I held my first yard sale last month, after the great decluttering project.  A veteran yard sale holder, I had the whole process down to a science.  I rose at dawn (I’ve always wanted to write “I rose at dawn”), poured a travel mug of coffee, and drove around the neighborhood posting signs with arrows leading the way to my house.  Back at home I gradually moved the car-sized pile of goods out to the driveway.  Our garage door [...]

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It seems like a cliche, doesn’t it?  “We’re moving, so we’re having a yard sale.”  Or tag sale, or garage sale, or estate sale – whatever you want to call it, you’re simply unloading your neglected crap on somebody else.  But you know what they say about one man’s trash being another man’s treasure.  Even I have been known to delight at a yard sale bargain more than once.

I used to hold a yard sale just about every August, when [...]

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It was all well and good when we set our goal of listing our house in January.  We decided on that a few months ago.  The first hurdle was the Great Master Bath Remodel, which is coming to a close in the next week or so.  I was content knowing that the rest of the work was months away.  And by “the rest of the work” I am referring to the gargantuan task of making our house – which has [...]

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And Myrna, bless her, has a fairy-godmother-like air about her. That is, the kind of fairy godmother who chain-smoked for 30 years and had a biker husband who served as full-time chauffeur.

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There are two homes for sale right across the street from my friend Liz. We both got excited when we saw the listing, and squealed and said “Wouldn’t that be fun?!” After all, we’ve known each other since our kids were babies, and her neighborhood is my target area. In fact, her advice has been helpful in guiding me through this whole real estate adventure. How convenient it would be to have her just steps away. [...]

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So I found a REALTOR on Twitter.  I found LOTS of them.  Thanks, you guys!

I didn’t just get one more person to interview, I got a new network of real estate professionals to whom I can turn with serious questions.  They’re on their way, just around the bend, since my goal is to list my home in January.  That’s um, next month.  O.  M.  G.

Of the many fine people who came forward, this REALTOR got my name wrong at first.  [...]

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I keep doing it. It’s a compulsion, like my nightly dip into the kids’ Halloween candy for just one more piece.

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Real estate professionals have so much to gain from using social media tools, and coming late to the Twitter game may mean losing out on opportunities.

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Joe Celentano, a dear old friend of mine, became a real estate agent in Connecticut many years ago after a long career in the restaurant industry.  He’d had enough of that – the hassle, the expense, the 24/7 worry.  Real estate is not without worry, of course, but the reward he feels when he helps a family find a home they love is worth it for him.

If I hadn’t stumbled into a relationship with an agent here in Los [...]

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(If I saved every realtor notepad I have been given, I would never need one more sheet of paper. Ever.)

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