TAKING IT WITH ME!
When emotion puts greater value on a home’s trappings
A curious thing about real estate is that everyone starts out believing they are selling or buying a house. Not entirely true. The thing about those simple four walls and a roof is that it’s the shelter of countless memories, adventures, decisions, and all the chattels of a life well-lived and well-loved. So when a deal gets to be a tug-of-war, it’s often those small things that manifest and become the twisted, taut rope between clients. They may set out with the intention of selling a $500K house, but end up tugging at that fraying rope for a $50 pressed-plywood bookshelf.
The stories abound and, like any collection, they get better with each annual market.
Formidable Faucets
“I’m taking it with me!,” she yelled over the phone line like a battle cry on a Scottish highland. The seller, who had spent her last year painstakingly picking out the most beautiful European finishes for the renovated bathrooms, was angered by the buyer who wasn’t showing ample gratitude. “I paid $800 for those faucets, and I’m ripping them out!” Eventually, the faucets stayed, but unfortunately, the side-eye sneer shot across the settlement table stuck too.
Cushioning The Argument
There was once thousands of dollars being held in escrow after settlement and vehemently argued over for weeks thereafter all to decide the fate of the patio cushions. Not the patio furniture itself, but the cushions that belonged on them. The buyer believed it all had been promised to them, but the seller was making a churlish point that while the Pottery Barn outdoor furniture may have been a misunderstanding, they never offered up the cushions! They snatched up those weather-proof, Sunbrella cushions with a twinkle in their eye and visions of umbrella drinks in their head.
It’s Curtains For You!
A discerning buyer with a good eye often notes the value of something in a home that isn’t as noticeable to others. In a historic DC home, the curtains were perfectly sized for the numerous extra-tall windows and the older period of the home. The buyer was caught off guard when, at the final walkthrough, the curtains were missing even though they had been listed as conveying with the home. She had been counting on them and understood how challenging and expensive it would be to buy customized replacements! The seller claimed the curtains were family heirlooms - although that didn’t quite seem to match the age of them - and the buyer put up a good fight, finding an interior designer who could legitimately value them as having a $36,000 replacement cost. The seller sheepishly had to return them, directing their dutiful agent to drop them on the front porch.
Dimming The Deal
No matter the years and the number of deals, there’s always an even more nonsensical story to add to my list. Our buyers were shocked to find that all of the dimmer switches (yes, those $20 dimmer switches) had been removed throughout the house, leaving numerous gaping holes in the walls, and the seller also took the trash can that fit into the pull-out trash bin. We’re not certain why the seller thought there was a shortage of these inexpensive and replaceable accessories (this was long before today’s container supply issue at the ports), so we gently helped direct the seller to the nearest Home Depot.
No Longer Tickling The Ivory
What to do when a seller actually wants to leave something behind at the property? Take the heavy oak desk on the third floor (how did it even get up there?), the riding lawnmower that the sellers really won’t need at their next downsized condo, or the scary-looking fire safe in the basement that dates back to the 1940s. The most burdensome, most frequent, item is often the upright piano. It seems these days charitable goodwill organizations won’t even pick them up, churches of all faiths don’t need them, and elementary school children aren’t being duly saddled with piano lessons. There is a huge challenge to finding a way to get rid of a piano - even for free. In a house full of items to be sorted and dispensed, Grandma’s piano is often the final item to be figured out. There are countless images in my mind of an empty house, with this one lone piece of furniture stuck in a living room corner like a Christmas fruitcake - it’s pretty but no one is biting.
To choose real estate as a profession means actually coaching through the human complexities in these sticky episodes. Would anyone put up such a fuss if these relatively diminutive belongings weren’t actually embedded in a whole history of memories that simply can’t be “conveyed” so easily. It’s a constant reminder to our team that we aren’t merely selling houses, we’re transitioning lives.
