How Selling A House Is Like Revising A Manuscript

Most everyone who reads this blog is aware I've been trying to sell my house for some time now. Lately, it's been off the market, but the idea remained in the far recesses of my mind. Kind of like an idea for a story. You know how it is. Your idea begins with a lightbulb moment,

a big what if? Same with putting a house up for sale. The house is too big, too many stairs, so why not sell it? What if I could move to a warmer climate? And so it begins. You toy with the idea for a while, weigh the pros and cons, come up with plot points, action to be taken, create one list after another and finally, decide to put pen to paper.

And just like with writing a manuscript, sometimes you need to step back and revise your work. Often times, in my case. I'm taking a workshop right now that's making me look at my writing in a completely different way, try out new approaches to the work. It's making me a better writer, one scene at a time. As for the house, I did a thorough edit of each room, removing clutter, making it as clean and polished as I could before I let anyone see the place. And it worked! I thought I had a completed transaction, or nearly so. The couple had visited multiple times, they mentally placed their furniture in the various rooms, they were ready to go. We were at lift-off. But then, it all fell apart.

So what do you do? As I see it, there are two options in both writing and selling a house. You can give up, shove the manuscript under the bed, take the house off the market and continue on, unfulfilled on both counts. Or, you can hire a professional who can ease the way for you, show you where you're having trouble, guide you to a finished, polished manuscript which will garner you an agent who will obtain a nice contract with maybe an advance. Same with the house, hire a professional who will obtain a solid contract on your house that will result in enough of a profit to buy something smaller and more suitable.

I choose to go full speed ahead on both counts. I've got one week down on the two-week workshop which is making my manuscript sellable. And I've hired a realtor to help me sell the house. I have high hopes for both projects and hopefully, by summer time, I'll be writing a killer sequel to this manuscript from a warm and sunny locale. Stay tuned.