling their first house?! and started reading and was quite confused…had to look at the posts from earlier in the week…and let me tell ya, totally surprised me! WOW! CONGRATULATIONS!
won’t lie though – i’m still shocked.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha thanks Keri!
xo,
s
Sammy C. says
Like another person mentioned, I also felt like your 2nd home was not quite “your home”. I did love all the posts and renovations from the home but it always felt like something was kind of missing…when I saw the new home, I felt like – yeah, that’s their house…it is beautiful…congratulations!! I am so excited for you guys and all the wonderful things you will do to make it beautiful on the inside!! I LOVE reading your blog!!
Heather Simmons says
YHL, this is sooo exciting! I’m sure y’all have already mentioned this, but I couldn’t read through 500 messages to find out… LOL, but are y’all staying in Richmond or moving elsewhere?
YoungHouseLove says
We’re still in Richmond, just a few minutes down the road from where we are now (we wanted to stay near family).
-John
Marianne says
One of the things you like about the new house is that you don’t have to clean the whole house when you have visitors. I have to agree on that one wholeheartedly LOl.
Kati says
Clearly you two thrive on chaos! We’ve moved into our last house, current house and will now be going to our next house (Iowa –> Maryland) all at about the same time as you but without managing our own business – you are made for this!! Excited to see what you do with the space. Congrats!
Sarah says
As a realtor I have to say using a seller’s agent isn’t “throwing money away” if you hire the right agent and if you need the help! A good agent will sell your house for more than you ever though, recouping their fee and more.
Congrats on the new house and good luck selling your home! I can’t wait to follow along on your blog!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes we definitely meant no disrespect to realtors – we use buyers agents every time, and for anyone who doesn’t want to market and sell their house themselves, a seller’s agent is invaluable and can often get them more money! Although I don’t think more money and recouping their fee is always a guarantee (for example, sometimes an appraisal dictates the sale price of a house even if offers are higher, so someone could have to lower their sale price as well as pay an agent fee in that situation). It’s definitely one of those personal decisions that everyone should make based on how much work/stress they want to take on, but realtors are amazing for all of the help that they make available :)
xo,
s
House Crazy Sarah says
WOw! I just found out about your new house today via a pic you posted on FB! I have to say my heart skipped a few beats because this is all so exciting!
We bought our first house the same time you guys bought your first house and coincidentally sold it the same month you sold yours. We also bought a new one in 2010 and have been working on it, but our plan all along was to sell it. It is for sale now and hopefully, it will sell this summer.
Congratulations John & Sherry! I just love going through all this with you “virtually” – it is a thousands times more fun and gratifying than a half house HGTV show!
Wishing you a quick, profitable and painless sale,
-Sarah
YoungHouseLove says
Ahhh! That’s so funny that we’re on the exact same house timetable! Good luck with selling yours and thanks so much for the kind words!
xo
s
Carlyn says
For the first time in probably 4 years – I haven’t read your blog daily. (I was at a work conference with not even a monute to myself). The one time …. And you announce a new house!!! Congratulations! Can’t wait to see what amazing things you do to it!!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, thanks Carlyn!
xo
s
Kristen says
I am so excited to see all the things you are going to do in this new house! I love love love the outide of it! Yay!
Jaime says
J&S&C&B,
Congrats on the purchase of your new home! Regardless of when you signed the docs. ;) I, for one, am thankful you got that behind you before you mentioned it. It would have been like the last 2 minutes of a basketball playoff game – totally nerve wracking. I cannot wait to see what you do with the new house… and what it turns into for your sweet family. Holy Wallpaper! {again, better YOU than me!}
Laura says
Forgive me if this has already been answered, but I was wondering if you will post your “walk-through” process in determining what changes/projects you’ll take on in the new house. Do you decide from the beginning? Do you have a start out list, and then add as you live in it?
I’m just curious as to your process and how your big beautiful brains work. LOL. Thanks in advance!
YoungHouseLove says
Great question! Here’s a post we did about what we look past and what we look for when we’re checking out houses :)
https://www.younghouselove.com/2012/11/what-we-look-for-look-past-while-house-hunting/
xo
s
Jess says
Congratulations on your new house! So exciting! My husband and I bought a new house recently and I can’t wait to paint/decorate my new home (we’ll move in a few months). I find so much inspiration from your blog. So many great tips and advice. I even watched your DIY haircut tutorial, and now I give my husband haircuts. Keep up the great work on your blog, and I’m definitely excited to see what you guys do with your new home!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Jess!
xo
s
Meg Sluyter says
Having the laundry room upstairs is so much nicer (in a home with more than one level). Our old house was like that, just be careful where you leave the laundry baskets. When my oldest was about 3 she decided that the basket would make a great sled and went down the stairs in it. It was actually pretty funny (as long as no one gets hurt!).
YoungHouseLove says
Eeks! Good reminder!
xo
s
Christie says
I hope this house is The One … the house where Clara grows up. Any future houses should be your own rentals! Or for clients.
Peggy McKee says
All the working of getting the house ready and then having to leave for private showings gets old very fast IMHO.
So I’m wondering why you haven’t moved enough to your new house so that you can live there–but still have enough furniture left in the old house for showing?
When I put my parents’ house on the market, I left enough furniture to give buyers an idea of scale. The rest I got rid of–for me, this turned out to be a good decision. And the house certainly did not look bare–just spacious.
YoungHouseLove says
It came down to not being able to figure out how we could make that work (moving Clara’s crib would make an empty spot in the nursery, moving our bed would leave an empty spot in our bedroom, moving our only sofa would make the living room look crazy, etc). I think in some cases it works great though, so it must be a case by case thing!
xo
s
Priscilla says
Hi, and congratulations again on the purchase of your new home. I put a duplex I own on the market for sale by owner. I didn’t realize that a “by owner” home could be listed on MLS. How did you set that up? Also, did you pay the fee to the realtor who brought you the buyer? In CO the listing realtor (if hired) charges 6%, if she sells your home and brings in the buyer. Did you hire a real estate attorney or pay somebody to look over your contract? Any information would be greatly appreciated. I’m a bit overwhelmed at this point, but need to sell by owner in order to break even on the sale of my duplex. Thanks a million!
YoungHouseLove says
We just paid online to get it listed (there are sites like mlsmyhome.com I believe). We also just used a closing attorney every time (so we just save the agent fee) since they make the closing go smoothly. Here’s a post with more info for ya: https://www.younghouselove.com/2010/11/how-we-sold-our-house-by-owner/
xo
s
Priscilla says
Thanks so much for your response! I’ll definitely look into the MLS option. A closing attorney is a wonderful idea! Have a fantastic rest of your weekend!
James says
I…..WANT…….A…..POWERWASHER!
man that looks great!
Noelle says
Congrats-
I was reading the earlier post and shouted out when I read you bought a new house! My husband thinks I am nuts that I was excited for you all since I don’t even know you folks.
Your fans will have to be patient about your move and updates on the new place. It is exciting to think of your next project. The new house is stunning and that street view showing the end of the cul du sac! It must have been a no brainer to purchase. Can’t wait for your new posts…. let’s hope you don’t knock down the mailbox with the moving truck :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, here’s hoping!
xo
s
Megan says
What a wonderful new adventure! Congratulations!
Susan says
Congrats! I am glad there is is someone else as crazy as we are, to buy a house before selling the other one! Since the FALL? I can’t believe you have not spilled the beans earlier! We bought our house in Jan. and are just moving in ourselves. I can’t wait to see what you do next.
Peggy McKee says
I read your 2010 post on FSBO. I was surprised to see that you had to pay the buyer’s agent a percentage. Do you feel comfortable sharing what that percentage was?
YoungHouseLove says
It was 3%. You don’t have to, but if you don’t offer a percentage to a buyer’s agent they would be working for free (buyers never pay the agent fee, and agents don’t work for free) so we knew offering that 3% would be the way to get people into our house to buy it. And that’s exactly what happened, an agent agreed to take 3%, bought her client in, and we struck a deal- and saved around 7K by not offering 6% and using a seller’s agent on our end. Hope it helps :)
xo
s
Peggy McKee says
So if the house sold for $100K, for example, and you used a seller’s agent, you’d have paid $6K (6% of 100). Instead of you paid $3K (again assuming the house sold for $100K), to the real estate agent that found a buyer for your FSBO–thus saving $3K? Have I got it?
Many thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, exactly! By making the flier and paying a few hundred bucks to put it on MLS along with doing showings/negotiating ourselves (with the help of the closing attorney) we saved 3% of the entire house’s selling price. So in our case it was worth the trouble :)
xo
s
Beth says
I don’t mean to be rude, but if you’re so concerned about privacy and keeping your home location secret (as you should be!), why don’t you NOT post pictures of what the outside looks like?? It may not be a perfect solution, but it would certainly help at least a little, no?
YoungHouseLove says
That actually won’t help since people just need our names for looking at the public record (which are obviously public since we have written a book, etc). Even when all we shared was a cropped non-descript photo from a totally different angle than the listing people used our names to find it (thank goodness the alarm was installed which gives us peace of mind). Hope it helps :)
xo,
s
Lauren says
So how come you have waited so long to move in?? Did you put your house on the market in the fall?
YoungHouseLove says
Nope, we knew we’d get more interest and maybe even more money by waiting until spring, and that way we could finish up our To-Do list (which we also knew would increase the value of this house). The new house popped up waaaay sooner than we expected, but we had to either be ok with letting it go or snatch it up and hold off doing anything over there until we were done with our current house. Turns out we weren’t ok with letting it go, so we got the keys, focused on the book tour and our current house, and now we’re selling and we’re finally able to shift the focus to the new house. Wahoo!
xo
s