Summer always brings such fond memories of childhood...Swimming, parties, playing outside with friends until the street lights came on, vacations! Those were the days. Now that I'm an adult with children and grandchildren, I get the joy of sharing fun summer activities with them and telling them of my escapades when I was their age.

What also comes with summer for many of us is change. School's out or our kids have graduated, and now we're thinking of moving on. Moving happens mostly in the summer because everyone's available to help and schedule's are light. As a military family, this happened to us every 2-4 yrs and became rather routine, but for most of you who aren't in that community, this can be a grueling and frightening task. I'm here to tell you that it doesn't have to be!

Maybe you've lived in your home for several years, raised your children, maybe even had some of your children leave when they got married. Longevity in your home is a wonderful thing! My last home was a hard sell. We didn't live in the house all throughout our children's lives but we did live in the community all their lives. Selling that home was closing a chapter but it was also opening a new one. While I cried going through our things deciding what to keep and what not to, my husband and I were excited talking about the next place we hoped to move on to. Here's some tips to make moving on smoother:

1. Talking is great, but be sure to try to take some notes-If you're like me, I "think out loud" but don't always remember the conclusions I come to while I process. I've learned that writing ideas down about how to make the home I'm selling look cozy and comfy as well as expressing what I'd like in my next home helps tremendously when communicating with my agent.
2. Pack up anything personal ahead of time-I know most agents discuss "staging" with sellers but packing up personal things right away allows for you to categorize/store/organize your memories in a calm manner. Many.of us know the "pinch" of trying to get out of the house in time for cleaning, the buyers' walk through, and closing. It could cause damage to our precious items adding to stress. It's avoidable with just a little planning.
3. Discuss desires with your agent for your new home while initial packing and staging-Your agent can get right on searching for homes while you're getting your home ready for showings. This saves a ton of time and energy for you! As an agent, I LOVE looking at homes especially for me, so I do know how time consuming it can be. It's like scrolling through social media. It can take over all your thoughts keeping you from tasks you need to focus on, so utilize your agent's time to multiply yours. This may seem like taking away the fun, but looking at homes can quickly become unfun. Allow your agent to go through all the minutia so you can only see the best of the best out there instead of EVERYTHING!

Enjoy this time of change in your life as best you can. It's fun, exciting, a little scary sometimes, but isn't all change? Life is full of times like these and there are people trained to help make it the best experience possible.