Selling A House Is Like....

I've decided that selling a house is kind of like pregnancy.

1. You plan and plan and plan and things never go as you expect.

2. You have to redecorate.

3. You prepare to leave your old life behind you.

4. You wonder if the end result will ever happen.

5. You know the end result has to happen, but you're suddenly nervous because it's going to cause you to begin a whole new adventure.

6. Your stomach gets so upset you want to barf.

7. You wait in anticipation only to discover it was a false alarm.

8. And everyone has great advice about what you should do.

I've taken to heart some of the "Old Wives' Tales" for selling our home. Today, before our Open House began, I made cookies. I baked them so everyone walking into our house would smell them. Then I put them on a platter for potential buyers to eat. That's right. I will bribe people to buy my house if necessary.

It reminded me of a story I heard when I first went back to school in 2003. I was preparing for my first audition on the theatre. A young woman entered into her audition and confidently walked toward the front of the room to her "hot spot" which is right where the spotlight shines the brightest. As she approached the light, she tripped, stumbled, and fell to the ground. She got up and knocked the director's socks off with her great audition. Her secret was this: she practiced that fall nearly as much as she practiced her audition piece. She knew that in a cattle call of good auditioners, she needed something else to make her stand out. Everyone remembered her and she got the part. I took this story to heart and decided that if people come through and see ours and other great homes, maybe they'll think, "But remember the house with the cookies...?" Maybe.