Meet Susan, 33, from Cincinnati, OH: Part 2

This is Susan’s second post in our Customer Blogger series. Read her first post here.

Bio: I’m a 30-something wife and mom of two young children, living in the town where I grew up (Cincinnati). Last year, I left the comfort of corporate America to start my own business. I’ve always had a savings account, but HOW I’ve used it has been a bit of a roller coaster ride over the years.

The past few weeks have been absolutely nuts.

I’ve been working day and night to get our house ready to sell. Who knew “staging” a house for the market meant putting 75% of your stuff in storage, painting all the colored walls beige, decorating each room like a Pottery Barn catalog knockoff, and cleaning every square inch of your bathroom grout? Not me.

Oh, and did I mention it’s expensive? All those colorful accents, plus movers, storage and painters add up to a big outlay of cash—in the hopes that it will pay off with a quick sale at a decent price.

We had the money to pay for it, thankfully, but I can’t honestly claim I was saving up in advance just to sell our house. We paid for all the pre-sale work with our “just in case” savings, which I always hate to tap into. But sometimes you just have to, and this was one of those times. So if you’re planning to sell your home, I suggest first setting aside a good chunk of change—several thousand dollars if you can—to do updates, repairs and staging. (Unless you’re Martha Stewart and your house is already in immaculate, stylish shape. Which ours most definitely wasn’t.)

Why did we go to such lengths to sell our home? Well, besides feeling super-cramped in our current home (four people sharing one bathroom—ack!), we also felt a time crunch from the real estate market. Our realtor pushed us hard to sell before the end of April—if we didn’t, she was afraid our house might just sit idle on the market.

Also, the April 30 federal tax credit deadline—$8,000 for first-time buyers and $6,500 for repeat buyers like us—loomed large, as well as changes to FHA loan guidelines that would cut out a large percentage of first-time buyers who might otherwise be enchanted by our house.

We were genuinely concerned that if we didn’t hustle and get this house on the market, we might be stuck. Four people, one bathroom, forever.

So hustle we did. With the advice and connections of our go-getter real estate team, we set out to make our house as fabulous and sell-worthy as it could possibly be.

I have to recognize just how helpful my family has been in all this craziness. I’m so lucky to have my parents, brother, grandparents, aunts and uncles living in town. They’ve pitched in whenever I’ve needed them, whether painting my front porch (thanks, Dad), watching my kids while I squeeze in a few hours of work (thanks, Mom) or shopping for décor items while I orchestrate a team of movers (thanks, Aunt Bonnie). Even my 91-year-old grandpa brought us lunch one day last week while we worked on the house.

I can’t imagine how much I’ve saved, both financially and personally, by having all my family’s assistance these past few weeks.

I’m thrilled to report that one day after our house went on the market, we had two offers—including one for asking price. Our hard work paid off! We accepted, let out a HUGE sigh of relief, and then immediately began hunting for our next home. Next month, I’ll tell you how the closings and the big move go. We can’t wait!

Check out the stories from our other Customer Bloggers: Alicia, Nancy, Matt, T.J. and Alison.