Please watch HGTV prior to having an Open House

De-clutter.
Get personal pixs off the wall and/or counters. Pick up the floor.
Big thing is the kitchen. Take all knic-knacs off the counter.
Make your kitchen and bathrooms seems spacious.
People are forgiving about bedrooms - especially kid's.

I dread the day someone opens my cupboards or closets.

is it still a seller's market in your area?

Not by a long shot - it is a buyers market. As it pretty much is every where.

ok - that shoots down that theory

people here are still so eager to buy that it doesn't much matter the condition the home is presented in

Just as bad, you could have a clueless real estate agent:
Bad MLS Photos:
http://hookedonhouses.net/bad-mls-photos/

Oh my - this is really sad - that whole doll thing is just plain creepy - reminds me of the commercial where they are trying to send the "clown" back.

This is almost better than People of Walmart. The scarier thing is these agents are supposed to know better than the people selling.

I'm going to look at this pictures later.

If linkat says they are better than "People of Walmart" I wanna be able to give it my undivided attention.

I did see the main pages "taxidermy house", so it looks promising.

I'd agree with those who say unclutter.

We are actually in the process of de-cluttering. Tough when you have kids. I've already told them I am going to put some of their toys in boxes and store them away - kind of to give them the heads up. I've been through the bathrooms de-cluttering draws and cabinets. I've been through my built in drawers in the walk in closet - still have the rest of the closet to deal with (clothes and shelves); and then the kitchen cabinets.

We've had a painter to come in and tackle the difficult painting jobs - just need a fresh coat on the bedrooms and bathrooms. That is hubby's job. But I'm telling you our place looks incredible in conparsion to what we walked through this weekend.

I love the one places with this orange swirl wallpaper combined with red swirled curtains. Actually I love when a place is decorated like that - more likely to get a good deal as it is so ugly and these are easy fixes.

But selling a house for almost $500k and you leave dirty laundry out is insane and it wasn't that much larger than others we looked at. The only thing was it was a bit newer.

Why would anyone pay 500K for a house? Absolutely nuts!

Where do you live JTT?

If you are selling your home for $400K, why shouldn't you get one for $500K if you're looking for a nicer home?

500K doesn't automatically buy you a mansion. My neighborhood is what I'd consider moderate, and it doesn't surprise me that's what some houses sell for.

500k will yield you a 3-4 bedroom with 1 or 2 baths of appx 2,000 square feet of living space. With a decent side yard and a 2 car gargage. Anything less and you are talking fixer upper or less than 2k sq feet.

Unless you want to live in a town that has low quality schools and perhaps some crime issues.

Right now the median asking price for a house in Boston is $333,000.00.
The 25th perctile is $225,000.00. The 75th percentile is $500,000.00.

source: http://www.deptofnumbers.com/asking-prices/massachusetts/boston/

Saneville.



Because one doesn't have to keep reaching for more more more all the time.

Here's 2 houses in my neighborhood that are for sale, the first one is 2 blocks north of my house, the 2nd one 2 or 3 blocks south. Both considered the same neighborhood.

Which would you be more interested in?



$529,000

I watched them put the back addition on this house. A lot of work.






$229,000

I'd have to suspect that these are small homes or condos or less desirable areas to live. I could buy a great house in Brockton that would be significantly larger than we are looking for in the low $200k, but I wouldn't want to live there - and this from some one who grew up there. Whereas, towns with good quality schools for the same property would be 3 times or more as much.

I live in a condo currently - good size/excellent location and they go for on the low end for the smaller ones $300k to $375. You are talking between 1200 and 1800 sq feet and 2 - 3 bedrooms. And a lower quality public schools (why the kids go to private).

We hope to move where we can have a yard and the kids can go to public school. Just the going prices for communities with high quality school systems.

Seriously, what part of the country do you live in?

If I was living in the 2nd house pictured, I don't think it would be unreasonable to want to reach for living in the first house.

It totally depends on how you manage your money, and what you can truly afford.
If you can afford a $500K house, which isn't at all extravagent in many places, why not?

The people who are selling the nicer house have been there for maybe 5 years. I've owned mine since 1991, and have lived in it most of that time.
I don't have any intention of moving, but if I do eventually, it'll be a good home for someone else.

That 2nd house, when sold, will be torn down, and a decent house built there. They are basically buying the lot. No one who wants to live in my area, again, a very moderate area, would want to live in that piece of ****.

Some Russian paid $100M for this place in California and it only has 4 bedrooms, I think. He also has no plans to move into it any time soon (but he'll have a nice place to stay when he decides to visit).

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=135022586

If I had the money for the first one, I'd buy the second one and have it updated to my liking. They're both kinda ugly.

I sold my most loved forever house in a day or two when it was in immaculate condition, as was the garden. The cads took out the whole garden (xeriscape) and put in tropical plants in that semi arid desert.. but it sold high. It nearly killed me to see it again when I visited LA, but eventually those fools sold it to people who renovated (oh god, my baby house) yet again, but that time doing an apparent good job re craftsman restoration.

I sold the next house in northern california 'as is' - I hired the main work*, electrical including rewiring and a lot of additional 'period' lighting, new plumbing, retrofitted heating - but not all the cosmetic stuff I had planned to - but it was clean and was a fabulous old house; it sold right away, escrow fell through, and sold right away again. In that case, it wasn't so much my splendid decor but the nature of the house itself. Garden was pretty good too, if I say so myself. At the time of the sale, I was in a big hurry because I thought the market would be about to crash (and I'm a financial fool, but was somewhat right about that one in that area).

The house I rented when I first moved there (way cheap, they wanted it lived in and kept warm in the winter so I got this horrendo 4 bedroom tracty place with, gads, an atrium entry, for a typical 1 bdr apt rent) got an offer three to four weeks after I moved in - I kept most of my worldly goods packed in the garage, did put up some of my paintings and start cooking.
People came to see it with a half hour warning as I was baking bread, not as a ploy but because I tend to bake bread, and kaboom, they bought it. Place hadn't sold for three years....

I ended up moving again to the x-house of the guy in that couple, until I found one to buy.

So - I with my own poor sense of smell suggest that people at least have a place clean and not smell poorly. I tended to play music loud in that huge place as a cushion for my distress on moving, and I figure the house liked it, even if I didn't have it on when the people showed up (kidding, but you know, music has a residual warmth, eh?).

* first place I mentioned I did a good part of the physical construction, approaching half, the next one, not so much.