House hunting and vice versa
- Laura Moore: Housebroken
- June 20, 2023
- 423
Most people love looking at houses. What most folks don’t know is houses love looking at them.
Not being ambulatory, houses must wait for people to come to them. Once a house is on the market, houses can then expect visitors. When a “for sale sign” or even a “for rent
sign” appears, a house will get what every house craves — attention!
If nice comments are made while a place is being looked at, that house will be ecstatic. If a possible buyer is shown a house and that house feels them unworthy of ownership, that place will suddenly expose any unknown problems such as a constantly running toilet or a possible ill-fitting back door, et cetera.
In case you’ve never heard about it, a snobby house prefers snobby occupants and does her best to discourage buyers she feels do not live up to her standards. A thoughtless, ill-mannered family went to look at a home on the market, and we heard she complained to her neighbors, “Can you believe it? Their little boy kicked me on my baseboards." Those lookers were made to feel very uncomfortable during their visit and left without making an offer. Buyers who fall in love with a place feel very welcome while viewing and usually make an offer.
Taller Half and I looked at several houses before we bought our first. When we first walked into our future home, we were delighted to find it contained exactly what we needed. We ended up selling it to a young couple just starting out like we had, and they
stayed there for years.
Since then we have bought and sold many places, most of which we loved. Of course, there is always that favorite house that we hated leaving but life made her demands, requiring us to move on. That place perhaps will always be our very favorite.
We knew of a great, big, old place not far from our former neighborhood. She was never well cared for, never appealed to any buyers and had few if any lookers. And then one day she was sold, and to the great delight of the neighboring houses, the old place was bought
by a funeral director.
Instead of elegant occupants, that arrogant snob became a funeral parlor! Her neighboring houses were tickled. Then they heard her whisper, “At least my new occupants are very quiet.”