Harold's Renovation Blog: #56: The Big Mistake We Made Selling Our House By Owner

With another wave of decluttering washing over our house, we’re looking back at our last yard sale and the strange trick we used to make it a fast-selling success (and the minor detail we overlooked that nearly turned it into a major disaster). We’re also talking about how we sold both of our homes without a realtor, and what five things you should consider before you go the For Sale By Owner route yourself – including the HUGE misstep we made when putting our first home on the market. You’ll also hear why we’ve given up on one area of our yard looking pretty anymore (we’ve just opted for pure function), and Sherry shares her new favorite footwear.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, and TuneIn Radio – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to see the player.

What’s New

Above are two photos we included with our yard sale listing a couple of years ago when we were clearing out our storage room before finishing our bonus room. It was mostly unused decor and leftover projects from our book, so naturally we had to style a nice arrangement and break out the good camera, right? #crazypeople
If you missed our original podcast about dramatically paring down our kids toys (and the unexpected effect it had), you can listen to it below (Episode #45)

And if you want more yard sale stories and pointers, here are some tips from our first yard sale and some suggestions for keeping a yard sale from stressing you out.

Can We Just Talk About

Above is our much-asked-about under-counter microwave (you can read more about our kitchen renovation here)
In our past kitchens, we’ve also put a microwave in a pantry, hid a microwave in an upper cabinet, and built an above-range microwave into a spot that WASN’T above the range.

And if you have our second book, Lovable Livable Home, we run down the pros and cons of various microwave placements on page 114 (including another twist on the under-counter microwave).

What’s Not

Here’s Lonny’s list of 25 Interior Design Trends That Are Better In Theory

Listener Question

Here’s more info on what we did to sell our second house by owner and a precise timeline of how it all went down
Here’s what we learned from selling our first house by owner, and more info about how we handled (mishandled?) showings with potential buyers

We’re Digging

Here’s the hose reel that we got to finally wrangle our garden hose in the backyard (and we repurposed the old hose pot as an actual pot for a fern)!
I also contemplated one like this, but I pictured myself ~~having to~~ failing to constantly clean leaves and spiders out of the box, just like my failed hose pot situation. (Rule #1 in hose-wrangling: know thy self)
Although I am considering a down-the-line upgrade to a wall-mounted one so I won’t have leaves collecting around the base of the cart version I have, but so far I’m loving the reel function.
Last but not least, here are the “incognito flip-flops” that Sherry’s loving – Havaiana’s Freedom Sandal and Flash Urban Sandal (they look like sandals but they feel like flip flops).

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to The Annie Selke Companies for sponsoring this episode. Visit AnnieSelke.com/YHL to shop bedding, furniture, rugs – including indoor/outdoor styles like the one shown below – and more (we’re feeling this one too). Don’t forget to use the code YHL15 to get 15% off any Annie Selke order.