I can’t postpone writing a post any longer. It’s getting more difficult every day, week, and month that passes without sitting at the computer.

Last May and beginning of June, we started the process of getting our house ready to sell by decluttering, throwing, donating. In June and part of July, I went to Madrid to be with my dad, brother and sister, to visit my family after my mom passed last December. Back home, we moved into the new place in July, we overlapped, and July 30th my house went on the market for sale with the same group we had hired 5 years ago to sell the house we had prior. This time, the experience was very different. The other house, we sold it in 2 days. It was 2019, and houses sold quickly. The agent wasn’t the same person, and, after 2 months with barely any movement, and with my husband and I almost begging for any contact from the agent and the group, we just had it and left the realtor group. My husband had been looking at other possible businesses, and we found Empower Homes, and our new agent, Felix. Night and day. The old group got their listing off the market; the new group came in with a mission. In 6 days, our house sold. When we accepted one of the offers, buyer realtors were still trying to schedule viewings.

We made an assumption, a legitimate one in my opinion, but my husband believes that assumption (that the first group was going to do as good a job this second time around) didn’t happen. But all is well that ends well, and we’re happy to have severed ownership with a home we loved for 3-4 years, but which the last, due to our personal circumstances, became too much.

Right before I visited my family, I read The Age of Innocence, by Wharton, along with Janakay. Best decision ever made. What a fabulous title! And during my 5 weeks in Madrid, I read La Regenta, -and so did she.

Upon finishing La Regenta and up to now, I haven’t read that much, but now that the house drama is over, -along with me starting the new school year back in August, my husband retiring at the end of September, he starting a new job mid-October, my father in law becoming ill with dementia in Malta, my oldest daughter having an accident which only caused her old car to be totaled, and my youngest daughter moving into an apartment a week ago, I definitely have come back to regular reading.

If you are selling a house and it’s not being viewed, or selling, that’s stressful, but it all would have been better had we not followed the advice of the first group, that told us to keep the house very staged: kitchen, living, dinning, our bedroom, and game room upstairs. Maybe they were counting on a quick sale, but that didn’t happen because they failed to analyze the market and the area we were at; thus, our price was always chasing the market, -even with the two price drops we did. We didn’t have proper furniture in the new place, and that made it very difficult as time passed. Our second agent stressed to us how important those first listing days are, and we chose Empower Homes because what looks more costly initially, becomes the best option since their listing process is very backed by data and strategies that maximize the exposure, thus cutting the time in the market and producing a sale at the best money for the market.

With the first group, we lived like if we were camping. Once we fired the first group, the new group took pictures, and after the pictures we brought the game room furniture, sofas and a TV, stools, and that helped so much. Once listed, in the short span of 6 days, we had two offers, and we accepted one of them. When we were in contract, we continued bringing the rest of our furniture, and our new house started to look like a home. We gave some the extra furniture to my daughter who is starting up in her apartment, and we sold the rest, the pieces that had no place here or at my daughter’s place. Now I’m writing from a fully furnished house, comfortable and nice, and no double payments anymore!

These 4 months I only managed to read I Who Have Never Known Men, book that leaves you thinking long after you finish it, the second story of the Zweig compilation, entitled Amok, and 237 pages of Solenoid, which I am savoring and enjoying as I know that books of this quality are not found by the dozen. My goal is to hopefully finish it by the end of the year, and if not, no problem. I’m also going to make time to read Miau, hopefully along with Janakay, who told me she already has a copy of the new translation by Jull. It is not secret that I adore Benito Perez Galdos and his lover, also writer and poet, the unique Emilia Pardo Bazan.