This post may contain affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
For busy working women, the suit is often the easiest outfit to throw on in the morning. In general, this feature is not about interview suits for women, which should be as classic and basic as you get — instead, this feature is about the slightly different suit that is fashionable, yet professional.
If you're a fan of linen-cotton suits, Banana Republic Factory has a bunch of cute options right now — and for pretty great prices.
I first noticed this skirt suit in the black pinstripe, but something about the beige pinstripe is really elegant and cool. Yes, the slit on the skirt worries me — I'd definitely recommend wearing some slip shorts beneath it.
The prices are kind of amazing: The skirt is marked to $27 today, and the blazer is down to $80… and then you can take another 25% off at checkout. (The pants come down to $38 in cart, but they are final sale, alas.)
The suit was offered in sizes 0-20 – if your size isn't in stock online you can always call your local store to check.
Sales of note for 10.10.24
- Nordstrom – Extra 25% off clearance (through 10/14); there's a lot from reader favorites like Boss, FARM Rio, Marc Fisher LTD, AGL, and more. Plus: free 2-day shipping, and cardmembers earn 6x points per dollar (3X the points on beauty).
- Ann Taylor – Extra 50% off sale (ends 10/12)
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything plus extra 25% off your $125+ purchase
- Boden – 10% off new styles with code; free shipping over $75
- Eloquii – Extra 50% off a lot of sale items, with code
- J.Crew – 40% off sitewide
- J.Crew Factory – 50% off entire site, plus extra 25% off orders $150+
- Lo & Sons – Fall Sale, up to 35% off
- M.M.LaFleur – Save 25% sitewide
- Neiman Marcus – Sale on sale, up to 85% off
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – 50% off 2+ markdowns
- Target – Circle week, deals on 1000s of items
- White House Black Market – Buy one, get one – 50% off full price styles
Anon
What benchmarks should you reach prior to having kids, in your opinion? Obviously anyone can have kids any time, but in an ideal situation, what should you aim for? A certain amount of savings, a certain place in your career, a certain number of bedrooms in your house? Is it possible to make career pivots after you have kids or go to a grad program? How settled were you when you first started having kids?
Anon
For us, financial stability and being out of graduate school felt important, but it was more about having two incomes then having a specific dollar amount in the bank. We are going to TTC this year and might have started sooner if not for the pandemic (health concerns), but the benefit is that it gave us more time to feel ready and bolster savings.
Anon
Oh, and we rent. I would prefer to have a house with a yard but that is not possible where we live right now so we are going to make it work for as long as we can with our rental.
Anon
YMMV. For me:
Married, relationship in a stable place.
In a secure job that will have FMLA when I deliver (I wasn’t eligible when I conceived, but was eligible around the halfway mark of my pregnancy).
At least two bedrooms.
Physically and emotionally healthy, at least relatively.
Are you ever “ready” to have kids? I don’t know. There are definitely situations in which a child would create life changing problems, whether it be due to health risks, being in an abusive relationship, or being broke/poor. But if you’re in a stable place, go for it.
Anon
IMO, selecting an equal and capable partner is the only real thing that matters. If you manage that, which takes at least as much luck as skill, you’re good to go regardless of what life throws at you.
Anon
+1. Nothing else is insurmountable, but the wrong partner is going to make it a rough ride.
Signed, someone who had a kid with the wrong person
Anonymous
Co-signed. Adding that someone you only find out someone’s character after a few years post marriage, so I’m in camp wait before TTC.
Anon
+1
Anon
There’s no good time to have kids, so you should have them when you know you want children, you’re prepared to love them, and you can meet their basic needs like food and necessities. That’s pretty much the end, IMO. Sure, you could want to have $X saved for fancy summer camps or Y spare bedrooms, but that’s not what a child needs to be loved and happy.
Anonymous
This. 100%.
I’m glad we didn’t wait until we’d met a list of criteria before having kids.
Anon
Yep.
We had our kid when I was ready to be a mom, my husband was ready to be a dad, and we were stable enough to feel like we weren’t going to have problems paying the mortgage and putting some little bit of money aside for college. There was not a hard list of requirements. If there had been, I am pretty sure we wouldn’t have been “ready” to have kids until I was in my mid-40s, right about the time my perimenopause symptoms kicked in.
Anon
I’m more Type A than most. I really wanted to be settled in our forever city and own our own home with space of guests and kid bedrooms. My husband is in academia, so this meant waiting until he had a tenure track job (in his field at least, tenure is a near certainty at all but a handful of top schools, getting the tenure-track job is much harder than getting tenure). I will say all this stuff fell into place around age 30 and I never imagined myself having kids in my 20s so it was not very hard to wait for these benchmarks. I definitely might have changed my mind if we’d encountered more career obstacles, or if I had felt a strong desire to have kids young.
Anon
I agree there’s never a good time, but as an actuary I wanted to be through my actuarial exams at least to the ACAS level (only actuaries will understand this!) because they’re such a significant time commitment.
Anon
we were fairly settled, like done with grad school, but still lived in a one bedroom apartment when we brought our twins home. i dont think there is a right age or stage, but you should be able to afford housing, food, diapers, childcare, etc. with a bit left over with funding for an emergency fund and eventual ability to save for retirement, or if you are in school or still in training, like lots of doctors, should be heading towards that. personally i think it is irresponsible to have kids if you can’t afford them/don’t have a plan to be able to afford them, but kids dont need fancy clothes or toys, etc., but either having family who can help or being able to throw money at the problem helps
Anon.
I am 40, had my kid at age 33, when I was in business (grad) school on the path to a career switch from academia to industry (I had PhD and a few years as a postdoc under my belt already).
I had never worked a “real job” outside of academia before, didn’t have any significant savings or assets. My husband was on his way to tenure track as a professor. Also, we had already moved internationally two times, first for PhDs, then for his job.
So, in many ways, you would not consider that “stable”, “settled” or anything of that sort.
Yet, we had our kid, because honestly, there is never the perfect time. I got pregnant in month 2 of us trying, but I had no expectations that it would be that quick.
My son’s infant and toddler years fell into a period where I established myself in a new career, and my husband on tenure track path without local family to support – a very intense, exhausting and stressful time.
In hindsight, we managed quite well and I don’t think anything would have been different had we waited longer to have kids. Now, half a decade later, we are “settled” in our careers and have a house we paid for with cash, and, due to us not succombing to lifestyle screep, over $1M in the bank.
I’d say, dont wait to be “stable”. There’s very few reasons to wait, unless you are deep in debt, barely scraping by financially, and without local family support (but plenty of less privileged folks have kids in those situations.).
Anonymous
Kids are just fine in a two bedroom apartment or a 5 bedroom McMansion.
A stable job is useful for financial security
Travel – I traveled a lot even after kids but it’s just different. Different pace and to some extent different locations. If you want long slow days at the museum, or high altitude hiking, get those in now. Even with supportive family you don’t know where health/aging issues will crop up so don’t bet on an annual kid free international trip.
Anon
+1 to travel. We love family travel and do a lot of international travel as a family, but it’s not the same. Also your kids are individuals who may not like what you like. I have a kid who gets very seasick on boats, so a lot of the bucket list trips I thought we’d take during her childhood (e.g., Galapagos) are likely postponed until after she leaves home, or at least is much older. And that’s to say nothing of potential special needs like autism that can really complicate travel. Go to the places that are on the top of your bucket list and don’t save places because they’ll be “good with kids” – you don’t know your kids yet.
anon
There’s no good time but for just feeling secure in your marriage and your partnership with your spouse. Other than that, there’s no amount of money or milestones that make you feel ready, in my experience.
One minor exception… get your life insurance squared away now while you’re younger and healthy and def pre-pregnancy.
OOO
For us the benchmarks were owning a 3 bed/2 bath house, and both of us having steady full-time jobs. In our 20s and early 30s we moved across cities and states to build our careers, and DH had a stretch of unemployment/underemployment. Plus our marriage was rocky and we needed couples counseling. By the time we actually felt ready to be responsible for another human, we were in our mid-thirties and dealt with infertility (we did IVF). Things won’t ever line up perfectly, but I am glad I have a good job that pays well and is flexible before I had a baby, and I am also glad that my marriage is solid. I only wish I had frozen my eggs.
Anon
Laughs in Bay Area about the 3 bedroom/2 bath requirement.
Anon
Same from renter Anon at 3:07…
Anon
+1! Brought baby 1 home to a one-bedroom apartment, will bring baby 2 home to a two-bedroom apartment, and likely won’t have a 2 bath home for at least another 10 years! (Not in Bay Area, but other VHCOL area)
Anonymous
I’m in the Bay Area and have two kids. We didn’t have two bathrooms until my kids were 10 and 7.
Seventh Sister
We live in West LA and are unlikely to have more than 1 bathroom before my kids leave the house. But…we are homeowners, and the kids can bike to school! I grew up in a subdivision and couldn’t buy a soda on my own until I could drive.
No Face
I wanted to be married at least a year or two. That was it.
I’m glad I didn’t wait until I hit a certain financial number, a certain place in my career, etc. I was younger and fresher and powered through the baby phase along with the young associate attorney phase and the debt paydown phase. Now I’m done with all of that and it feels great!
Josie P
+1. We had been married for 18 months when we started trying and it took another 18 months before we actually had our first. I was 29. Recommend having kids earlier just because you have so much more energy!
Anonymous
I love that I had my kids in my 20s, because now I’m in my 40s, done with parenting completely and still young and fit enough to do the things I chose to postpone in order to have my kids in my 20s.
Anon
On the flip side I’m sooo glad I had my 20s to be selfish and prioritize myself and what I wanted to do. I think it made me a much better and happier mom and I think I would have resented my kids if I’d had them before having my 20-something DINK life.
I’ll only be 51 when I become an empty nester, so not exactly ancient and hopefully I will have a couple decades of fun, active empty nester life (my mom is in her 70s and still very active), but given the choice between having the fun before or after kids I’d pick before every time. Tomorrow is never guaranteed, even at the relatively young age of 40-something.
Anon
I like both approaches depending on your goals. For me specifically, waiting made more sense to be fully ready and also I felt very strongly that I did not want to delay things like travel and visiting family because of the knowledge that they wouldn’t be there forever. I also had the chance to do a once in a lifetime trip (private rafting party through the Grand Canyon at age 30). Every decision comes with risks and trade offs, but so far, I’m happy.
No Face
The only thing that “postponed” travel for me was a lack of money when I was younger! I didn’t really start traveling until after I became a mom.
Anonymous
On the career pivot question: I had my daughter during law school. Thanks to a bait-and-switch on the part of the school (tuition doubled, scholarship didn’t) we incurred unplanned debt so I could finish. That and my husband’s insistence that I maintain a career so I could support the family if something happened to him meant that when our daughter got to elementary school and I really should have quit my job to become a SAHM, I was locked in. Before we had a child, my husband was fine with my only working part time while I was in school, and I don’t think he would have been so insistent upon my maintaining a career if we hadn’t had a child. So my experience is that it’s impossible to take a step back in your career once you have kids, especially with an advanced degree.
Anon
That’s a your husband thing, not a universal thing. Many, many women with advanced degrees become SAHMs for some amount of time.
Anon
Agreed. The women I know who work part time or stay home are overall way more educated than the full time working moms I know. That may have something to do with the fact that I’m in a small college town so a lot of the women who work less than full time are trailing spouses who suffered career disruptions (hi it’s me). But the idea that it’s impossible to take a step back from your career if you have an advanced degree is just absurd. I know a lot of people who have done so, both voluntarily and involuntarily.
No Face
With love, it sounds like you need to revisit this with your husband, maybe with the help of a marriage counselor and a financial planner.
Anon
I stepped back in my career to get an advanced degree, went part-time for 4 years, and at 46 I am actually further along in my career than I thought I would be at this point. Agree with the other commenters that this is a marriage problem, not a “I had a kid at the ‘wrong’ time” problem.
Anon
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a mom to work outside the home, just like I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a man to do the same.
Anonymous
Why do you, an adult capable of working, feel entitled to not?
Anon
Raising a child is working.
Anonymous
Are you able to feed a child, clothe a child, and love a child? Have at it.
Anonymous
Stability with the would-be parents. DO NOT HAVE KIDS WITH SOMEONE YOU CAN’T RELY ON 100%, in all situations.
Anon
Having seen enough people struggle with fertility, I would encourage you (and partner if applicable) to go to the doc now if you are starting to think about when to have kids. Best case no suprises. Worst case, you have more time to make a plan.
Anon
Doctors don’t really do anything until you’ve been trying for a year without success (or 6 months if over 35). There’s not a preventative checkup they can do.
OOO
You can see an RE and they can check your hormone levels and see how many eggs you have left. And you don’t need to be a certain age or trying for a certain amount of time
Anon
You need a referral to see an RE I thought? At least when I asked my OB about this in my late 20s, she pretty much (politely) laughed in my face and said “have lots of s3x and call me if you’re not pregnant within a year.” Maybe they are more proactive now, but I am 38 and don’t know any women who did any kind of fertility screening before TTC.
anon
You can do these things, but especially if you are in your mid-30s or beyond, the RE will caution you that having good stats at any given moment in time is no guarantee. In other words, you can have great AMH/FSH levels at age 35 but that doesn’t mean the same will be true at 36. The only thing you can really do with that information is either decide to start TTCing right away or freeze your eggs.
Anon
LOL, yes there definitely are things they can check first. What do you think the first step is for people who have been trying for a year?
Anonymous
I had one child before I was anywhere near ready, with the wrong person, and we survived. I then had two more children when I was married, done with law school, working as a lawyer, owned a house, etc. The only thing that really made a difference was having the right partner. We also had our kids relatively young, which meant we did not have as much money when they were little as we have now that they are teenagers. But being younger (late 20’s) had its advantages lol. I can’t imagine having small kids now that I am in my 40’s, but I know plenty of people who do it just fine. There’s always tradeoffs and there is no perfect time.
Anon
I had my baby when I was 35 and had finished law school. We weren’t married but we were living in a rented duplex together. I wish we had more kids but fertility was not on our side. I’ve long thought it is ironic that we take birth control for 15 – 20 years and stop when it is almost to late to get pregnant. If only we lived in a world where young couples had daycare in college and access to good health care.
Anan
When we were having those pre-marital sessions, our priest told us, “You’ll never feel like you have enough money to have kids, so don’t let that be your determining factor. Kids are expensive no matter how mich money you have”
I think the only thing I wanted was a good, stable life partner and a hankering for kids.
Anon
Would love to hear if anyone out there has had success with sending cold letters to owners of houses asking them if they’d be willing to sell. We’re not expecting anything to come of it, but I’d love to hear any happy endings!
(We already own in town and need someone within a certain radius of us to sell a house that my mom can move into for aging in place near us. Her current lease elsewhere expires in September and can’t be renewed, so we’re up against a clock. Moving an 80 year old woman twice – once to a temp apartment – is not our idea of good time, but it seems like that’s what we’ll have to do.)
Anon.
Do you have a public information system like local government GIS where you could do some research about the properties in your neighborhood? Some allow you to download a list of all properties with data like last selling date, building date etc. That may give you some ideas as to what houses might be owned by folks who might be looking to downsize. Realtors may have some ideas, too, and often know what will be on the market and where.
In my Midwest college town, there’s a surprising amount of information you can find out about people, especially if affiliated with the university (e.g. pending retirement dates etc).
Alternatively, Nextdoor or your local Facbook page would be possible as well, if you are open to posting the same thing you’ve posted here.
Anonymous
We have a neighborhood facebook group and people occasionally post that they have friends wanting to buy in the neighborhood, to please let them know if anyone has plans to sell, etc., so you could try that.
anon
We got one and I was very put off by it — it was all about why us selling to them would be great for them. Like obvi it would but why do we owe you anything? If you do send a letter try not to sound self centered and entitled would be my two cents.
Anon
Seriously. Same tone in the multiple letters I’ve received.
Anon
But Kayleigh needs her own bedroom! (Actual letter I received.)
Anon
Same. We live in a desirable neighborhood where houses don’t come up for sale very often. We’ve gotten a couple of these letters and we throw them out pretty quickly. We love our house and our neighborhood, and our kid is still in high school, so now is not a great time for us to move. If someone was willing send us a letter offering us, in writing, 2x what average neighborhood comps are, all cash, waive all inspections and allow us a 60-day grace period for move-out – we might consider it. Maybe. But a letter that talks all about the person and their family and why they love and want our house – nah. “What’s in it for me/show me the money” are the only emotions those letters provoke for me.
Anon
I figure if they really wanted my home, they would make an offer well over the comps in the neighborhood. Like the creepy husband in “Enough” with JLo.
anon
+1M. We get these letters a lot (especially during peak buying season in the spring) and I find them really funny because they just talk about themselves and why they should be able to buy our house (which is not for sale).
Anon
We’ve received them and just laugh and throw them away. If we wanted to sell our house, we’d put it on the market. I think the people who write those letters just hope to get a home under market by not allowing competition. Is that your motive? Because you can screw right off with that.
Anon
What a needlessly extreme reaction. Someone sending a letter is by no means crushing competition or preventing you from a public listing. You obviously have the choice whether to take action about it or not.
Anon
She is asking, I answered. That is my honest reaction to these things.
Anonymous
A lot of people sell off market because they don’t want to deal with the hassle of prepping their home to sell and having to deal with viewings.
Anon
+1 I hated the idea of an open house and of having photos of my home on the internet. Our agent ended up connecting with several agents in his office who had clients who were looking to buy what we were selling, and we ended up showing it 3 times, all in one afternoon, to 3 serious buyers. We ended up with 2 strong offers and one weak one, and countered to the 2 strong ones, and sold to a couple whom we coincidentally knew (though not well).
Anon
That’s a very different scenario than randomly selling with no competition to someone who put a letter in your mailbox.
Anon
Your tone is aggressive and weird.
Anon
How much does it cost to list your home with a realtor, stage it, and sell it? That saves you time, money, and stress.
Anon
You act like the realtor is doing nothing. That’s not true. I bought my first house from a for sale by owner seller. I had a buyer’s agent, thankfully. The seller was a Hot Mess and my realtor went above and beyond.
And then when I sold that house and bought the one we are in now, my realtor did an excellent online marketing campaign, as well as a really good relationship with all of the realtors around town representing potential buyers. We had a ton of good offers to choose from. Again, they more than earned their commission.
Anon
I think it’s a standard talking point in the become a real estate/rental owner world that you can cold call your your into buying a house when it’s not even on the market. However I think it’s so overused as a tactic by businesses (we buy ugly houses, etc) and people looking for a bargain that the novelty has worn off and most home owners know to ignore. Who wants to be lowballed? I certainly block all texts and phone calls and throw out all mail that comes in asking me if I want to sell my property.
To your question OP if you want to stand out in this crowd make your letters hand written, not form mail of any kind and provide personal details on each different property you are inquiring about. That might get you a step farther than your competition? Expect most of your inquires to end up in the trash or the recycling bin.
Anonymous
I don’t have experience with this, but if you do this, I would suggest including some of the details about why you want to purchase the house and who you are. Those of us in hot neighborhoods get bombarded with spam calls and mail from predators looking for a desperate seller and most people I know are on somewhere the spectrum of mildly annoyed to demonstrably resentful.
Anonymous
This is what we did. What we liked about the neighborhood/were interested long term even above market value and that we were not house flippers going to low offer them and flip the house.
Anonymous
Yes – that’s how we got our house. We wanted a specific neighbourhood where almost everything sells off market. Sent 30 letters, got 3 responses, viewed 2, bought 1. They lived in another city most of the year and were thinking of listing their house but reluctant to deal with realtors and selling hassles. We paid above assessed value.
It may depend on the neighborhood. Our next door neighbor also sold off market to people we referred to her. It’s a super popular neighborhood so it’s more like, ‘I’m thinking of listing my house at $xxx, let me know if you know anyone interested’.
We get offers on our house at least once or twice a year but all 3 kids want it when they are older so we’ll sell to one of them if they still want it then.
AIMS
I think you would have better luck calling local realtors and telling them what you need. Ditto for your local friends and neighbors. A family member sold their house to a neighbor when they were about to put it on the market and neighbor mentioned looking for a place for their parents.
We have gotten those letters from brokers saying “someone they are working with is looking to buy in our building/on our street” and I always just assume it’s a solicitation for a listing and toss in the recycling. I can’t see thinking differently if it came from an unknown individual. Good luck!
NYNY
This. My dad just went into contract on his house in a hot market without ever listing it because his realtor had clients looking for exactly what he had. A good realtor who is part of a large agency is your best bet for pre-market listings. And definitely spread the word within your network: dad and his fiancee had their whole church sending them tips for a place to buy together.
Unsolicited letters may have worked in the past, but I think private equity and corporate landlords have ruined that pathway. Good luck.
Anon
I’d make a good relationship with a realtor who is VERY familiar with the neighborhood before the letter strategy, to be honest. I’d be majorly creeped out to get such a letter. I know my information is public, but I find it creepy to be confronted with that in such an upfront way.
Anon
I’ve received them before from realtors on behalf of their clients. So that might be one idea, is to see if you know a realtor that would send out letters on your mother’s behalf. Then you can be a little more anonymous.
Anon
I’ve received these letters and never done anything with them. I don’t think they really help. You’d be better off working your network imo
Chl
This is how my sister found her house in the chicago suburbs. It actually wasn’t one of the homes that she put a letter into the mailbox, but that family posted to the neighborhood FB group and someone called her.
Anonymous
This. I posted above that we bought off market but it was actually the neighbors next to us who sent us an email after they got our letter. The guy we bought the house from was a bit much and I think they jumped at the chance to encourage a sale. He was out of town and wouldn’t have seen the letter for months.
Anonymous
Why would you move an 80 year old woman to a single family home?
Runcible Spoon
Good question. Why not find a nice retirement/independent living/assisted living community nearby now? That would eliminate a future move.
Anonymous
My thoughts exactly.
I wonder if OP has really thought through that if they do this they will be fully responsible for the upkeep of two houses. Even a reasonably fit 80 year old isn’t going to be able to take on the responsibility of a single family home…
Anon
My husband and I discussed this last night…his mom passed last year but there was a brief period where we thought we were going to have to move her to where we are, and we started looking at senior living apartments. We found a place where she could move in and live more or less independently, and then the community had increasing levels of assistance you could purchase as time went on and the elderly person needed more help. It was a really nice option. We never would have put her in a single-family home unless we were planning to hang on to the house after she died and turn it into a rental house, or something? There’s no way an 80-year-old can keep up with a house. Senior living communities exist for a reason.
NYCer
Many years ago, my parents sold their house after receiving a letter like that. They had been planning on moving anyways (already in process of building a new house elsewhere), so the letter just moved up the timeline a little bit.
I have received many letters from interested buyers over the years, and while I have never sold my house that way, I am also not put off by them in the least. No harm in trying IMO.
Anonymous
I can report on both sides of the coin. I have a good friend who did this in their favorite neighborhood and it worked. This was several years ago though (between 2008 and the last real estate boom). I’ve also received these and thrown them away. I suppose my reaction is half-flattered, half-creeped out (that someone is looking that closely at my house, though I obviously am aware it’s possible). I do think that talking to a realtor who knows things that are pre-listing is helpful. We showed our last house several times before it hit the market to people who had targeted out neighborhood. It didn’t amount to anything, but this was in 2021 and we (selfishly) were holding out for a really good offer (which we ultimately got when it hit the market).
Anon
I receive them constantly. It’s a seller’s market so I intend to market widely if we ever sold to create competition and maximize value.
OP, unless you’re prepared to tell the owners you’re willing to offer market+X subject to an inspection/tour or put some kind of compelling number in the letter to grab their attention, it’ll probably just go in the trash.
Nesprin
We’ve gotten these letters before, and a neighbor bought their house this way. Usually these offers are quite a bit above what you’d pay otherwise- like 10-20% over estimated value since you’re paying the owner to consider moving.
Anon
I’ll add myself to the list of people who have received the letters and done nothing with them. It’s a BFD to sell your house and move, people aren’t just going to get a letter and thing, “gee, maybe I should.” With the way the housing market is in a lot of places, it’s not like they’ll be able to find an equivalent or better house they can afford.
Anonymous
That’s not the expectation though. It’s common in neighborhoods where original owners may be downsizing, thinking about selling but slow to get it on the market because they don’t want to have to deal with the hassle of showing a house or getting it ready for sale.
Anonymous
That’s so strange. Someone I know had success with this method, but his letter was about how he was willing to pay on the higher side of market value, waive inspection and the owner could save a broker’s fee. If that’s you or you can offer all cash then by all means try it.
My parents have a really unique property (beautiful view in an excellent school district) and get unsolicited offers and a lot of “please call me first if you want to sell.” But no one has ever been this weird about it- that’s so bizarre to me!
Anon
If your mom is 80, moving her into a retirement community is probably the best bet. Most communities have various degrees of care, so she can be more independent now and move into assisted living or memory care wing when she needs it; they will mostly handle the move(s) within the facility.
I also have to say that I thought I lived in a hot neighborhood (we bought our house all cash, over asking, which is standard in our neighborhood) but I have never received one of these letters and now I’m kind of feeling jealous that I haven’t!
Runcible Spoon
+1 on the suggestion to skip moving an 80-year-old into a single family home, especially if you would like to avoid multiple moves at this age.
Anon
I have received letters from real estate agents saying they have a motivated client seeking to buy in my neighborhood. I’ve never received one directly from a potential buyer. I think these letters might work if someone has been thinking about selling. Kind of like how recruiters send cold emails hoping to reach someone who’s been thinking about leaving their job.
Anon
My sister did this and it worked. In the Bay Area, too. You ever know, it’s worth a shot.
Anonymous
fyi, cute $30 dress if you like olive green/beige/black https://bananarepublicfactory.gapfactory.com/browse/product.do?pid=795209021&vid=1&tid=bfsm001504&campaign_id=23853618094040165&adset_id=23853618094050165&ad_id=23854136261190165&fbclid=IwAR0ges5Thqwu5dDq0kiW2mpN_6EH1p5YkvttJSHAMf7bwzBd4ysnzAQ5bFM#pdp-page-content
Anonymous
Do you do different makeup colors or stick to the same palette but with different products? I have brown eyes, so I have fun with black, brown, purple, and even blue liner/shadow combinations, but then I never know how to do my lips. Or if I play up my lips with a red or a hot pink I never know quite how to downplay my eyes.
Anon
I like a subtle look so most palettes have too many intense tones for me. I get the best eye looks from an old NARS blush palette! It’s all of those subtle peaches and nude shimmers that work for me. I also like the new double-ended eye shadow sticks from Bobbi Brown – they’re a built in good pairing and they haven’t let me down yet – my favorite is the golden pink/taupe combo.
I do change it up day to day, but I never go for anything dramatic. It’s just not me. Eyeshadow palettes make me feel like I have to use all the colors when I really just want to use 2-4 of them.
Anon
To answer your specific question – when you do a strong lip, do minimal blush and eye. Like an old Hollywood look with nude eyelid, maybe some kohl liner crushed into the top lashes only, and mascara.
How do downplay the rest of your face with a strong eye is always nude lipstick and a very clean skin look.