Riding a real estate roller coaster

My husband and I have been riding a not-so-fun roller coaster for the past several weeks and dragging our poor boys along for the ride.

Earlier this week we had a contract signed by potential buyers for our house, which has been on the market since May. Full asking price, minor concessions, one catch: be out in two weeks. After careful consideration about the tight timing, we agreed.

And after 24 hours of whirlwind fast-tracked planning and pairing answers to questions on packing, moving, storing, living arrangements, after school care, dog boarding, professional cleaning services, so on and so on, we got a message that the buyers decided not to proceed after all.

Two weeks prior we had our hopes lifted again when a couple sent the message through the realtor-to-realtor communication buffer that they planned to put in a full-price offer on the house. Two days later they put an offer on another home closer to the wife’s work.

In between we’ve had weekly afternoon-long open houses Saturdays and Sundays, multiple spur of the moment showings, low offers come through then fall through, and days upon days of keeping up a spic-and-span show-worthy home with a toddler and a teenager.

We’re all tired.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a blessing to have so much interest in our home. The market is hot right now and it’s a good time to be selling. I’ve never sold a house before, so perhaps this is completely normal chaos for this process. I’m told moving is never easy on the family…but is it always this hard?

My husband put it well: as parents our ultimate and most basic responsibility is to provide a roof over our family’s head, so when things are back and forth, up and down, urgent then no-go, it’s very taxing – on everyone. Especially on our 13-year-old, who is mature enough to understand what’s going on yet still fragile and vulnerable to high emotions from all the changing plans. Our job as parents, then, is to be the strong ones, the calm and stable forces through the upheaval even when we feel like falling apart. Staying strong and positive for your kids when life is disheartening is an ultimate/basic (but never easy) responsibility, too.

Our new house, a new build, will be ready end of September. All we can do is continue plugging along and stay on the ride, keeping our chins up and trying not to hurl!

Any advice on how to make moving easier on the kids?