Selling your house before you start travelling

So the time has finally come to sell our house. We spent the last few weeks clearing out junk and de-cluttering, and yesterday we listed the house on three property websites. We decided not to employ an agent to sell the house, as their commission of 5 – 7% equates to several years of travel money, so we have a conveyancing attorney to handle our paperwork and transfers, but we are selling the house ourselves. This is the advert we posted:

Beautiful Victorian home for sale

This is a rare opportunity to purchase a beautiful original Victorian home in a quiet side street near trendy Kloof Street, within walking distance of Lifestyle Centre on Kloof, top restaurants, trendy bars and the Labia Theatre. Currently used as a home/business space with mixed zoning rights. The space can be utilised in various ways, including:

Family home:

4 bedrooms comprising three downstairs (one with inter-leading door to possible nursery) and one upstairs.

-Open plan living/dining area with stunning original fireplace

-Kitchen with pantry area

-2 bathrooms – one downstairs with spa bath and one upstairs with shower

-Victorian bay window in main room

-Indoor/outdoor studio deck area at rear of house with mountain views

-Cellar/storage area with water pump

-Original ‘broekie lace’ stoep

-3 private off-street parking bays behind security gate

-Connected to Vumatel Fibre with Vox Telecom

-Video intercom system for additional security

Mixed business/living space options:

-3 offices on ground level, two with inter-leading door

-Easy access to MyCiti bus routes

-Switchboard with 6 extensions included

-Studio deck area can used as daylight studio

-Living space upstairs with en-suite bathroom and private side entrance

This heritage building is a National Monument with an official plaque, and has original Oregon pine floors in superb condition, high moulded ceilings, two ornate original fireplaces and a spacious layout. It is perfect as a family home or work-from-home scenario. We have run a film-related business from it for 15 years and people have found it easy to find, even when using public transport. It is situated in a quaint street of heritage houses which is quite unique. It took us over a year of searching before we finally found this grand old dame of Victorian architecture. Viewing strictly by appointment to serious buyers only please.

Selling the house is probably going to be the most challenging part of the process of simplifying our lives as we realize that we will probably never own such a beautiful home again as it would just be unaffordable. So we have had to embrace the idea that we don’t need such a big house and that the proceeds from the sale of the house will empower us to follow our dream…Living in such a big house became so normal for us that only when we cleaned it our did we realize how big it actually is…There is no denying that it is a beautiful home – but the maintenance and upkeep has always been expensive, and the monthly cost of bond repayments, insurance, municipal bills is such a financial burden that not owning it will be such a relief…

I must say that letting go of stuff that one has often worked very hard to afford to buy is not easy, as accruing possessions is something that we tend to be socialized into believing is necessary to show our financial success. If you watch any of the many American family shows everyone seems to live in well-equipped, large homes with amazing kitchens….so we tend to want to emulate that packaged concept of what success looks like. Having bought a big house and filled it with all of the mod-cons and latest technology, we now have to adapt to a simpler life and learn how to get by with only the essentials. Billions of people around the world manage to do this, and we will too.