Earning my Keep

This flipping business is hard work. Ok, well maybe not hard work, but harder than I thought. I’m on Craigslist (CL for short – and trust me I type it so many time a day I need a shortcut somewhere in my life) all the time and have gone into so many disgusting homes my skin is dried out from the gallons of sanitizer and extra showers. Ironically I’m not a hand sanitizer person, just don’t believe in the hype of it, but I actually now carry some in my car for when I leave a house. I went into one yesterday or the day before, looking at a solid wood toy chest advertised as “good” condition. Their idea of “good” condition included a cat pee stain(s) inside the toy chest leaving it smelling of a litter box. Can you just imagine what the house looked like if that’s what they considered “good?”

Yea, I used sanitizer after that one.

Not all of them are bad, most are nice houses and nice people. Occasionally we get a weirdo or two but that’s why we use our safety precautions. But, not all nice houses or nice people equate to clean furniture. I bought a sofa sectional from a really nice guy and his wife. They listed the sofa on CL, plus listed a yard sale. I contacted them immediately. It was a beautiful curved microfiber sectional sofa, less than 3 years old, used in a ‘fancy’ living room only. They had the price low (not so low that we questioned the quality or circumstances – trust me, those are factors) so I set up to go see it first thing. Long story short, after multiple conversations with the couple, multiple visits to their clean house, I bought the sofa for even less than advertised. We moved it, staged it with beautiful pillows, a colorful blanket and a crisp background, and then moved it again. Before the person came to see it, it was my job to set it back up, clean it up in any way it needed. Mostly just combing the fabric, it was a microfiber so the direction of the fibers dictates the color; they all have to be the combed the same way. Plus there were a few water spots and one spot I had to scrub. Now, keep in mind, I had picked this up and moved it three times before this person was coming to see it: once when I bought it, once to stage it and once to set it up prior to sale.  I wasn’t there for the final sale and I’m so glad I wasn’t, I think I would have puked! When the person came to see it, she had the smart idea to move the cushions. (Um, why didn’t I think of that? I assumed since I’d moved it 3 times, flipped it over about as many times and there was never a twitch in the cushions that they didn’t come off) Guess what she found? Food and used Q-tips. Bleh!!! So, not only did we (not me thank goodness) have to play cool about the gunk but had to pick up the Q-tips as if they belonged to one of us. Bleh!!! Thankfully, the person had a good sense of humor about it and still purchased the sofa for more than double what we paid. But, seriously, Bleh!

Most of the work is in the staging of the photos. We firmly believe that a good, clean, crisp background is the key to a good sale. If it’s a decent piece of furniture but the house is a disaster and there’s junk all over it, no one’s going to pay more than $20. Clean it up, stage it with nice accents, make the house look nice in the background and the same piece of furniture can go for $100-$200. I kid you not! All of that means though, that I have to have a place to put all these tables, sofas, hutches, book cases, etc…And, a place that has a good, clean background and polished accents. The accents aren’t such a task but, moving my furniture out of the way, setting up the new one, wrangling up the kids out of the picture, moving the toys, making sure the dog is out of the way, the floors are vacuumed, the counter in the back is clear, the mirror doesn’t have hand prints on it…its exhausting! Plus, after all that, I have to take back down the piece and put back my things, then do it all again when a potential buyer shows up. None of that includes the pieces that need work. Some need cleaning – real cleaning- some need polishing, sanding and or re-covering. Yea, we’ve made good money but I’m earning my keep for sure!

On a completely separate side note, Anthony has started receiving prank calls from girls. Yep, my little innocent 10 year old boy is getting prank calls from girls at school. They’re calling my number (it’s listed as the primary contact in the school directory) pretending to be another boy in Anthony’s class and then giggling like only a pre-teen girl can. It would be cute if it wasn’t annoying. It would be endearing if it wasn’t the beginning of the end. Right around the corner is the crying girls wanting to know why my son broke their heart, and my son’s heart getting broken. Oh joy!