Want more unvarnished truth?
What I'm saying now
What you're saying...
Looking for something? Look here!
I think tag clouds are pretty, and not to be taken overly seriously
##MoveWithGary #Home Inspection #MoveWithGary 111 Chop House 75 on Liberty Wharf 9/11 A Broth of a Boy ABCs Abiouness accountability activities alcohol Allora Ristorante Analysis Angry Hams ANSI/TIA 942 Anthony's Pier 4 Apple Application Armsby Abbey Arsenal Arturo's Ristorante Ashland AT&T Audio Automation baby Baby Monitor babysitting Back To School Bad News Bangkok Thai banks lending movewithgary Bar Bay State Common baystateparent BBQ BCP Bees BeeZers Before I die I want to... behavior Big Bang Bike Bill of Rights Bistro Black Box BlackBerry Boston Boston Marathon boundaries Boyston BPO brand Breakfast Bridge Bring Your Own Technology Budget Building permit Burlington Burn Burrito buyer BYOD Cabling Cambridge Camp Campaign career Casey's Diner Castle casual cCabling Cell Phone Central Square Change Management Cheers Chef Sun ChengDu Chet's Diner Children Chinese Christmas Christmas Families Holiday CIO Cloud coddle collage College College Acceptance co-lo Co-Location Co-Location Tier Power Cooling Comfort Food Condo Control Country Country Kettle Crisis customer dad Dad Phrases damage daredevil Data Center Data Center Design Davios Day Care Dead Death declaration Del Frisco's Design Desktop Video dinner Disaster Recovery Divorce Do Epic Shit dodgeball downsizing Downtown Crossing DR driving Droid Easter Economic Kids Edaville Education Elbow Night Elevator Employee Engagement Erin Estate Planning Etiquette Evaluation events Exchange Expiration Dates Facebook Failing family Family Law Fatherhood Favorite things first time buyer Flash Flemings Fogo de Chão Food Hits and Misses Format Foundry on Elm Foxborough Frameworks fraternity Fraud French Fried Clams friends fun Fusion Generations germs Girl Scouts girls Global Go/No Go GPS Grafton Grandchild Grandpa Harry's hazing Healthcare Healthy Choices while Dining Out Help Desk Hisa Japanese Cuisine Historic holiday Home Home Inspection home renovation hope Horizons hose Hot Dog Hurricane IIT Assessment incident Indecision Indian Infrastructure Inn Innovation Insurance Internet Inventory Management iPhone IT IT Assessment IT Satisfaction Italian Jack Daniels Jakes Restaurant Janet Japanese Jazz Joey's Bar and Grill JP's Khatta Mitha kickball kids Laid off Lakes Region Lala Java Leadership Learning legacy Legal Legal Harborside Les Zygomates L'Espalier Liberty Wharf life transition lights out Linguine's loss Love Lucky's Cafe luxury luxury home M&M Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade mai tai Managed Application Services Managed Services managers Mandarin Manners Mark Fidrych marlborough marriage Mary Chung mass save Maxwell-Silverman Mediterranean meetings Memorial Day memory Mendon Mergers Mexican MiFi Migration Ming III miss MIT MIT CIO Symposium mmortgage Mobility Moes Hot Dog Truck MOM money mortgage Mother MoveWithGary Moving on Name nature neanderthal neighborhood Network new listing New York Marathon newborn newtomarket Northborough Not Your Average Joe's Nuovo Nursing On-Call Operations Operators Oregon Club Organization Pancakes Pandemic Parental Control Parenting Patch Peeves People Perserverance UMASS growth Photography Play Plug and Run Predictable Pride Problem Process Production program Project Management propane PTA. PTO PUE QR Quick Response Rant re/max Real Estate Realtor Recognition Red Rock Resiliency Respect restaurant Restaurant Guy RFP ribs Ritual Root Cause Analysis rReal Estate Sam Adams Sandy Sapporo savings School Sea Dog Brewing Company Sea Dog Steak and Ale Seafood Seaport Security Sel de la Terra Service Service Desk Service Indicator Light sharing ShearTransformation SHIRO Shit Pump Shriners SHTF Simplification Skunk Works Skype Sleep sleepovers Sloan Smith & Wollensky soccer Son SOP sorority spanking Squarespace staffing staging Starbucks Status Reporting Steak Steve Jobs Storage Strategy stress Summer Sushi swimming Tacos Acalpulco teacher Technology Teen Telephony Temperature Strip Tenka terrorist Testing Texas BBQ Company Text Thai Thanksgiving in IT The Mooring Thomas Thought Leader Three Gorges III TIA 942 Timesheets Toby Keith Toddlers traditions Transition treehouse turnover TV Twitter unspoken moments Valentine's Day Value Vendor Venezuelan Verizon Vermont Video Vietnamese voice VoIP Watertown Wedding Westborough Korean Restaurant Westborough MA. StormCam WiFI Wi-Fi Wilbraham Wine Worcester work work life balance working Yama Zakura Zem Han Zitis
Wednesday
Jul102019

What to do when your house is dated

You want to sell your house and you’ve been told it’s dated… What does this mean? Does it mean you were once on match.com?

Styles and fashions change all the time. Materials and finishes change. When updating your home, you can literally tear walls out to the studs and rebuild. When selling your home, we try to take a more measured approach!

While you are not selling furnishings with the home, some quick changes can make all the difference in helping buyers envision themselves in the space. This is where staging comes into play. Some quick hits you can use follow.

Removing that 400-pound television. Even when they still work those mammoth TVs quickly date a property. Often in front of these TVs are “sofas with a secret.”  I’ll let you in on a secret…they date the space. It’s the same with brown furniture. Sell, donate, or put in the garage…make these items gone.

If your house has “gleaming hardwoods,” do you keep them covered with an area rug? And did you get the area rug from your parents? Roll up the rug and let buyers see those beautiful floors.

Are your toilets and tubs blue? Avocado?  Whenever you have fixtures where the colors are no longer available it’s a good idea to replace. A replacement toilet is a couple hundred bucks.  Tubs can be reglazed rather than replaced for short dollars.

Quartz is the “in” countertop now. Laminate (aka Formica) and even Corian is viewed as dated.  We resist recommending countertop replacements because a seller rarely gets their money out of the project. There are companies who will coat a countertop with a resin finish making the counter look fabulous. This is a good option if the countertops are badly worn or damaged.

Are your light fixtures bright brass? Bright brass screams, “I was installed a couple decades ago?”  Home Depot, Wayfair and Lowes have some very affordable light fixtures. You don’t have to love them, as you are selling the home.

If you have any brown electrical outlets, suggest changing them. Switches and outlets are easy to change if you know what you are doing. White is the “in” color.

Some people change door hardware, replacing their brass handles and hinges with brush nickel – immediate upgrade.  And if you do one room a night after work, it is not horrible.

We believe one of the best overall values in updating a home is paint. And it is something many can do themselves.

Kitchen cabinets looking beat up or dated?  Don’t reface – paint them white. And when you put the hardware back on, update it.

Walls looking old, faded, beat up?  Linen white and Navajo white have given way to metropolitan, Tyler gray, pale oak. The whites have given way to greige. A quick coat of paint (starting with and including the front door) gives one of the most immediate returns on impact!  You want to select neutral colors appealing to the widest range of buyers. When in doubt, paint.

If you need advice on selling your home or buying a new one, give us a call.

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

« Coordinating the Team of People in Real Estate | Main | Buying a Home with Blemished Credit »

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>