Plotting Our Move to Nashville – Part 2
Once we scouted Nashville and confirmed our jobs were secured, the next month was a blur of planning, coordinating, researching, and making quick decisions. The biggest hurdle – aside from employment – was prepping, staging and selling our home that I absolutely loved. We had not anticipated this move even two months prior, so we had to move extremely fast. Luckily, our decision to talk to Brady’s brother Shawn (who was a realtor) right away paid off, and we were already ahead of the ball (as much as we could be, anyway!).
Prepping the House
Due to our limited time with Brady’s start date in Nashville of December 16th, the open house showings had to be over Thanksgiving weekend (also my birthday weekend!). While it’s never ideal to have an open house on a holiday weekend, we had to get moving, so November 28th was our deadline. Every day after work we made progress on our home, from tidying up, to deep cleaning, to painting the bathrooms and touching up walls. My parents lived ten minutes away, so we slowly brought boxes over to their house to shed as much as we could to prep for the listing photoshoot.
Setting the Scene
Being a researcher/over-analyzer, I spent many hours Googling best tactics for staging a home to attract buyers. We decluttered, took down as many personal photos as we could, placed fresh sunflowers strategically in rooms to add color, and staged scenes that might help interested buyers picture living in our townhome. It was actually one of the fun parts for me, and after days of prep, our home was ready for the photoshoot and open house. It was an insane market in 2020, and while we knew our home would sell no matter what state it was in, we took pride showing it in its best light! Pro Tip: To add even more warmth and familiarity to the open house, we used a hot cocoa & cream scent for our wallflower from Bath & Body Works. When any interested buyer entered the house, they immediately were greeted with a sweet scent of chocolate/brownies, hopefully subliminally setting the scene for baking in their new kitchen. It’s an easy and fun scene setter that anyone can do to enhance the open house experience!
The Open House Weekend
The photos turned out fantastically, and I was really proud of us for pulling this off in such a short time. Next came the listing, followed by tours. This was November 2020 in California, when the typical open house process wasn’t allowed. Every interested buyer had to sign COVID disclosure forms before scheduling a walkthrough. This actually worked to our advantage, because only serious buyers with a realtor would be visiting our home.
That weekend, we stayed away from our house, dropped our pup Lady off with my parents, and let Shawn do his thing. We made the best of it by taking a mini trip to one of my favorite places, Disney’s California Adventure. Entrance was free to the public to walk around the park, but all rides were closed due to strict COVID guidelines at the time. Still, we had a great time visiting one of my favorite spots that we knew we wouldn’t be returning to for a long while after moving.
After the weekend of a dozen showings, we had a lot of solid offers, which we went over carefully with Shawn. After a few days of back and forth, we picked the buyer on December 3rd. The house was off the market in less than a week! One more major hurdle to check off the list.
Saying Goodbye to Our Home
While we were relieved we had a buyer in less than a week, I can’t finish without explaining how difficult it was to begin saying goodbye to our townhome, the very first home that I owned. I absolutely LOVED and cherished every aspect of it. The Otay Mountain and Olympic Training Center views, the size, the layout, the hours I spent praying and looking at the stars from the balcony, the location in Eastlake, our neighborhood walks, and most importantly, the memories with Brady, our dog Lady, and our family and friends in this home. If I could live in this home in Tennessee, I absolutely would have, and I still miss it to this very day.
This townhouse came to me after a life-changing, tragic experience in my life, the Route 91 shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, and by the grace of God, the seller (the kindest man) picked me out of a mountain of competition and outrageously generous offers. I cherished that home on Catalpa Court so much, and knew it was part of God’s plan to give me hope, joy, comfort and security during such a tumultuous time, while also helping to restore my faith in humanity. I will never lose sight of that. It’s a major reason why I have (present tense) such an emotional tie to that home, and why I drive by it and walk the neighborhood whenever I am back in San Diego. While we were excited to start a new adventure in Nashville, this underscored one of the many heartbreaking aspects of leaving my hometown and all that came with it.
The Challenge Was Worth It
It’s never easy to leave a hometown, complete with family, friends, familiarity, comfort, favorite activities, traditions and so much more, to the unknown. But sometimes the hardest challenges bring the greatest rewards. We look back and reflect often. It’s safe to say that all of the opportunities that resulted from moving to Tennessee would not have been possible if we stayed in California.
While we miss the friends, family and memories we have in San Diego dearly, we are so grateful and proud of all we overcame to get to where we are today. I am so happy and willing to help encourage others to make the leap too! Have any thoughts or questions? Please reach out, I would love to hear from you!
