Sadness while selling house?

ruggedtoast

Its a good lesson not to waste the time we do have on things that don't matter.

I've been sad at leaving all the places I have lived that I have enjoyed, and not the ones that I havent.

Bill23h

Yes, it's normal to feel sad - but in my experience it's a very transitory experience. I've felt a real wrench at leaving houses, but know what? The next day it's forgotten and you've moved on.
Oh, and whatever you do - never go back to look at it!

Old_Git

I sold an inherited house I had never lived it but It was like the loss of a family member .I sold it at auction and I know I did the right thing .I could have sold it using an agent but right up until I signed I would have had second thoughts .I did see the house afterwards as it was about to be rented to students .The best thing I did was to sell as it helped me move on following a death .We sold my mums house this year and it never bothered me .

penguingirl

We are hopefully exchanging in the next couple of days and I am very sad to leave this house, but equally excited to move on to the next chapter. We've been here nearly 6 years and it was our first house together, plus we have both been through a lot career wise since moving in here, so it it sort of marking that we at a different stage in our life. This house has done us well, but onwards and upwards!

lxpeanut

I have felt like that every time Ive moved. I also felt sad when my Grandmas house sold probably because it was the final goodbye to her as she'd lived in that house from the day she married to the day she died. I am feeling sad about leaving my lovely little flat even though I will be moving into a house I will own. I think its normal to feel a bit sad but its quickly replaced by the excitement of being somewhere new

Wyndham

I cry when the removal van turns up. Don't know why, it just gets me each time. Maybe that's my moment for my brain finally understanding some level of emotional reality about the very practical decision I've made.

So yes, I think some emotion, at some point in the process, is perfectly normal!

martin1959

We are selling shortly as we have another property currently being renovated, which we will move into. We have lived here for 29 years, our children were born here and grew up here. We have had many dogs who are no longer with us, who I can still remember running and playing in our garden. It is me who is the sentimental one, not my wife! We are only moving a mile away, and I know there will be a few occasions where I will 'come home' to the old house forgetting we have moved.
One thing I am glad we did not do, and that is to bury our dogs in the garden....I would hate the thought of 'leaving' them. We have had them all cremated, and they will be coming with us....


My mother lives nearby and has dementia. Although she is not too bad, and still lives alone, I know the time will come where we will have to sell her house. She has lived there since 1953 when my dad built the bungalow, where I grew up, and where my father died. I think this will be an even harder day.....


No, your wife is not at all silly........

phoebe1989seb

No, I don't think it's silly at all....

DH and me were incredibly emotional when we sold the house we'd lived in longest (ten years) although it should have been a happy moment as it was selling that house that enabled us to become mortgage-free at the age of forty

Part of our problem is that we really put our heart and soul into restoring our houses to their former glory - we never stint even if we know it's a short-term thing - and we do majority of the work ourselves so it really feels as though we've given our all to get the house looking good again. We're also both suckers not only for unique period properties (our last four, including this one have been one-offs), but also for *rescuing* houses that have fallen into disrepair. That makes leaving them harder and a more emotional experience IMHO.

Even the houses we've in theory been very happy to leave (for example the last one which was my pet hate, a thatch ), still brought the odd tear to my eye.....

DS (who was just 18 when we sold the *ten year house* in 2007 and who hasn't actually lived with us in any of the three houses we've owned since) always visits just before we complete on a sale and has been spotted going round kissing the brickwork of houses we're on the verge of vacating.....he's obviously a very emotional bloke That said, his best mate insisted when we sold the house where they'd had so much fun as teenagers, he would buy it himself one day as it meant that much to him.....either that or he thought there was buried treasure there, lol!

Otoh, when we sold my parents' house in 2012 after they both had to go into a nursing home with Dementia I didn't feel the least bit tearful - despite the fact my parents bought it in the 1960s and it was the only childhood home I'd known......go figure

ethank

I welled up a bit when I moved out of my flat of 8 years. It was me and the OH's first place together and there was a lot of memories. I felt wobbly all the time until moving day. You soon get over it. I drove past my old flat the other day and felt nothing. It is not home anymore.

Snakey

I've been fortunate as every move I've had has always been to somewhere better (a better life situation that is, rather than moving up the property ladder) so I've mainly felt keen to get to the new place and get unpacked and settled. It's me and my stuff that makes it home, when all's said and done, no matter how much I've liked everywhere I've lived (even the horrible places had lots of good things about them).

It probably is different when it's tied up with memories and nostalgia that you can't get back - the whole "oh, do you remember when Alex nearly pulled the birdbath on top of him? He was only about two... now, who was it who was visiting that day... was it John and Pat? Ah yes, they bought us that rose bush, remember? The one out at the front..." wittering streams of consciousness and you realise that without the sight of said birdbath to jog your memory you might never think of those particular moments again, much less be able to tell Alex's wife and kids about them when they visit.