A New Listing: Home in Citrus Heights For Sale

Just because life dropped an anvil on my heart doesn’t mean that my real estate business comes to an abrupt halt. I still have clients to take care of, listings to sell and escrows to close. It’s not like I can call in sick to myself when I’m self-employed. Besides, the grieving process for Pia will take time; it can’t be rushed. It helps to focus on something else during the day than feeling sorry for myself because the light of our lives has vanished from our home.

Pia’s death has left an unexpected hole in my world. You know how they say that sometimes we don’t realize what we have until we have lost it. Pia was the driving force, pretty much head of our household, even though she was the smallest weighing in at 9 pounds, and the cat who regularly interacted with us. It’s quiet now. The other cats don’t chat much. They sleep a lot. She used to talk to us in that Granny (from the Beverly Hillbillies) voice. She was better than Siri. You could ask her anything and her answer was never garbled or confusing. It was pretty clear. Meow. She had a definite opinion on everything, too.

I was thinking about this yesterday as I stood in the kitchen of a home in Citrus Heights. The seller of that home was grieving, too. A close family member who once owned that home had died. He wasn’t crying or looking exceptionally grief stricken but it takes a long time to remove that lump in your throat and the pain in your heart after the loss of a loved one. I could see the sadness in his eyes.

There were no jokes or funny stories. Just a quiet, sensible discussion about the comparable sales and how I will market the home in Citrus Heights. It’s an incredible place, and the previous owner had made many upgrades. It has a new furnace and AC unit, the carpeting is new, the roof has been replaced, new water heater and water softener, brand new washer and dryer, plus the drywall job in the garage is impeccable, coupled with a beautifully painted finish, with plenty of electrical outlets on the walls for power tools and lots of overhead lighting. It’s the kind of home that a home buyer would be hard pressed to find anything wrong with.

Except for one thing. He left the wallpaper in the kitchen. It’s pretty wallpaper and unobtrusive, but buyers generally don’t like wallpaper. There is a thin strip about an inch wide on one side, running full length. I pointed it out. The seller touched it and gingerly smoothed the seam with his thumb. People who have hung wallpaper know how important the starting spot is. We talked about which sides of the kitchen the seller’s relative had started the wallpaper. For a minute, just a minute, he was there in the kitchen with us, papering those walls.

This home in Citrus Heights will go on the market, August 23rd, Friday at $205,000. It’s turnkey and affordable and ready to move into. It’s a nice home for first-time homebuyers to build memories together.