Well, the process has officially begun for our family. We met with a local realtor on Friday, asked a lot of questions, and listened to their proposal on selling our home. After more prayer, we decided to list our home with them. The plan is that we will sign the paperwork this afternoon, the sign will go in the yard, a Web site will be created that is personalized to our home, and a vitual tour will be created for people to view.

Wow! That's a lot that has to happen to sell our home! And, if all goes well, by the middle of the week, everything will be up and running as it should and people will soon be visiting our home, making notes on what they love, like, and hate about our house.

It seems a little weird to me when people are walking through our house, without us there. I know the realtor is there and he/she watches our stuff. However, it has always seemed just a little weird to have strangers commenting on those things we value and the decorations we have done. We like our house. We like how it looks. To have people commenting, giving negative feedback, and even deciding NOT to buy our house, how dare they!

Then, I stop and think about the other side of the process. In the next few days, my wife and I will begin the tour of homes in our chosen area. We will look them over up one side and down the other. We will look for big things, small things, and probably even make some snide remarks about how they keep the house. We'll eventually decide on a house--it certainly won't be the first, second, or even tenth house we visit, I'm sure.

So, the process goes both ways, I suppose. Our house will be judged while we are judging other people's homes.

Now, the hard part for us is living in a home that will need to look like a museum, well, at least a lived in museum. That's tough to do, especially with a baby in the house! However, we know that we have to do everything in our power to keep the house looking nice, clean, and smelling like home.

Got any selling tips for me? We know the simple stuff: we've cleaned thoroughly, we have everything in place, we have "depersonalized" the house of our photos, we have the yard looking great, and we even have air freshners as you walk in. As I said, I know most of the "tricks of the trade." However, I'm certainly open if you know something that will help us in the process! Comment here or email me privately, if you would like.

After seeing how the house has looked the last few days and then after seeing the "vitual" tour of our home, we might just decide to pull it off the market and stay where we are!