The Hillman Estate, Prepped 4 Sale (Almost)

 

I believe the outside of our house (shown above) is about as nice now as it's ever going to get, so we snapped off some pics. The house is in no way ready to list yet, but I wanted the listing photo to show the bushes in bloom. That only happens in early May each year. I photoshopped out a couple of electrical lines and may have deepened the sky just a tad.

 

If you squint, you can tell that I neglected to fully close the garage door. I'd left it open in case one of the local feral cats had been inside.  Just in front of the garage is our free-standing firepit.  I love that damn thing. The other night, my daughter came inside and said, "I've got a great fire going outside. Wanna see?"  "In a few minutes," I said, "I have to finish up some things."  "Okay," she said, "well, I better get back out to tend it before I burn down the garage."  I tell you, she's a chip off the ol' block.

 

In Pittsburgh, there's a term I'd never heard before: "nebby"  (not to be confused with the legitimate word, nebbish, meaning timid. Our nebby could be a regional northeastern term for all I know, but I'd never encountered it outside of Pittsburgh.) Anyway, it means nosy.  It also surprises me very little that there should be a special term for this quality here, as so many of my neighbors demonstrate this quality in spades. These types of neighbors can become a REAL pain in the ass.

 

As such (and for other reasons I won't go into now), we're going to attempt to sell the house (when the time comes) as discreetly as possible. I'd prefer not to have a "for sale" sign in the yard, for example. And, I don't want any "open house" events.  In my opinion, these don't do too much to help sell the house, anyway. What sells the house is an aggressive realtor and well-written MLS listing, both of which we'll demand.  I'm a firm believer in paying a real estate agent above-market rates (i.e., sign with the 7 or even 8% agent above the discounted ones). Which one is more motivated to sell your house, the one making $7,000, or the one making $10,000?

 

In exchange for my aforementioned real estate peccadilloes, I've decided to build an ultra-kick-ass virtual tour web site, to which the agent can link our various listings. (Well, maybe not "ultra" kick-ass, but definitely kick-ass.) I'll post that link here in the coming months so you can walk around my house.  Should be fun if you're also a little nebby.