By Kristen Noble

By Kristen Noble

Are you running around getting your house ready for company? Need to clean a last minute spill or stain? Don’t bother going to the store, try some of these solutions:

1.  Rye bread removes pencil marks on walls.

2. Use raw spaghetti as a tester to see if your cakes are fully baked.

3. Mayonnaise removes water marks on wood surfaces.

4. Remove candle wax from table tops by placing a plastic bag of ice on them.  Once
hardened, remove the wax with a credit card.  If there is any additional residue, it can be cleaned up using a mixture of one part apple cider vinegar to ten parts water.

5. Did you know that banana peels work great to polish silver?

6. Make your own furniture polish with 2 ½ cups vegetable oil and 1 ½ cups of lemon juice. This product is good for up to 6 months once made and refrigerated.

7. White toothpaste works great to remove crayon marks on walls.

I hope this helps you out and gets your house squeaky clean!

By Kristen Noble

By Kristen Noble

I always hate to see this to my real estate clients, but selling a house isn’t fun or convenient. There seem to be less and less buyers. I think, and obviously believe, that home staging gives home owners the best chance to sell their property for the most money. One common obstacle I’ve run into with sellers is their concern with their children’s lives being disrupted during the selling process. Here are a couple of tips that I suggest if you run into the same situation:

1. It’s always a good idea to take down all personal photos. When there are children in a home for sale, it’s even more important for safety purposes. It seems common for a child to have something in their room that boldly displays their name. Combine that name with a photo of a child and a people knowing your address and it is a very dangerous combination.
2. See if the comforters in kid’s rooms that have a bold design on them are more neutral on their opposite side.
3. Kids are afraid their things are going to disappear when they move. Suggest that parents give boxes to their children and have the kids decorate the boxes so they recognize which ones are theirs more quickly. Have each kid use one color.
4. Have your kids gather what is going into a packing box and photograph the items. Put that picture on the outside of the box so that when moving day arrives they can quickly find their favorite toys are once the move takes place.
5. Get a couple of short, but long plastic bins that can slide easily under a child’s bed. Have them pack those bins with their favorite toys for every day play. It’s a lot easier to ask a child to clean their room if they know where everything goes.
6. There’s nothing wrong with a neat stack of plastic containers in the garage for kid’s items. Again, take photographs and tape them to the outside of each box.
7. You can get cloth hanging boxes to put in a closet. They’re great for books.
8. If your client is moving because their family has outgrown the home, tell them you don’t want your pictures to advertise that fact. Having kids rooms crammed with things from top to bottom doesn’t help!
9. Leave a basket with the home owner with small rewards for kids who clean up their rooms before showings. I have used stickers, pencils, and treats as long as my client permits it.

Every time I have homes listed during the holiday season I have my clients calling me to ask if they can still decorate their houses even though they’re on the market.  In a word, yes.  Here are some of my favorite tips and suggestions:

Use white lights in your windows in the evening.  They’re simple and classic.

Take a step back.  Does the room you just decorated still look spacious?

Natural greens in vases, on windowsills, and anywhere you can put them are festive, inexpensive, and omit a great natural odor.

If possible, stick to solid color items instead of lots of patterns.  You can keep some of these items up and use them in a different way for the next holiday.

Balance your rooms.  In other words, don’t have all your decorations and furnishing on one side of a room and nothing on the other.  The room will feel awkward to viewers.

Use your vertical space evenly around the room.  If you put some items up high on walls, be consistent around the room.

Distribute your accent color around the room.  If you love bright turquoise ornaments, make sure you use a touch of that color around the room so that people’s eyes aren’t glued to one stand out accessory.

Try not to use more than 2/3 of a wall space.

If at all possible, leave a 3 foot walking path around the room.

Many people like to light candles for showings.  I’m not a big fan of that because not every buyer likes the odors of certain scents. LED lights create a beautiful ambiance and are safe.

By Kristen Noble

There is no trick to sell your house faster. The houses I’ve listed that I think will go quickly don’t, and the ones I think will sit don’t. People will speculate the real estate market and economy are bad and tax credits are no longer available. Instead of rationalizing why your house isn’t selling, get proactive. If your agent has used various marketing plans, taken great pictures to advertize, and you have followed professional advice regarding the listing price you need to ask yourself an important question. What have you done to sell your house?

There have been 123 new listings put into the multiple listing service, the MLX system, in the past two days in our area. Today, October 1st, 178 listings expired without selling. You have to put forth effort to sell your house.  It is not all up to your agent.

In a majority of cases you are selling your house to buy a new one. Put the shoe on your other foot. When you look for a future home on line what draws you to a property? I assume that when you see clutter, dirty dishes, pet food dishes on a countertop, overflowing garbage cans, a toilet seat up with colorful surprises in it, mouse traps, or crazy colors you immediately pick up the phone and beg your agent to get you a showing as soon as possible, right? Seriously, how does your house look on line? What has the feedback been on showings?

Paint with neutral colors before listing your house. If the photos used to advertise your house are showing distinct decorating styles, it may cause buyers hesitation to set up a showing. A house is an investment. The less work buyers need to do, the more likely you are to sell quickly. Each time a house has the right lay out and square footage, a buyer starts a check list of repairs and cosmetic changes that they want to make. If you have an individual that has never done any home repairs or painted, they are making those changes are more expensive than they actually are.  The higher the cost they calculate for making improvements or changes the lower the price you will be offered. That can of paint and a little elbow grease is a small investment for a faster sale.

Don’t advertise why you’re moving. If you are outgrowing your home don’t have photos of rooms look crammed. How do your online pictures look? Does your house look spacious and move in ready or not? Clean, paint, and de-clutter. By all means, if you have carpeting over hardwood flooring, yank up that rug. Invest in some inexpensive neutral curtain sheers to brighten a room. Buy a new comforter set that is neutral. To make a less expensive change, put a crisp new sheet over the top of your comforter. Add some throw pillows. To save some money, wrap pillows in fabric and use a safety pin to hold on that change. Decorate with mums, pumpkins, and gourds in and outside for a great homey atmosphere. Using plastic containers and place them in a linen closet or under the bathroom sink for all your toiletries. A quick trip to your neighborhood dollar store for clean white towels and dishtowels will help for photographs too.

Hiring a professional home stager is a lot less expensive than a price drop. Give yourself the best opportunity you can to sell quickly. If you don’t use a home stager, your competition may be.

By Kristen Noble, Dream Home Impressions – Home Staging & Re-Design

There is no trick to sell your house faster.  The houses I’ve listed that I think will go quickly don’t, and the ones I think will sit don’t.  People will speculate the real estate market and economy are bad and tax credits are no longer available. Instead of rationalizing why your house isn’t selling, get proactive.  If your agent has used various marketing plans, taken great pictures to advertize, and you have followed professional advice regarding the listing price you need to ask yourself an important question. What have you done to sell your house?

There have been 123 new listings put into the multiple listing service, the MLX system, in the past two days in our area.  Today, October 1st, 178 listings expired without selling.  You have to put forth effort to sell your house.  It is not all up to your agent.

In a majority of cases you are selling your house to buy a new one.  Put the shoe on your other foot.  When you look for a future home on line what draws you to a property?  I assume that when you see clutter, dirty dishes, pet food dishes on a countertop, overflowing garbage cans, a toilet seat up with colorful surprises in it, mouse traps, or crazy colors you immediately pick up the phone and beg your agent to get you a showing as soon as possible, right?  Seriously, how does your house look on line?  What has the feedback been on showings?

Paint with neutral colors before listing your house. If the photos used to advertise your house are showing distinct decorating styles, it may cause buyers hesitation to set up a showing.  A house is an investment.  The less work buyers need to do, the more likely you are to sell quickly.  Each time a house has the right lay out and square footage, a buyer starts a check list of repairs and cosmetic changes that they want to make.    If you have an individual that has never done any home repairs or painted, they are making those changes are more expensive than they actually are.  The higher the cost they calculate for making improvements or changes the lower the price you will be offered.  That can of paint and a little elbow grease is a small investment for a faster sale.

Don’t advertise why you’re moving.  If you are outgrowing your home don’t have photos of rooms look crammed.  How do your online pictures look?  Does your house look spacious and move in ready or not?  Clean, paint, and de-clutter.  By all means, if you have carpeting over hardwood flooring, yank up that rug.  Invest in some inexpensive neutral curtain sheers to brighten a room.  Buy a new comforter set that is neutral.  To make a less expensive change, put a crisp new sheet over the top of your comforter.  Add some throw pillows.  To save some money, wrap pillows in fabric and use a safety pin to hold on that change.  Decorate with mums, pumpkins, and gourds in and outside for a great homey atmosphere.  Using plastic containers and place them in a linen closet or under the bathroom sink for all your toiletries.  A quick trip to your neighborhood dollar store for clean white towels and dishtowels will help for photographs too.

Hiring a professional home stager is a lot less expensive than a price drop.  Give yourself the best opportunity you can to sell quickly.  If you don’t use a home stager, your competition may be.