When home selling shifts to a buyer’s market.

Difficult not to get excited, but learning that a contract can fall through at any time.

The roller coaster continues. And it might even be fun it wasn’t for the truckload of stress and worry that has come with it. Stress is, of course, relative to one’s own experiences, and so what may be stressful for one person may not be stressful for another. If something that stresses a person doesn’t stress you, it doesn’t invalidate that stress. For the moment, stress for us is having a home on the market. And yes, we get it, we’re very fortunate that we even have a home to put onto the market to begin with.

We finally received a contract on the house—not quite the best-case scenario offer, but reasonable. And that is where the good news ends, as the buyer was difficult to begin with, and it was here were the real estate earned their money, I suppose, as we didn’t have to deal with any of it. Outside of that, the agent wasn’t great. For most, I would think that selling or buying a home is one of the biggest decisions you’ll ever make and oftentimes your financial future is at stake. And for that reason, we expected frequent and open communication, however, we found ourselves time and again asking for updates and progress reports—asking time and again not out of a want to give the agent the shits, but to simply to be provided with any news as to what is going on, or not going on. It seemed that unless we called, there were no updates. And sure, it might have been that there was nothing to report, but a brief call, or an email or text to advise that there is indeed nothing to report would at least remove some of the guessing around what’s going on.

I’ve been writing and posting these blog posts retrospectively, mostly because I had always planned to write down our adventure as it unfolds, only to change my mind, get busy dealing with life as it happens around us, and then change my mind again. So, while it’s been around a week between posts, it’s closer to a month if not more, for now. I suspect we’ll catch up soon as things settle down, assuming they do. And so, it displeases me no end to write that we now had, not have, a contract on the house—and again, a deal is never done until it’s done. And throughout the entire experience to this point, communication has continued to be far from meeting expectation—we don’t set a high bar either. But maybe that’s just how it is and we’re expecting too much. And look, we understand that, whether it’s caravans, homes, or vehicles, a business typically isn’t only looking after a small handful of people but having to chase up a business time and again for information, really isn’t good enough. Particularly in the case of selling, or buying, a home—a big-ticket item involving major decision making and deliberation for the majority of people.

So, just like that, we’re back on the market and, unfortunately for us, interest rates keep on going up, putting increasing pressure on property values. While we slide further into a buyer’s market as the weeks pass by, if we look at the big picture we’re still in a good position and therefore the plan is to stay on track and continue to steer toward the goal. I do wonder if anyone actually enjoys the experience of selling property. Maybe it’s different if you have a property portfolio and you’re making a killing, or something like that. For those like us, however, who are desperate to give up the comforts and security of their home in suburbia, for a nomadic life of uncertainty and doubt, it’s a fun-fair of emotions with seemingly endless high’s and low’s. I particularly don’t enjoy each ending each week with a late Friday night clean ups, turning a lived-in family home into a spotless display home for a 15-minute open house of a Saturday morning. Some weeks it’s one or two people, occasionally it’s four. And the feedback is the same—lovely home, nice space, but those river stones are a nightmare, it’s not fenced down one side, and it doesn’t have a shed.

In the meantime, we’re still working through our caravan options, but there’s not a great deal on the used market. That’s not quite true, as there is quite a bit on the market, but nothing we’re keen to spend the next 5 years in. And with the house back on the market, well, this only serves to build further uncertainty but, surprisingly, no real doubt. Anyway, back to the drawing board as we wait for the next opportunity. And while we wait, here’s to another Friday night making the house look less lived in.