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Typically sales start to fall this time of year... some of my Realtor friends actually take off from Thanksgiving to mid January...
That said... I've made some of my best buys between Thanksgiving and New Years and looking back it was because the Sellers were motivated not to go into the next year with an unsold property.
It only takes the right buyer to make a sale.
Any interest from other homeowners?
They might have family or friends looking to be close.
One of my friends was so tired of getting out bid he saw a sign go up in the Town Home development and followed the Realtor back to the office saying he was ready to buy... kind of took the poor lady by surprise. He did buy and was in contract the same day and offered 5% over list if they would accept that day... it was cash as he was downsizing.
He had sold his home and was tired living in an extended stay with most of his stuff in storage...
2008 called - they want their oil rubbed bronze back.
If you want to sell quickly, get rid of the browns and beige! The "NEW" neutral is gray with white doors and trim. Oak is really outdated as well! I would pay someone to come in and paint the kitchen cabinets white. Replace the doors and trim as well if their oak with white. That will help you sell and for top dollar. If you want that $15k, that's the way to do it!
If you want to sell quickly, get rid of the browns and beige! The "NEW" neutral is gray with white doors and trim. Oak is really outdated as well! I would pay someone to come in and paint the kitchen cabinets white. Replace the doors and trim as well if their oak with white. That will help you sell and for top dollar. If you want that $15k, that's the way to do it!
But, not every house looks good with gray. I don't disagree that it seems like there is a lot of brown and beige, but I'm not sure painting everything gray helps. Especially if there is dated oak and laminate in the house.
I have never chased a design trend... because that is what you will be doing.
When my brother decided to sell... several Realtors told him his country oak kitchen was dated and so were the honey stained solid panel interior doors... they all said he should paint them white...
I was aghast... paint over cheap particle board all you want... not clear vertical grain fir doors and mortise and tenon cabinets...
Decided to go for sale by owner... paid to get it on the MLS and I did all the showings... sold for a new record neighborhood price.
The buyers were an older couple and made up their mind very quickly...
They later said they were so tired of painted white kitchens and doors and seeing the quality of real wood finishes cinched if for them...
One of the historic homes was painted white in the 1920's... a group of volunteers spent a full year just removing paint in the living room and parlor to restore the 1898 wood finish... it was in architect digest because the non painted wood was so stunning.
My agent says I need to buy a washer and dryer also. I have never had one in any house I have ever bought but apparently it is the new thing. Is this true?
It's surprising the things that are left in houses by previous residents, either rentals or those that are sold. But I've never moved into any place that had a washer or dryer in it. In my current house, there was an oven, two bookcases, a full set of drapes, Venetian blinds and curtains, a big radio from 1924, four mag auto wheels, an antique rocking-chair, a big stack of unused copper and galvanized plumbing pipe and a large bunch of aluminum off-set press sheets, dating back 36 years to a newspaper. Many of these had been used instead of tarpaper, under the roofing of an outbuilding.
I wouldn't bother to buy and install laundry equipment, unless you have some extras around. If you leave anything like that in a house you've sold, it will be considered part of the deal (unless you specify otherwise in the contract) and if it stops working, the buyer will probably be after you to pay for the repairs.
Well I am not one to jump on fads. The house is colonial style, with siding colors of beige with burgundy trim. The beiges inside make sense and flow. Adding the now popular gray color and black modern fixture, will look very out of place.
My current house I went back to a late 1800's style... With tiger oak furniture and black wooden light fixtures. Very primitive.
Perhaps it would have been better to use the stager to help select the colors. No need to "jump on fads" to use a well chosen green or gold in some rooms rather than the moribund beige throughout. And certainly the ORB is, or rather was, a fad - one whose time has come, and thankfully, gone.
My realtor advertised that she supplied free staging. But when she came this weekend after tenant moved out, she said that there was nothing to "stage". I assumed her stager would bring in little things to give a home feeling.
This statement makes no sense. This is a house. The house needs to be staged.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LowonLuck
I did. I chose a light beige for walls, white for ceiling, trim and doors. Carpet is going to be beige. The main level kitchen and living room has an oak laminate floor. All cabinets are oak. Light fixtures are oil rubbed bronze with beige glass.
I wouldn't do this. I'd paint it light blue and gray. It doesn't matter that it is beige outside.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LowonLuck
My agent says I need to buy a washer and dryer also. I have never had one in any house I have ever bought but apparently it is the new thing. Is this true?
This is a regional thing. If your realtor says that in your area basically all houses are sold with washers and dryers, then so be it. I'd check on craigslist and local facebook yard sale sites to see if anyone is selling a washer and dryer. You might be able to pick some up cheap. In one house we owned, we had a w/d that we liked very much, so we wanted to get rid of the w/d that came with the house even though they worked perfectly well. We sold them for cheap for anyone who would come get them. Sometimes people will even give them away for free.
As far as the staging itself, I'd be careful about fake beds. They can look awful. Again, you might even be able to get some mattresses/bedframes for free on those yard sale sites. You could just toss them after if you wanted to. Or, if you have an extra, like in a guest room, could you move that to the house? (And remember, two twins make a king.) I suggest looking in the clearance sections of places like TJ Maxx and Bed Bath and Beyond. Maybe Target. If you get an inexpensive bed set that looks at least decent, that will do a lot for the look of the room.
And it is amazing how much better a bathroom looks if you put a rug, towel and shower curtain on it. It immediately looks "homey." Maybe you could even get one you like for yourself and use it in your own bathroom after you sell the house.
We bought our house earlier this year and it was vacant. I think it was initially over-priced, and the old owners had a very unusual corporate relo, so a relo company bought the house. Their agent repainted the whole house (which looked okay) an antique white color which washed out everything, and made the house look old and dirty and drab. I think this was the worst color they could have possibly picked. Any color would have looked better. We saw plenty of other houses that had been staged by idiots, apparently -- the staging looked so incredibly awful that the houses would have looked better empty. But the right staging can have a huge effect.
I get you need to do this on the cheap, and not wanting to pay the potentially thousands of dollars a true professional stager would charge. But is there any way you could put some of your own furniture in the house -- even as a trial for, say, a month? Or if you look at yard sales, and online sites -- you could, for example, put a nice tablecloth over a dining room table that has a lot of scratches and someone is giving away for free.
Maybe you could change out the switchplates to nice ones that are brushed nickel or something? It's not something people consciously notice, but overall, it makes a huge impression. And I know many disagree, but if you could put up a couple pieces of artwork -- I know it makes holes, but only do a couple. If people are really curious, they'll look under the painting. You can get inexpensive ones at places like Michaels -- a couple really big pieces that you can hang on large walls with open space, or over fireplace mantles. (Or perhaps you can put some of your own pieces you might have, or borrow some.)
You want to make it look inviting and home-y, but like no one actually does live there. Like a hotel room that's been made up just for them or an inviting fancy hotel lobby where they can sit down and talk or rest. Make it look as luxurious as you can, and as inviting as you can.
And remember: Neutral doesn't mean beige. There are lots of blues, greens, yellows and yes, grays, that are neutral, too.
If you want to sell quickly, get rid of the browns and beige! The "NEW" neutral is gray with white doors and trim. Oak is really outdated as well! I would pay someone to come in and paint the kitchen cabinets white. Replace the doors and trim as well if their oak with white. That will help you sell and for top dollar. If you want that $15k, that's the way to do it!
I disagree. I'm househunting....everything is GRAY!!! Argghhhhhh. I'm so sick of seeing gray. It's the hallmark of the flipper, too. Gray paint, gray floor tiles, gray swirl countertops, sometimes even wood floors stained gray and kitchen cabinets painted gray.
Some flipper took what could have been a charming 1950s tan house and turned it into a gray nightmare. He painted the exterior brick white (what a surprise! That's the only non-gray thing.). But then he laid gray tiles all over the front porch, painted the front door gray, all the walls inside were painted gray, gray kitchen and bath countertops, gray kitchen floor tiles, gray wood-look laminate floors, gray tiles in baths.
Gray is NOT the new neutral, as far as I'm concerned. It's the hallmark of the flipper. I think they buy a lot of stuff at the same time, put it in a warehouse, and stick with the same color, so everything is mix and match and can be used in any house he flips.
White/black with a red door - classic. Tan/black/white - classic cottage colors. Fresh stark white trim on exterior and interior window and door frames.
White walls are great....any color can be used to give the room a style, even gray.
Very few people object to white and tan. You can still use black appliances and black countertops.
I don't care for beige, which is different from tan. But it's better than gray.
It does sound like that flipper went overboard on the gray. But when you sell a house, you're (usually) competing with new construction, with its model homes that have been professionally decorated and all have the latest trends. I bought my house earlier this year and I got kind of sick of seeing white kitchens - where all the cabinets were white, the backsplash was white, and the counters were white. (Thank goodness the appliances were not white.) To me, that looks sterile and institutional. I personally prefer wood-colored cabinets (or gray wood), even though it's not "in" right now. But it will come back. Everything always does.
Decorate not for trends but for what looks nice. That will never change. I think a combination of gray with some beige looks very nice and can be made to work with any style of decor.
White is very hard to do right. White walls generally look terrible. It makes a huge difference when color is added to the walls, and artwork pops so nicely against it.
People might not object to white and tan, but it won't excite them or make them want to buy that house right now, either.
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