It’s normal to have house envy. Daydreaming about homes for sale in Santa Fe, NM, or Atlanta, GA can be hard to resist — especially when you’ve started to outgrow your current digs. But even if you’re longing to pick up and start fresh, the truth is that selling a home can be a challenging experience. So why not celebrate the fact that, for the time being, you’re not jumping through hoops for buyers or your real estate agent?
Here are six reasons to turn those restless feelings into reasons to be thankful this season.
1. Freedom
We all have demanding schedules, but selling your home comes with its own calendar madness. Between buyers wanting to see your home at the last minute and paperwork demands, your already-full plate may threaten to overflow.
Until you’re ready sell a house, revel in your freedom. Live your life without worrying about being kicked out of your home when you’re preparing dinner. Thinking of taking a weekend trip and dropping off the grid? Perfect! There’s no reason to stress about cell reception and missed calls from your agent or a weak Wi-Fi signal for those countersigned PDFs you have to send back ASAP. Plus, you’ve got plenty of time to tackle those pre-listing upgrades and repairs — on your own timeline.
2. Relaxing weekends at home
Selling your home usually comes with the requisite open house — at the most inopportune times. (There goes your weekend.) Since you can’t make Fido host your weekend open house, you’ll spend your days off prepping your home for visitors and then driving around town trying to find a dog-friendly spot to watch the big game.
Until it’s time to sell, you can don your favorite jersey and grab your bowl of trail mix; you’re settling in for a long afternoon of cozy couch time and football.
3. Comfortable clutter
They way we live in a home is not always the most effective way to sell a home. Clutter-free countertops, perfectly organized closets, and professional staging are home-selling standards. It can be exhausting to maintain a perfectly tidy home every day.
Since you’re staying put, live it up and embrace the clutter-rich life. (Yes, that’s right — clutter-rich.) Feel free to stack the breakfast dishes in the sink until lunch. Best of all, with no buyers clomping through your home, there’s no need to drop your dog at the kennel. Go ahead and let him snooze on the bed; so what if there’s a little dog fluff on your duvet cover?
4. No interruptions
Demanding work schedule? If your home is on the market, you might have to finagle a way to cut that important client meeting short, reschedule it (again), or try to convince your significant other that it’s their turn to tackle preshowing tasks.
For now, enjoy that you won’t get called away to run home and turn on all the lights before a showing with just 10 minutes’ notice. You don’t have to hustle your pup to the car and hang out for an hour while strangers debate your home decor choices. You have the luxury of planning out your days with only your clients — or your boss — to keep happy.
5. Selling sadness
Leaving your home and moving to a new location is a mixture of excitement and sadness. The gnarly old fig tree in the backyard moved you to buy the place. Your initials are in the cement in the driveway. Leaving your comfort zone can be, well, uncomfortable and emotional.
If you’re feeling restless, rather than imagine a move across town, why not consider some smallish home improvement projects? Whether you’re the DIY type or hiring professionals, you don’t have to spend a lot to have a huge impact.
6. Holiday cheer
Many of us have special holiday traditions, and selling your home during the holiday season has a way of derailing the best-laid plans. Instead of hosting the perfect bash, you’ll be frantically packing and scheduling the movers. Not the ideal way to celebrate.
So this year, enjoy spending the winter right where you are, hanging the stockings and ringing in the new year. Settle into the season with a smile. Go nuts this year and decorate every surface with kitschy singing snowmen and blow your electricity budget like Clark Griswold.
Bonus: Extend your holiday spirit and invite your weary neighbors with a for-sale sign in their front yard over for a drink. Chances are, they could really use a relaxing cup of (spiked) eggnog.
