I sat down last night after attending the Blog Tour, Alum Creek Dog Park, North Market Wine Festival and started to write this post. I awoke at 6:20 this morning to a kiss from Sadie Lynn and knew that I had missed the deadline for the Carnival of Content. However, I figured I'd go ahead and post it, hoping that y'all wouldn't mind too much.

• February 2006: 309.
• July 2007: 252.

What are these? My weight.

It seems that American's have two obsessions right now, there own ever-expanding waistline and the bloated number of homes currently on the market in most parts of the country.

Yes, a lot of Americans are overweight, and a lot of America is currently in a buyer's market (more than seven months supply on hand for that region) which has led to more homes on the market - even in Delaware County where there is more than a 10-month supply of homes on the market.

But does that mean we should just give up, walk-away from our homes, not sell, or other rash options? No, but we do need to re-look at your motivation. As you can see from the numbers above, I've been able to start tackling my battle of the bulge, and I believe that a lot of the changes I've made in my life to lose more than 20% of my body weight could also help you sell your home in today's market.

Make the Decision to Change. The most common New Year's Resolution has to be to "lose weight", and with the number of new listings flooding the market, I'd say that a similar New Year's Resolution is "wishing" to sell. The decision to lose has to be a life affirming decision. If you are just listing your house to see if it will sell - do all your friends and neighbors a favor and really look at whether it is in your best interest to list right now. Sellers need to be ready, willing, and able to sell their home with the right marketing in place - and a function of that is price - and if you are not, then please get out of the pool.

Stop Wishing and Start Acting. Are you sitting in your home "dreaming" about it selling? Or are you working hard to help your agent sell your home? Don't start any new major projects, but keep the house neat and clean and touch-up those little projects.

Don't Be Afraid of Change or Staying the Same. If your house is on the market now and sitting, there is a reason, just like there was a reason I "wished" to be thin and never got any smaller. Get honest and postive feed back from your agent. And if the agent won't give it to you, find one that will. I recently took a listing where I sat down and said "where do I start" in response to the question "what do we need to do?". She smiled and thanked me for my honesty, because the last agent had responded with a "nothing" ... and they knew better. However, don't start out making rash changes because "someone said" you need to have all the walls white, etc. Get a feel for the market and the agent's reaction before making your changes. Some of those things might be something that "sells" your house and makes it a great deal.

Little Things Count. Did you know that each M&M you eat has just over 10 calories? Now, how many people eat only one M&M? Not me, I know. But often, those little "snacks" are omitted from our food journals (whether written or mental) because they are so small. And we do a similar thing when it comes to home maintenance. Again, you shouldn't be making huge changes to your home -- unless it needs it to sell -- but make sure all the preventive maintence is done when you list. I was showing a house recently where there was some dirt along the top-wall of the basement, which the prospective buyer mistook for mold and we walked out on the spot -- ten minutes with a duster would have at least gotten her to the second-floor of the house and might have made the deal. Take care of squeekes and other "little" things that would be on any homeowner's "honey-do" list, but can give your home the question mark of uncertainity about how much preventive maintence you've done.

Get a Check-Up, Not an Exam. As always before you start something new it is a good idea to get a background check and know what you're dealing with. A new diet its a good idea to visit the doctor and make sure that they feel comfortable with what you are doing, and the same can be said about your home. However, there has been a recent trend to have inspections done before listing the home to take care of some of the issues that might otherwise come up in the report. This is an interesting idea, however, you do need to know that anything in the report must be disclosed once you know about it. Hence, if you are not interested in putting a new roof on if it "might" need replaced, then you probably don't want a full-blown inspection.

Lean On Your Friends for Support and Showings. I have a friend that is selling her home in another portion of Ohio. I've received two e-mails from her asking for help in selling her home. I love this! She is actively helping her agent sell the home and I've seen this work with other friends as well -- she sent the e-mail on Friday, had four referrals for showings and sold the house a week later. I attend TOPS on a weekly basis to be weighed and announce to the group that "I lost" or "I gained" that week. This is my support system to keep me accountable for weight loss. Use one for selling your house as well.

These are some of the changes that I've made in my life to lose more than 50 pounds, hopefully they'll help you sell your house.