Selling Your House Isn’t Easy

Selling your house is a lot of work!  Every night after the kids go to bed we clean up the house to prepare for any potential showings the next day.  Then we switch to buyer mode and spend time looking over and discussing new houses for sale that might be a good fit for us.  Factor in having to vacate our house on short notice anytime a realtor wants to show it and this last month has been rather exhausting.

I remember when we were debating whether to put our house on the market we finally decided to just give it a try and see how the market treated us. We didn’t realize how much work it would be preparing the house to sell, keeping it ready to sell, and looking for a new house that met our criteria.  I’m still glad we decided to list our house because we’ve learned a lot about the market and the process. However, some advice to anyone thinking about selling their house, it will be a lot of work so be sure you’re ready!

Strangely enough, I haven’t written much about selling or buying a house in the last month. I think this is partly because my brain is saturated with house buying and selling so it’s nice to take a break.  However, I am taking notes and I’ll be sure to share in the future what we’ve learned.  Here’s a summary of what we’ve covered over the last month.

Marriage & Money

One highlight of last month was our ten year wedding anniversary.  I shared the things that have helped my wife and I not argue about money in the Seven Habits of Financially Healthy Couples.  I also went over some things you can do before you get married to save your marriage from money problems.

Credit Cards

I shared an email  I received for American Express customers about how you can earn $25 for referring friends and family for the American Express Blue Cash Bonus.  I also mentioned the credit card reviews site that I’ve been publishing to off and on for the last few years but hadn’t pointed out before.

Saving Money

We’ve been going back and forth for a while over whether we should join Costco and we finally did once we found a good deal.  I shared the different Costco membership discounts I came across when researching how to save money on joining.  We took advantage of the wholesale prices for our son’s birthday, which was one of my 10 tips for  cheap kids birthday parties.

Summer time is full of big movie blockbusters and we spent a lot of money going to the movies last month so I pointed out how you can buy discount movie tickets on Angies List.

Travel

Since summer is a good time for family trips I went over some ways that you can get your car ready for a roadtrip.  If you’re going to be doing a lot of driving you might want to check out the best gas credit cards and also the Q&A I did on gas credit cards. My favorite question was whether you could register for gas for your wedding : )

Of course you don’t want to be driving around, especially on long trips without car insurance.  There are several ways you can buy insurance (brokers, captive agents, or direct writers)  which I look at in what’s the best way to buy auto insurance.

Finance

I wrote about a touchy subject that many people have probably dealt with, borrowing money from family.  I tried not to give an opinion on whether you should or shouldn’t, but rather went over some of the reasons why people find themselves in that position.

One topic that’s not a personal finance subject but is something people should be aware of is how to find a locksmith without being scammed.  I didn’t realize the shady practices that were going on in that industry and how much money people were being scammed out of until I read some articles on the subject and decided to share what I’d learned.

Just a few days ago I wrote about an ING Direct Promotion they were running for the July 4th holiday where you could earn $76 by opening an account.  The promotion has ended but just wanted to mention it’s a good reason to sign up for free updates so you can keep up on similar deals that pop up.

I hope you’re having a nice holiday weekend and look forward to giving you more good money posts in the month to come!

Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

All posts by Ben Edwards