Hi! My name is Andrea Hill. I am one of Nora's many Allen cousins and I am also a Nora fan:) As a (slightly) younger cousin I really look up to Nora. I love her enthusiasm and love for life. This isn't the first time she's inspired me to finish a project. My husband and I are "home-improvement impaired" and about 10 years ago she helped us tile our laundry room floor. That actually might have been the last home improvement project we've done...I don't think assembling IKEA furniture really counts.
I live in Provo, Utah and I have 5 children and a great husband. Being a mom really takes most of my energy, time, and patience, but when I get a minute I love to read, run, ski, and discover new places. I love to find a new subject and learn everything I can about it.
In January I learned all about selling a house. The background story behind the project starts in August of 2007. Our family of five moved from Shenzhen, China to St. George Utah. We bought a house in Washington Fields and looked forward to mowing a lawn and left the days of elevators and taxis behind us.
Our China Home
Our St. George Home
Four years later, in 2011, we needed to move to Provo for my husband's new job. In the four years we lived in our house it had depreciated about 50% and so we decided to not sell but rent out our house in St. George. We've learned a few lessons about renting over the last couple of years and now have lots of great landlord stories to share. Housing prices in St. George appreciated enough though in the last year that we decided it was worth a shot to try and sell it.
In January I researched realtors, housing prices,
photographers, the market, comparables, etc. I ended up choosing to try and
sell it FSBO first. My renters were not happy when we broke the news, but understood why we wanted to sell. Everything was going well until I sent in the
photographer and came back with these pictures…
I am looking forward to getting to know all of you better and being inspired by your projects! Thank you Nora!
13 comments:
Ha! Ha! Ha! Those pictures are absolutely terrible! We are going to try and sell our house early next spring and I am debating doing the FSBO thing. I am interested to see how yours plays out. Good luck!
Oh my -- those pictures! I can't believe your renters are such saboteurs. In the meantime before they move -- could you require that they can't be present during showings, to avoid them pointing out (perceived) flaws? I'm glad you got feedback from agents about this. The home Nora rented this fall was sold before their agreement, and I admire her sense of goodwill about it all.
My brother, his wife and 5 of his 6 kids are living in Shenzen (sp?) right now! Small world. He works for IBM. I think they will be there another year and a half.
Holy Cow! Psycho renters!! Best wishes for a smooth and speedy sale next month. It really is a beautiful home!
Do they like it? We had such a great time there. We lived in the Shekou area and made some really great friends. Everyone that was there when we were there has moved back to the states now. My husband visits every so often on business.
Thanks Vanessa:)
Yea, Andrea! I have very slow internet at the moment, so just an inch of both of your home pictures would load yesterday, and I the second I saw the antlers I couldn't stop laughing. I only imagined the rest. Good luck next month, with the taxidermy show on the road, you'll have better luck. Thanks for doing the project as well, it's been so diverse and a real enjoyment for me. Could I talk you into moving to Centerville? Couple of awesome lots behind me and they have an excellent police force!
They do like it. Still adjusting to the food and having to shop every single day, but they are having such a great experience!
My boys would love it:). Good luck with your sale!
Good luck with the selling!
My husband served his mission in Taiwan and has gotten to travel to China for work. One of our (extremely) long term goals is to be able to go to China and Taiwan together!
wow! ummmmmmm, I think you made a good call to have them move so you could sell without any distractions! holy moly! We just bought our first home that we will mostly likely have to rent at some point. I would love to hear your landlord stories!!
Happy house selling-it will all work out! Probably once the museum gets moved out :) Beautiful family and WOW-awesome you lived abroad. I've always wanted to do that with my fam!
Those pictures!!! So funny... We are renting right now and our land lords just told us that they are putting this house up on the market. So I'm on my best behavior so that we can stay here while they try to sell ;). Good luck with selling your house!
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