Nancy Lee's Discussions

I suggest you contact a certified stager (with references) in your area.  They should know what matters to buyers.  Hardwood floors are very, very popular right now.  In an in-town condo, I would expect to see them and they would definitely add to the perceived value.  However, there are a lot of different kinds of flooring.  If laminate wood flooring is popular, it will also be a heck of a lot cheaper to install than, say, cherry.  At the same time, the stager should be able to give you other recommendations to improve the marketing of your condo.

Many companies now provide "neutral" groupings of colors.  Go to a paint store and ask to see the neutrals.  If you have a sage pillow the color of the sofa, bring it.  I would even empty a kitchen drawer, scrub it really clean, and bring it.  With the colors in your house, I think something in the brown/mocha/rich beige family is probably best.  Hold the color cards up against the pillow and the drawer.  If you need to and can afford it, have them make up samples of the colors you think would work best.  Bring those home and paint them on the walls to examine.  Ultimately, you want to end up with one color card.  Then, select the lightest shade, the third shade up, and the fifth shade up (this will be your accent color).  The way you will get flowing, but slightly different colors, is by painting the lightest and the third lightest colors in different rooms.  Use the darkest color to paint accent walls - like around the fireplace or on a wall that is mostly windows.  Get the best quality of paint you can afford.  I usually use "eggshell" instead of flat or gloss - it gives a nice, rich glow.  Oh, and many people do not like the combination of purple and green.  For the time the house is on the market, please consider replacing the purple pillows with pillows in the same color family as you choose for the walls.

Reach out to sellers.  Write an article for the local newspaper.  Advertise.  Write a presentation on staging from the sellers point of view (yes, prove you are a knowledgeable pro by giving away the secret handshake).  Find a charity auction and offer one free staging consultation (or even one free redecorating) as a prize.  Rent a conference room at the local library, out up flyers and/or advertise, give the presentation.  Decide how far it is practical for you to travel and reach out to agents (offer a presentation written from the agent's perspective as Veltri Homes suggests) and sellers within that radius.  Have a website and tune it to come up high in Internet searches.  Find Q&A sites (like this one) and display your knowledge by helping people who are lost.In all things, stress that staging is part of planning to sell, not something tacked on at the very end the day before the photos are taken.  I have occasionally been amazed at how much good we can do when we are part of the planning.

Yes, now is the time to list your house.  But don't rush too fast.  Consider taking the upcoming weekend or week to do some prep work.  If you can afford it, bring in a stager.  If you cannot afford it, or there are no stagers in your area, do an internet search on DIY Home Staging. Before you list, before photos of your house go on the internet, you want to make your product (your house) as saleable as possible.  It should not take long - I am talking days, not weeks - and it will help make your sale happen.  

What is happening to house prices in the neighborhood?  If repairing the house will take the potential asking price - repairs plus any existing mortgage - way over the potential selling price then you are not going to improve your situation by making repairs.   I also suspect in today's market very few buyers are going to be interested in a house with structural problems.  Have you spoken to one or more local agents who handle both houses and land about what sells better, land or house?  And about what the probable selling price of each will be? Get opinions from local experts.  Run the numbers several times, for several different options.

You want to change the existing garage into living space, then add a new, two story garage with additional living space on the second story?  This will bring your square footage up from 1700 to 1700 + 3000 + the space in the converted garage?  Is the house located in a subdivision?  How big are the houses around you?  If 1700 square feet is about average, you risk over-improving to the point you cannot sell should you need to.  On the other hand, if all of the houses around you are in the 5000 square foot range, you are still at risk because your house is going to "look" added onto, not designed from the beginning for the square footage.  That will also impact resale.  Hiring an architect and doing a more complete (and more expensive) renovation can help you there.  But, is that worth it?   You have what is in many cities, even today, a reasonably salable house (1700 sq ft, 3bed, 2 bath).  Have you investigated selling then purchasing a larger home?   

Everywhere I go on the Internet, I see signs that house sales have increased this Spring.  That may or may not be true in your specific location. Specialists in you local market, local agents, will prepare lists of comparable sales to help you make this decision, and to encourage you to list with them.  They can tell you about the vitality of your local market: if houses are selling, how frequently they are selling, if the number of sales have increased since Spring began, what prices are doing.Since your reason for selling is emotional (not unavoidable like a job transfer), and since you have "the nicest house in the neighborhood". you are going to have to put emotion aside when you assess your lowest selling price.  No matter where your pricing starts, to remain near your family, are you willing to potentially lose the money you invested in improvements (thereby dropping your bottom line by 10K)?  That may be what happens.  You need a partner, the agent you choose to list your house, should help you understand how realistic your selling goal is when compared to both the profit you would like to make and to your fiscal bottom line.  These are decisions sellers should make in any market.If you decide to sell, stage your house before any marketing begins.  Staging should not be an enormous investment.  But it can make that "nicest house in the neighborhood" into the best deal buyers are going to see.

I can't believe somebody didn't beat me to saying this.  "You only get one chance to make a first impression."  Almost 100% of the time, the first thing potential buyers see about a house is the landscaping.  That sets their expectations for everything that comes after.  I agree with Metro Maintenance.  I do not think 2003 ROI statistics are applicable in the 2009 market.  But, whenever a residential property is for sale, landscaping has a massive impact on that sale. 

Yes.  sternsdec, the internet is full of places to market your product.  And this is not one of them.  This is a place where people with questions and concerns, who do not know where to turn, seek answers.  This is a community where specialists, who would otherwise never meet, get to hold fascinating discussions and the rest of us get to learn.  me-me-me does not belong in this sandbox.  Here we are all striving to play nice and share.   

OMG  Now, I am going to spend the rest of the day mentally updating "Of Mice and Men" to include Peugots, granite counter tops, hedge funds, and vacant moldering 7 bed/7.5 bath houses.   Chaz, you have destroyed any hope I had for productivity!Jessi, I think the answer to your questions has multiple parts: Assuming we are not talking about selling via short sale and the attendant impact to credit - Downsizers are probably in serious trouble because they will have difficulty getting the profit they need when they sell (or even have trouble selling) their large houses.The economy may work for Upsizers.  They may be able to sell their smaller house for a modest profit, then turn around and buy a larger house for virtually the same cost. Oh golly, this is good, if depressing, discussion.  Other, more knowledgeable opinions, please!