Managing Stress

The one claim realtors make about FSBO’s, that rings absolutely true (at least with me), is how stressful it is to sell your property. Managing the home selling process can be like a full time job. And at one point I let it consume me. I was constantly reading real estate articles (the depressing ones), checking and changing our listings on multiple websites, but most of all I became dependent on the process as a whole. If we weren’t getting phone calls, I was feeling bad. If people were calling and coming by, I was feeling good.

Managing stress is not a factor to be overlooked, when making a decision to sell your home FSBO. If you are the type of person who doesn’t handle stress well in every day situations, I would advise against this route. It is very difficult to let go of something that is looming so large and can seem so important. There are days when I ask myself “Is it worth it? Is the money really worth it?” Because let’s face it, the money is why we are really doing it.

Three weeks after we listed our condo, the stress became unmanageable. I was having back pains, became irritable, and stopped sleeping well. Something had to change, because that was no way to live. So I made a conscious decision to try and focus on something else, and that is when the idea for this blog was born. The blog would provide me with an outlet I desperately needed. The first day that I felt the stress lift, we had our first offer. Chance or not, it was a lesson for me, that stress actually prevented buyers from coming and perusing our home. Imagine yourself walking into someone’s home, and the owners being all stressed out. Subconsciously, you would be turned away, no matter how nice the inside. Please, don’t do this to yourself and your buyers! Learn from my mistake instead.