1. Major renovations. Most of the time, you won’t sell a home faster because of major renovations. Adding a bedroom, creating a gourmet kitchen, or installing a hot tub probably won’t make much difference to your average buyer, and you may actually price yourself out of range for the neighborhood where your home is located.

2. High end carpet. It’s a great idea to replace dirty, worn, or dated carpet. But when you pick out the replacement, don’t choose the most expensive grade or brand on the market. A new carpet looks new, no matter the price, so a buyer will get the look and feel of your house at its best. But whether you install new carpet or not, a lot of buyers will immediately change it, and get their own new flooring with the color, style, and brand that they want to match their new home.

Note: Sometimes, if a carpet isn’t too far gone, I encourage my clients to give buyers a carpet allowance. I just staged a home for sale in Durham, and I had a flooring company give carpet samples for prospective buyers to see. It gave This gives the best of both worlds for a savvy seller – and buyer.

3. New appliances. Whether you are leaving your appliances in your home or taking them with you, take a serious look at the units to see if they are so bad that they overshadow the good points of your kitchen. If they don’t, new appliances aren’t important enough for someone to want to seal the deal immediately. If you feel you must replace them, consider renting for a week or two, or buying nice used models. (Craig’s List is a great place for this!) You don’t need to install dishwashers and everything else to improve your home. You just need to do enough to get it to sell.

4. Retiling. If you have problem tiling spots, don’t retile the whole room. Give the tile a good scrub down. Remove and replace dirty or broken caulk. Then, replace cracked or chipped tile.

5. Pool. Many years ago, a pool was a hot selling point for a home. Today, most people don’t need or want pools. The expense, the liability, and safety concerns will actually keep some people from even considering a home that has a swimming pool – and in some cases – even a hot tub.

So – even though it’s hot in Chapel Hill – don’t sweat it. Concentrate your energy and your resources on things that will give you the biggest return in selling price – and in a fast sell.

It may be easy for you to overlook cracked tiling in the kitchen, holes from your son’s errant baseball, that dripping faucet in the laundry room, but for a prospective buyer, these are red flags that may indicate your home hasn’t been well maintained.

Here’s a list of some easy fixes to problems that you might overlook:

Open and shut. Make sure that each door in your home closes and locks properly. Buyers may mistakenly think that a sagging door signals a serious foundation problem.

Light work. Put in new light bulbs in every room. The clean, bright light from a new bulb will make your home shine.

Squeaky clean. Clean your home from the attic to the basement! Don’t forget to dust blinds, vaccuum out light fixtures, and wash fingerprints off odd spots – like the ceiling. Pay particular attention to the windows. Recently, I found myself frantically cleaning some dirty windows at a home that I listed and that house sold in a week. (Your mileage may vary – but clean windows won’t hurt!)

Under pressure. Pressure wash the exterior of your home. Make sure you clean all of the exterior of the house itself – bricks and siding, foundation and eaves. You should also pay particular attention to the steps, porches, decks, sidewalks, and driveways. Every inch of your home should be pristine.

Worn out. Replace anything worn. Take a look at faucets and other plumbing fixtures. Check your light fixtures; make sure your switches aren’t cracked or dirty. Examine rugs in entry ways, carpet on the steps, handles on your cabinets.

Yard for sale. Get your yard in shape. Trim bushes and weed your flower beds. Make sure your lawn is edged and mulched nicely. It’s been really dry lately in Chapel Hill, so if you have plants that look anemic, water and fertilize them – or replace them as needed. Remove any branches or leaves from your yard.

Up on the roof. Check your roof and gutters for damage, dirt, leaves, and debris. Give a good initial clean out, and then keep your eye on it after any rain or wind.

Got your number. Make sure your house number is easily visible from the street. You want every buyer to find you easily!

So go ahead. Sweat the small stuff. These little things may just make your home sell a whole lot faster!

PS Don’t forget that staging your house for sale is another great way to get your house sold!

This house was an expired listing. Someone else had it listed for seven months.

After I was listed as the new agent, I did a home staging. Because the house was empty, I brought in furniture, decorative items, and generally made the house so buyers could envision living in it. I even made a room look like a child lived in it. I also gave it a bit of polish – sweeping off the pollen. I must admit that I asked myself, “Why am I washing windows on vacant houses?” Can you believe it? I even mowed the lawn by myself.

Anyhow, I sent out a terrific postcard to all the neighbors, encouraging them to spread the word. “You can pick your new neighbors!” was my hook. Frankly, the card did NO good, because probably before it was delivered, a buyer surfaced!

And I have to mention the seller. It’s so helpful to be working with a seller who understands the process and the situation. She understood what she needed to do to get it sold.

This home for sale in Durham will soon be moved from listed to SOLD!

Crazy Viv

PS Did I say that I just listed this? It had only been on the market for seven days…

1. Walk this way! Familiarity can impair our vision of our home. Stand on the curb and assess your curb appeal. Pretend it’s the first time you’ve seen this house. What does the woodwork look like? Does it need repair? How does the roof look from the street? What’s your impression of the landscaping in the front yard? This honest assessment is the first step in staging your home to sell.

2. Just Do It. Once you were able to identify some possible flaws, it’s time for action. House staging means your next steps might be: fix the broken shutter, paint the front door, and if it’s the season, get everyone in the household involved to weed the front garden. If spring is in the air, a fresh batch of annuals bursting with color is the perfect, inexpensive upgrade for any front yard.

3. Mow, mow, mow. Mow grass frequently when it’s the season. As you’re staging your house to sell, it’s important to remember that you don’t want any small flaw (like shaggy grass) to distract your potential buyer.

4. No Bike Zone. Trikes, Hot Wheels and other toys are part of life when you have kids, but you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Involve your children in storing these items when they finish playing. Be mindful of your own possible clutter: a pair of gardening gloves and a bag of fertilizer left behind could prevent someone from realizing that your home is perfect for them.

5. Front Porch Available. Now you’ve made it from the street, past the freshly mown grass. After you’ve admired the annuals in the front garden and made sure you’ve put up your gardening tools, it’s time to take a good look at your front porch. In spring, is it covered with pollen? In fall, are leaves a problem? Either sweep or hose off any debris on your porch (being mindful to put up these tools when finished.) Does the porch light work? Does the doorbell work? You want to give the impression that your home is well taken care of. A simple thing like a burned out bulb can make you seem like a lax homeowner. The potential buyer may wonder what else is in bad repair or neglected.

What’s that I hear? The doorbell? I think you may have your first potential buyer at the door! Stay tuned for more tips on staging a home for sale. What happens once the front door opens? I can hardly wait to tell you!

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I provide free assistance for home staging to my clients. If you’re selling a home in the Chapel Hill or Durham areas of the Triangle, call or email me today, and let’s get your house sold!

Although individual styles and looks can vary greatly in bathrooms, everyone agrees on one thing: they need to smell clean and fresh. What’s the secret? When it comes to staging your house for sale, I don’t keep secrets from a motivated seller like you!

1. Start with a scrupulously clean bathroom. Clean smells clean. Now that you have it clean, how do you keep it that way? Oh my dear, I can tell you a few tricks and help you house stage like a pro!

2. Try continuous products. Little toilet bleach tabs are great. Flush the toilet, pull top of the toilet back and drop the little tab just like it tells you on the package. Now carefully put that top back on and look confident. Every time someone at your house flushes, a little bit of that cleaning solution will swish around and keep your toilet smelling fresh. Generic brands have worked as well as the expensive ones at our house.

3. Tuck away a Bounce dryer sheet or two. A cousin taught me this one. She would tuck one underneath the trash bag in her cute little trash can and hid another one in the decorative basket of potpourri on her bathroom counter. You couldn’t see those sheets, but you could smell that fresh laundry scent as soon as you came in her bathroom door. Lovely!

4. Emergency Clean Kit’s under the sink, and I’m not afraid to use it! It happens. The doorbell rings, you race around and put the newspaper under a cushion in the sofa, kick the dog’s toy into the closet, and your next thought is the bathroom. Even your elementary aged kid can be trained to tidy up your bathroom if you have the right tools available: paper towels, Windex, a package of disposable bathroom wipes, and a few plastic grocery bags (for disposing of your cleaning evidence.)

5. Touch not the towel!!! I’m sure you have beautiful sets of matching towels that perfectly complement your bathroom. While you’re staging your house, make sure no one in the house touches them. Now is the time to place a dark brown towel (or even a roll of paper towels) on the counter. This necessary item can be tucked under the sink when potential buyers drop by, and your guest towels will still look great. No, that’s not cheating. That’s using your head, my dear.

Staging your house for sale is a cinch with just a few simple steps! For more ideas and timely tips, give me a call. I sell homes all over the Triangle area of North Carolina, and I have lots of great – fresh – ideas that will get your house sold!

1. Look up. Let there be light! This is no time to close the curtains and protect furniture from the effects of sunshine. Open up your curtains and take advantage of all the natural lighting you have! If you don’t have the advantage of natural light, be sure your foyer is well lit artificially. A dark entryway is a bad beginning. Think of all the scary movies you’ve seen in your lifetime.

2. Look down. Steam clean your carpets, buff your wood floors – take the extra deep cleaning step required to bring out the natural luster of your flooring. And for extra points, have guests take their shoes off by the front door. Not only will freshly cleaned floors stay cleaner longer, but you’ll be labeled a fastidious housekeeper, which is not a bad label for a motivated seller. Imagine the realtor murmuring in hushed tones, “I don’t think they’ve ever walked on that carpet, do you?”

3. Look all around. Minimally accessorize. Choose a larger, dynamic objet d’art rather than than a coffee table full of knick knacks. De-clutter as much as possible. As you stage your house for sale, always leave space for your potential buyer’s imagination.

4. Put away the family photographs. Yes, they make a house a home, but they remind the potential buyer that the house is yours, yours and all yours. When you are house staging, your objective is for the potential buyer to see himself living in this house. His dream house wouldn’t have your kids’ school pictures in the hallway.

5. Neutralize your color scheme. Chocolate brown walls are dramatic, but your potential buyer may not share your taste or vision. A lighter neutral color (although never white or beige) is safe – and such a surface is easy for your buyer to paint over if she happens to prefer a fire engine red hallway.

6. No evidence, please. That means no fingerprints on the walls, no love notes written in dust on top of the piano, and no newspaper spread out from the easy chair onwards. I know you lead a busy life, but keeping the area inside your front door as close to showroom ready as possible stages your house to sell quickly. Let’s face it: we can live the fantasy of being the perfect housekeepers for a limited time!

7. Scentsational house!! Aromas can evoke great nostalgia and make you feel at home right away. Scented candles can do the trick with choices of vanilla cookies, coffee, and spiced cider. Another quick trick to waft a lovely fragrance through your staged house is to boil a variety of spices like cinnamon, cloves and all spice in a small pan of water on a back burner.

Now that we’ve looked behind your front door, you have all the advice you need to stage your home for sale. Think clean, lean, and light!

So – are you ready to sell? Contact me – Vivian Olkin. Together, we can get your house staged – and sold!

Yet you want your kitchen to welcome any potential gourmet or gourmand who’s a strong potential buyer. Let’s face it: even if we’ve never zested a lemon or pressed a clove of garlic, we all like to think that given the opportunity, we could whip up a meal that would make Julia Child proud. The fantasy is that the right kitchen could propel any one of us to culinary genius. You can stage your home to create and literally sell such a fantasy.

Here are a few easy steps a motivated seller like you can take to stage your house to sell by transforming your kitchen into a deal closer:

1. Think fresh…paint that is. It’s cheap, and it can totally change the mood of a room. A kitchen that’s light, bright and airy invites folks to come in and sit a spell. The wheels in the mind of your potential buyer are starting to turn and plan. She’s starting to envision her table in your highly marketable space.

2. De-clutter. We all have refrigerator doors full of kids’ art, school pictures, tickets to the Durham Bulls game, and reminders for the next dental appointment. The truth is we’ve seen that door so often that we don’t see it as junky any more. To a buyer, the sight is jarring and reminds him he’s in someone else’s house. You want each person to be able to envision himself in this house and begin to see it as all theirs!

3. Clear the Counters. Think long and gleaming. Get as many appliances and crockery off your counter tops as possible. Spic and span surfaces shine! A vase of fresh flowers is a nice touch.

4. Smells like home. A Mrs. Smith apple pie in the oven makes your whole house smell like your grandmother’s on a harvest day. I won’t tell them it’s from your grocer’s freezer if you don’t.

5. Pantry Shelves, spice racks and spaces, oh my! We like to think the right kitchen would organize itself, and one with well-thought out storage spaces can certainly give that impression. Look in the most recent editions of home magazines for organizational ideas. Avoid Discount Club shopping and keep your pantry, cabinet and other storage places minimally stocked. Spaces will look larger. And you’ll be moving soon anyway!

Staging your home to sell is part science and part artistry. A clean, creatively presented kitchen can cut through the clutter of “buyer overload” and stage your house to sell quickly. A few easy steps can lead a motivated seller like you to the sale you’ve been waiting for.

Remember, I offer a free staging consultation if your home is occupied, and if your home is vacant, I’ll provide furniture and furnishings. My goal is to see your house sell quickly – and for the best price possible!

Contact me today, and let’s get your house SOLD!