Old house on the market and all the feelings

[lessel]

We sold our first home in 2019. It was the first house we owned and we lived there for almost 10 years. It’s kind of throwing me for a loop how sad it makes me to see the listing pictures. The current owners renovated the 3 bathrooms, which was always on our wish list. We did the kitchen when we lived there and I just miss it *so much.* Our current kitchen is kind of more galley-style and I miss my island terribly.

Our current house is totally functional, has much more storage, and totally fits our family better. But it’s just a brick colonial that’s nothing special and I miss being the couple with the cool house. I feel like my heart is still with that place. There was just something special about it, despite it’s lack of closet space and my never-ending home improvement list (some of which the current owners still haven’t done and I see in the listing pics, lol).

Mostly this is just rambling because I’m surprised by how emotional I am about it because I was very ready to move a few years ago. Maybe it’s mixed with longing for pre-COVID times too. Who knows. Curious if others have felt weird seeing listing pics of their old houses. (Like, someone else’s furniture is in *my* house!)

(Oh and apparently they had an insane open house and a pile of offers and it’s likely going to break a record for sales price in our old ‘hood.)

[Susie]

Aw, I think I would totally feel that way if our old house went back up for sale.  It hasn't been a year for us yet, so it's a bit soon now.  But I would feel kind of sad.

Our current house's original owners were clearly feeling it too.  The original owners sold in 2019, and then their buyers sold to us in 2021.  The middle owners only owned it for like 24 months plus 5 days or so, to avoid capital gains tax.  I think I've told the story before on here, about how the original owners' adult son reached out to us via our agent, to ask about buying/getting a workbench that had conveyed with the house.  The original owners were also still getting packages at the house this summer, two years and two owners later.  It was weird.  But anyway.

In our case, the intervening owners did essentially nothing.  In the entire house, the only thing I have found that changed from the 2019 listing (which I can still find online) to the 2021 listing is one toilet was replaced (it was shell pink to match the pedestal sink and is now white, so it's apparent).  It's probably for the best that the original owners can't see how much we've changed this first year!

[dr.girlfriend]

Aw, that house is super-beautiful, and I can 100% imagine feeling the same way about some place you spent 10 years in!

[Bad Dingo]

I absolutely adore that style, I can see why you'd be feeling nostalgic.

[dancingirl21]

That is a really cool house. I can see why you miss it.

Our first house went up for sale about a month ago. You better believe I stalked the pictures and the listing. I can’t wait to see what they sell at. They did not much to the house (it didn’t need much), other than painting the kitchen cabinets a different color and adding a backsplash. It was weird to see “my” house with other people’s furniture, so I get it!

[pumpkin]

It’s beautiful and I can completely understand why you have feelings about this.

[maudefindlay]

Knock it off! Quit looking!

It is a very cool house, love the ceiling and kitchen. You moved for reasons though and they were good ones. Focus on your current house and what you love about it.

[nicolewi]

That's a cool house!

I would totally feel emotional, too. I think that's very normal.

Our BIL & SIL bought our old house, five miles from where we live now, and we go there often. I STILL sometimes feel nostalgic when we are there, especially in the rooms they didn't change at all. It just brings back memories of that time in our lives when my kids were really tiny (and one wasn't even born yet). We were super ready to move, it's just that it brings back memories for me.

[magpie]

I saw my old house as an airbnb listing once when I was looking for a place to stay to visit the area again (we moved across the country). Even though I'm glad we moved and I know it was the best choice for us, it made me feel all kinds of something to see the changes that had been made. It also felt really weird to imagine lots of random people using my former living room, the bathroom we renovated, our old bedroom, etc! We ended up not taking the trip because of the pandemic, but there was no way we would have chosen to stay in our old house had we gone. It would have been way too emotional.

[magpie]

Also, I really like your old house! It IS cool!

[definitelyO]

agree. even when I sold my old house (my very first home) - I had repainted the bedrooms to make it "marketable" and lol - the new owners repainted it back to the original colors I had

and now I'm off to Zillow that house

ETA - GULP:

bought for $126k (1999),  sold for 187K (2004)

Zillow estimate = $615,000

2bed/1bath, 800 sqft

it now appears to be a rental and I think they tried to turn the 1 car not attached garage into a living space??

[ssmjlm]

We're not far from our old house and our horrific buyer ended up renting it. The front is all overgrown and there's grass all over the flower beds. The azaleas I babied for years to re-bloom are now beyond fix.

It's depressing, but I'm not shocked based on her demands when buying. I would have just hoped a few youtube videos would have prevented it from becoming such an eyesore.

[dr.girlfriend]

Feb 22, 2022 0:09:02 GMT -5 definitelyO said:

agree. even when I sold my old house (my very first home) - I had repainted the bedrooms to make it "marketable" and lol - the new owners repainted it back to the original colors I had

and now I'm off to Zillow that house

ETA - GULP:

bought for $126k (1999),  sold for 187K (2004)

Zillow estimate = $615,000

2bed/1bath, 800 sqft

it now appears to be a rental and I think they tried to turn the 1 car not attached garage into a living space??

Wow, hope wherever you ended up moving appreciated at the same rate!  :-D

[definitelyO]

Feb 22, 2022 15:06:58 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

Feb 22, 2022 0:09:02 GMT -5 definitelyO said:

agree. even when I sold my old house (my very first home) - I had repainted the bedrooms to make it "marketable" and lol - the new owners repainted it back to the original colors I had

and now I'm off to Zillow that house

ETA - GULP:

bought for $126k (1999),  sold for 187K (2004)

Zillow estimate = $615,000

2bed/1bath, 800 sqft

it now appears to be a rental and I think they tried to turn the 1 car not attached garage into a living space??

Wow, hope wherever you ended up moving appreciated at the same rate!  :-D

..ish…

bought in 2004 for $320,000

the house across the street from us w/o a basement, smaller sqft, and detached garage sold a few months ago for $821,000.

[dr.girlfriend]

definitelyO,

Wow!

[ellipses84]

That was an amazing house and I would totally feel the same way.

You inspired me to look up our first house, which was a very meh, small 4 bedroom/ 2 bath ranch (and our current house is very similar). I was a little nostalgic but my only sadness is that we didn’t hang onto it because we didn’t think we’d move back to the area and the value went way up. We made a decent profit when we sold but it went from $300k to $600k in the past 7 years (resold in ‘21).

I painted the interior pale yellow right before we sold which I know isn’t common but it looked so good and it’s still that color. My biggest regret was not renovating the kitchen when we first moved in and I’m shocked it still hasn’t been renovated. Someone added some crappy cabinets and counters onto the end of the old ones that don’t even match! The old counter and backsplash are white square tile with an ugly fruit border and the added counter is a really cheap looking faux stone laminate. They did some other stuff like partial bathroom remodels that look a little better but it’s a lot of DIY and it doesn’t look much better than when we sold. It would probably be worth $100k more with a kitchen remodel.

[wildrice]

That is a very cool house! I can see being sad!

I just looked up my first house that I owned. I moved out in 2013 when I split with my XH. It has appreciated to about $215k, and we bought it in 2009 for 145k so that's a big percentage. Makes me almost wish I had hung onto it - I had put a lot of work into painting, gardening, etc so I had been sad to leave it behind. We live halfway across the country at this point so obviously I wouldn't still be living there regardless.

It hasn't been listed since we moved so there are no updated pics, but Google maps makes it look like the backyard is a mess. I spent many hours digging in the dirt with my (now dead) dogs by my side. Weird to think about the other life that I had back then!