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Essy
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Arghhh...my realtor came by last night to update us on how things are going with the selling of our house. It's been on the market one month and we've only had one offer so far...way too low though and the people obviously weren't interested in negotiating. Anyhow....she happened to mention the different religious articles that I have all over my home. I actually started getting a little ticked (she's Catholic too,mind you). I told her that I refuse to remove anything...if people don't like it that is their problem. It's not like I'm leaving anything behind when the house sells. Quite frankly I don't even think I have all that much. I don't even have a full fledged altar anymore...lol...she should have seen it then. Anyway...this same realtor had no problem sending all her clients stuff in the mail about Feng Shui...double arghhhh.
Ok...so all those of you who have sold homes(or are in the process)...did you have to remove any of you 'Catholic stuff'?.
Essy
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JennGM
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I took a lot of personal pictures and extra "stuff" that looked messy and cluttered, but didn't take down my crucifixes and pictures. Granted, I didn't have too many religious articles, but the ones I had were obvious. My realtor wasn't Catholic and never had a problem with it.
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Servant2theKing
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Essy, we faced similar situations when we've sold homes in the past...your household reflects the kind of home you are selling, and in turn will attract the type of buyer you'd hope to entrust it to. Your realtor must have seen the religous articles in your home before contracting to sell it for you, and if that was never discussed when such arrangements were made, you have nothing to be concerned about. Simply let your realtor know that you feel strongly about your faith and believe that you should not compromise your beliefs in order to sell a house. Housing markets are very slow, so I think realtors tend to go overboard looking for ways to make a sale. Rather than taking down your religious articles, you might do better focusing on having a neat, clutter free home (as much as possible) and simply making it as warm, inviting and appealing as you are able. It's difficult to keep a home "show ready" with young children and selling a home can be very stressful. Be at peace and trust that your religious articles will not adversely effect the sale of your home. One month is not very long....if you're meant to sell, it WILL happen. Trust in God's perfect timing!
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mathmama
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Personally, I think that having the Catholic things around will end up being a selling point (of course this is coming from a Catholic  ) This has been my experience: when dh and I were buying we were much more interested in the houses that were obviously owned by devote Catholics and also the ones owned by devote Jews (we live in a very Jewish area where most of the Jews are orthodox). Part of the reason for this I think was that we felt more comfortable dealing with God fearing people who would be family centered. Also, good friends of ours bought their first house from devote Catholics and I think that it was the thing that really helped them to take the plunge with that house. They felt very comfortable contacting the owners and kind of left out the realtor except for closing. It made the whole process go more smoothly and they are all still friends.
Good luck!
Beth
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Lisbet
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Essy, The housing market is VEEERRRRYYYY SLLLOOOOOWWW right now. Ours has been up for 6 months, our contract expires next week. We've had dozens of viewings, but no offers, yet all positive feedback. We do have many religious articles up, the focal point of our living room is an Apostolic blessing from JPII. I will not take it down, and would be highly offended it our realtor suggested it. (she's a very devout Catholic too.)
It's really really hard, I know, I am so frustrated with the whole process too. We are tempted to call an investor when our contract expires. We are not even looking to make any money off the house, just pay back what we owe, so that might be our quickest route. It's already priced $10,000 lower than the others in our neighborhood, and ours is by far the biggest.
Keep plugging away, it will eventually sell. (our neighbors house took 2 full years to sell.)
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Martha
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I have removed just about everything in my home that is not used for daily living. I'm packing it up and putting it in the garage. No one told me to, I just know it makes the house look more open and spacious. Besides, I hope that this way we'll be nearly completely packed by the time we move - again hopefully soon! 
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Lorri
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Have you ever seen that show "Sell This House"? I think that's what it's called. The sellers end up having to remove everything in their house that is personal- knicknacks, family pictures, that sort of thing. Potential buyers come in and get distracted by those things and cannot picture the house as belonging to THEM. They see it as YOUR house. I don't think it's so much that seeing Catholic things is offensive. It's that anything personal takes away from the overall look of the house.
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juststartn
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I'm figuring that we'll be moving (eventually) before we actually have a sale on this house....and even if we don't, I know I will be packing up as much as possible beforehand, and putting it into storage til we do. Since I have a very small house, and a lot of stuff (and by alot, I really mean *ALOT*)...
I agree that a lot of people have difficulties seeing beyond what "is" and to the potential house that they could have. People want to picture themselves living there...and if they aren't devout in anyway shape of form, in any religious practice, they are likely going to feel a bit more, well, weirded out, by another families religious articles.
It can be annoying, esp to have one's realtor suggest it. Maybe cut it back a bit more? Not completely eliminate it, but just pack up a few more things?
HTH, and I hope that you get a great offer really soon...
Rachel
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Essy
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Well...here's the virtual tour...you can see for yourselves. http://estemomento.blogspot.com/2007/01/virtual-tour.html
The only thing not shown is a large statue of Our Lady of Fatima in my dining room buffet...I think it looks very tasteful though. The other things if you look carefully are a crucifix in the living room and a few statues in the downstairs bedroom that belongs to my dad. There is also a St. Joseph statue in the back yard...but my neighbor has one of Our Blessed Mother.
I don't know...maybe I got a tad touchy...but I think it did offer a good opportunity to speak to my realtor about religious matters anyway.
I think I'm going to leave most of it as is, if anything...maybe just move Our Lady of Fatima to a different area other then the dining room...maybe to our learning room?
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MrsKey
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I've come to the conclusion (after selling a home and watching my parents trying to sell) that the people who look at homes are ridiculously short sighted.
Someone didn't like the colour my parents kitchen is painted. It is a very light mauve colour (just a tone or two off from being white it is so pale). So they didn't put in an offer. Doh! Have they never heard of paint?
Someone else didn't like seeing boxes. Doh! They're packing to move. What are the supposed to do with the boxes?
Yet another person didn't like their couch. Hello? The furniture isn't staying!
I may never ever sell the house I live in now simply because I don't want to ever have to deal with people who expect to buy an existing home without making any changes whatever - and then complaining about even the things that don't stay in the house.
I understand if the floor plan doesn't work. Or you don't like the kitchen. These are things that are not easily changeable. But paint? Window coverings? Other people's furniture or art? That's just nutty.
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MrsKey
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Just looked at the virtual tour. Wow! It's a beautiful home and it looks lovely. I cannot imagine you'd have to worry too much about "clutter" or "too much furniture" and I didn't see an over abundance of religious articles.
But that's just my opinion. But then, I don't mind looking at a house that looks like people actually still live there. Maybe I'm just weird.
The ironic thing is that empty houses (where people can clearly picture anything they want) don't show/sell well either. People are apparently way too picky.
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kingvozzo
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Just watched the tour, and it's a beautiful home! Our realtor in TX did mention something about removing our crucifixes. It seemed like he didn't think the "Christians" would like it--I guess it was too "Catholic?" Dh and I just ignored it. The house was only on the market for a couple of weeks with us living there, and was shown empty for the rest of the time.
And, I heartily agree with Carole--people are really nutty when it comes to the things that turn them off to a house. It's not that I'm above critiquing someone's decorating when I'm looking at houses  , it's just that's not the important thing!
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Lisbet
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We've looked at tons of houses in the past year, and we totally skim over the decor and personal belongings. It is difficult to look at a cluttered house, but not a house that looks like someone lives there and takes care of it. Mechanicals and floor plan are the things that we inspect, other than that, we know we'll be making things suit our family and our taste.
Your house looks lovely.
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doris
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I agree, the house looks absolutely lovely, and very 'decluttered' already.
We moved last summer, and similarly got extremely fed up with the ridiculous feedback from people along the lines of 'There's not enough space downstairs' or 'Where will I put my bootroom?' (It was a Victorian semidetached house, not a country mansion!).
We did, however, put away all personal items. Took down all the children's artwork which adorned our family room; put away all our photoframes; and just depersonalised it as much as possible. It didn't occur to us to take away our religious items, though!
It took us a while to sell the house, not helped by the fact that our first agent (=realtor) was useless. Once we switched, it sold within three days.
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Erin
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I have heard that all personal objects should be taken down too. So that would also include not having up too many photos of your dc etc. It is so that the prospective buyer can imagine themselves in your home, they need to walk in and think 'Johnny will sleep there and Clare can have this room' etc.
When we were still living in our house I took down most of the personal items which included most of our altar, but so that God didn't feel like I was neglecting him we left the basics.
However once we had moved out we still had various things left in the house. I questioned the real estate agent and she advised me to remove all but a couple of pieces of furniture, in effect she wanted all of my books out and other personal items, she said that people had to be able to imagine themselves there. I thought it a fair enough comment. If I went into a home with a Buddha it could easily turn me off buying the house that otherwise might be perfect for me. After all I can always bless the house when I buy it 
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guitarnan
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I think this is all about media-driven perception. My brother and s-i-l just sold a house (without hiring the California-typical "Staging" folks who take out nearly ALL your stuff and bring in fake furniture arrangements!), and they were told to remove 2/3 of their stuff (they hardly have any furniture and my s-i-l hates knick-knacks, so they have none of those!).
I couldn't accomplish this...we're homeschooling Catholics...what would I do with all the school junk and our boxes in the attic? And how would I keep my sanity without my kitchen saints? (They are on my cupboard doors, my fridge...even an extraterrestrial could figure out that I am Catholic by looking at my kitchen!)
One of dh's friends had to take down his collection of fishing memorabilia when he put his house on the market in Tampa.
I think it's all silly. If people can't imagine themselves in a house unless some furniture stager "decorates" it to help them, what has happened to creative thinking????
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Dawnie
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Our realtor advised us to take down our religious articles, too. There was a small altar in the children's room which was set up on a wall shelf and LOTS of beautiful religious paintings and icons everywhere. I had some Mary statues on my dresser, too.
The only thing I took down were most of the family photos. I had lots of framed pictures of my children on dressers and the piano that I took down, but I left the ones that were hanging on the wall.
I was also really offended when my realtor suggested taking down the religious art. She said "It really freaks some people out." After thinking over it, I decided that I was not going to remove the art in order to help sell the house. I felt that honoring the images of Jesus and Mary in our home could only HELP us, not hurt us. (that is not a criticism of anyone who has chosen to do the opposite...just my personal feelings when we were in that situation)
It took almost a year for us to even receive an OFFER on our house. And that was after we had moved out of it and it was vacant. It's a buyers market right now, and even more so in other parts of the country. I think what finally allowed us to sell our house (in addition to the grace of God!) was lowering the price to be more competitive and doing some updating. The sad truth is that buyers are not going to pay the same (or more) for a house that needs repairs and updating when they can just walk down the street and buy another house that has everything they want. There are lots of houses on the market right now, and so you have to be competitive by either pricing your house lower, or updating so that your house has all the amenities and updating the houses of comparable price have.
Here is a recent thread where some of us who had houses on the market shared our complaints...and lessons learned. 
Dawn
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Realtor woes...
