The Tulsa House: From Trash to Treasure

The Tulsa house was my first flip. It was a former rental property that had been trashed by years of renters. My husband and I were newlyweds and found this house one block off of Utica in Tulsa, by far the nicest part of town. We bought the house for almost nothing, which was amazing considering how expensive the rest of the neighborhood is. We spent about fifty grand on the remodel: paint of course, every room, new heating and air units (the old ones were original to the 1944 house!), all new duct work, all new electrical which included all new wiring, new outlets, a new breaker box (the old one had glass fuses in it!) refinishing the Bruce hardwood floors (including the parquet floors in the nursery) a new brick patio in the backyard, tons of new landscaping and a new privacy/stockade and wrought iron fence around the entire property.

We put in a whole new kitchen including cabinets and top of the line appliances and did the interior painting ourselves.

And the finished kitchen (we kept the original Kentile):

Here's the sweet little breakfast nook:

We did the landscaping ourselves, too, which  mainly consisted of cleaning out dead leaves, dead heading neglected roses, thinning out the monkey grass and laying new fescue grass sod.

Under the foot of dead leaves and muck we found hostas, elephant ears, monkey grass, English ivy, Wisteria, a Japanese maple, all which had been hidden by trash.  It was like unearthing treasure redoing that house.

Here's the half bath off the kitchen, during and after:

And finished (we kept the original dark green tile from 1944 as well as original sink and fixtures. The walls are a Ralph Lauren deep forest green to match the tile):

The master bath was cool in that it was original to the house, but I just couldn't live with the colors. We had all the tile, the pedestal sink and the tub/shower resurfaced to a classic white. Before:

And finished (excuse the photo quality. I had to use a disposable camera for some of these):

We sold that house at for $85,000 more than we paid for it, for a profit of $35,000 after living in it/renovating it for a year.  My next flip will be on my own, as my husband swears he's never living through another one! 

"Why You Need a Real Estate Agent to Sell Your Home" by Guest Blogger, Kate Supino

When you start the process of selling your home, you may be tempted to forego hiring a real estate agent and try selling it yourself. After all, there are lots of websites out there that will list your home for pennies compared to the commission fees a real estate agent demands. Don’t fall prey to the prospect of saving a few dollars. Here are just a handful of reasons why you need a real estate agent to sell your home.

They Have Peeps 
When you hire a real estate agent, you don’t just get one person; you also get the services of their network. Real estate agents have teams of experts who work with them when selling your home. For example, they have home staging experts who can come in on your behalf and help stage your home to place it in the best light for showing. They have professional photographers who know how to highlight special areas of your home and turn them into focal points. If you were to hire all these professionals independently, the cost to you would be exorbitant.

They Have Experience 
Real estate agents typically have years of experience in the real estate industry. Compared to that, how many times have you sold a home? A real estate agent has done it a multitude of times, and they’ve seen every type of house, every type of buyer and every type of seller. They can handle every situation because they’ve probably handled it before.

Selling a Home Can Get Technical 
Make no mistake. Selling a home can get very technical. There are critical legal formalities and documents that must be handled in the correct way in order to complete the legal sale of real estate. If you attempt to sell your home yourself and miss something, there could be legal repercussions that could make the sale null and void. Why take that chance?

A real estate is a valuable ally during your home selling process. Selling your home is one of the most stressful times you will go through in your life. Why not get someone on your side who will help you get through the process as smoothly as possible?

Photos: How Important Are They When Selling a Property?

First Impressions are Lasting Impressions

These days, with all the advancements in Internet technology, buyers can take virtual tours of a property online, without ever stepping foot inside the house or even an agent's office. I can't tell you how many listings I have seen online that have few, poor or no photos at all.  What is the point of an online listing if there are no photos of the property?

On the flip side of the coin, I have personally fallen in love with a property based on the photos alone!  Especially the photos that capture the true essence of the house, highlighting the architectural elements and other attractive selling points, those are the best!  And I know from experience that a well photographed property gets far more inquiries than one with poor photos or no photos at all. That is why photographing a property is one of the services I provide in my Staging Consultant business.

The camera that I use is a Canon EOS Rebel XS Digital SLR.

 I also use a Sigma wide angle zoom lens and an external flash.

This combination seems to capture true colors and high definition details, which is what agents want when they post photos for online listings.  I also use several photo editing software programs depending on what needs to be edited, such as Picasa for straightening a crooked image or PhotoShop 9 for lighting adjustments. This attention to detail is what makes my photos professional grade. They are all shot in HD, cropped and edited before uploading to the real estate company's websites.

Tips for photographing a property to list:

• clean EVERYTHING. This includes outside too, like flower beds, the front porch and back patio, brickwork, siding, EVERYTHING.
• hide those trashcans!  Yes, everyone has them, but they do not belong in the photographs for your listings!
• hide your A/C units! Again, we all know they're there, but no one wants to look at them! At the very least, incorporate them in your landscaping with shrubbery or even a short piece of fence with plants in front of it. 

Try to take photos right after the lawn is mowed, and on a clear sunny day if you can. But keep in mind, a grey sky can be altered in Photoshop to a clear blue, as if it were spring time in heaven when you took it. You can also adjust the saturation levels in Photoshop, which in simple terms just means you bring out the colors more in the photo. This added step really enhances the photo for online viewing. Cropping may take some practice but a well-cropped photo shows only the best parts of the space. Two well-cropped photos of a room is better than one big awkward photo (which is what you get when you try to get the entire room in a single shot).

The key is to take the photos immediately after you've detailed the property inside and out so that it looks as clean and as new as possible in the photos. Pictures of the property are likely to be a potential buyer's first impression, so make the best of them!

I hope you find these tips helpful. If you have questions, please leave them in the comments and I will do my best to answer them! 

Basic Rules of Thumb When Selling a Home

I thought it might be useful to go over a checklist of what I call "the minimums" when getting a house ready to show and sell.  We could always go far and above these minimums, but these are things I consider vital, whether the owner, the agent, or the staging consultant does it, they need to be done.

Curb Appeal

Curb appeal is the whole premise of my job as a staging consultant. But what does it mean?  Curb appeal refers to the attractiveness of a property before you even get out of the car. There are very simple ways to improve your curb appeal and then there are elaborate ways to do it. I will discuss both.

 

Air Conditioning Units

You could buy a nice car for what you would pay for two air conditioning units, which most houses over 1,500 sq. ft. have.  But just because they cost a small fortune doesn't mean people want to see them by the side of the house. Even if they are located behind your fence in the backyard and not visible from the street, they will be visible when the house gets shown. They should be accessible but not easily visible.

This can be done with simple shrubbery, or with a vine covered trellis like this one:

There are simple solutions:

To more elaborate ones:

A quick fix that a Staging Consultant can do is to buy (or build if you're a stud like me) a short piece of fence and paint it to match whatever is around it: either match it to the house color or to the stain on the main fence around the house. This can be done very inexpensively. You can even add mulch and a couple of plants in front of the fence barrier to further disguise it. You want it to disappear and not be noticed at all from the street.

Trash Cans

Many Home Owners Associations have rules about trash cans, but even if you don't have the HOA breathing down your neck you should never, I repeat NEVER leave your trash cans out where they can be seen from the street. Unless it is trash day, those nasty hunks of industrial plastic on wheels need to be parked behind SOMETHING. Same rule as with the A/C units. If you can't wheel them into the backyard, construct a barrier and add some simple landscaping to store your trashcans behind.

From simple:

To more elaborate:

Either will do. But you must.

I can't tell you how many listings I've seen where the primary photo of the house shows the trash cans in the picture. Tacky, tacky and detracting from the more attractive selling points of the house. Our trashcan has its place just inside our back gate and has its own little parking lot of pave stones we laid 1) to have a surface so that on rainy days the wheels wouldn't get stuck and 2) to make it look more like the space had a genuine purpose, which it does.  Same with our A/C units. We have paving stones as a border to match the rest of the flower beds, landscaping and mulch around the units. Luckily ours are not in view of the back door or patio.  They are in the same corner of the yard as the trashcans. HIDDEN!

Cleaning

I know we've discussed cleaning more than once. The home, especially when it's occupied, must stay in showing condition at all times. Most Agents can give you about an hour notice before bringing buyers by, so have a quick stash plan in case you are caught off guard with a mess. This can be done with baskets for kids' toys, cubby style storage for shoes or sports gear for older kids, hooks for backpacks during the school year, anything that will help you "stash and dash" so your house looks great when the potential buyers show up. When you sign with an Agent, specify that you do need a minimum of one hour before showing. This will buy you some time to wipe off the counter tops as well.

Photos

You know the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Well, when listing a house, especially with today's Internet technology, great photographs can really increase the traffic of potential buyers. Listings with sub par photos get passed right over. It's a marketing thing, a psychological thing, a visual thing, but it's A THING. Stage your house to perfection and take great photos, a minimum of two per room. I know I've fallen in love with houses just based on the online photo tours; it's a fact that many potential buyers will have the same reaction. As a Staging Consultant, part of what I do after perfecting everything is take the photographs for the Agents to use in the listings. I take and edit the photos in high resolution, straightening, cropping, editing them to show off the most attractive selling points of the home. Good photographs also answer a lot of Buyer questions before they ever see the house, which also helps the Agent do his or her job more efficiently when showing it.

One Last Thing

For those of you with pets, it is very (very) VERY important to keep their... err.. waste, cleaned up.
1. If you have cats, you'll have at least one litter box. Clean it out daily, or twice daily and use some baking soda based deodorizer. People do NOT want a house that smells like a litter box. 2. Dogs. Dogs normally do their business in the back yard. Well, potential buyers are going to be walking the whole property, and poop on a Buyer's shoe is very bad luck. Poop on an Agent's shoe is even worse. Make the rounds with a pooper scooper at least once a day.

So these are some basic Rules of Thumb. Thumbs. Why can't I get that to sound right?

If you have tips you want to share, please leave them in the comments and I will include them in a future post!

Next: My First House Flip (a true story!)

Windows: Let the Sun Shine In!

Windows

Sometimes it's hard to tell just how dirty your windows are until you clean them, especially on the exterior of your home where weather, dust and dirt builds up over time.  A good rule of thumb is to clean your windows twice a year: Spring and Fall. If you can only manage once a year, do it in the Spring after winter has come and gone and left you with filmy, dusty windows.

Look at the difference a clean window makes. You want potential buyers to be able to see: 1) the natural light coming in, and 2) the views from inside the house.

I'm not sure how long these windows had been neglected, but when they were filthy it just made the house seem cheap and neglected. Look at the difference we made just by cleaning them!

Now, one of the reasons I have my windows cleaned again in the Fall is because holidays are right around the corner and if you decorate your home like I do, you want your house to look especially beautiful during the holiday light season.  When I decorate, I consider what it's going to look like from the street as well as from inside.  Clean windows are a must!

Window Boxes

What would a post about windows be without at least one photo of a nicely designed window box? Window boxes are an easy way to add more greenery and color to the exterior of your home, and add a nostalgic look, too.  Like you see in Italy with the arched windows, brightly painted shutters and gorgeous window boxes filled with flowers and herbs.

For all exterior surfaces, including windows, 

I use this with a high pressure garden hose attachment:

Especially handy for 2nd story windows where you just can't reach to clean them. There are other products that are similar. One thing to look for when you are choosing one is if it's "Rinse" or "No Rinse."  Some cleaners need to be rinsed off the glass or else it will just look filmy again when it dries. I like the no rinse formulas simply because it saves me a step and I don't have to go around the house twice.



Next: Basic Rule of Thumb. Rules of Thumb. Thumbs. Gosh. 

So What Does a Staging Consultant Do?

Selling a House

To sell a house, it needs to be listed with a real estate agent, or it can be sold "by owner." Either way, the house has to be shown to potential buyers.  When you are selling a house, you want it to look its very best. That's where the Staging Consultant comes in. He or she comes and looks over every room thoroughly, making a list of things to do to the house to make it show ready.

If the house is vacant, the Consultant works directly with the real estate agent and they agree on what needs to be done to the house to make it ready to list and show. This is mostly what I do.

If the house is occupied, but wants to be on the market for sale, then the Staging Consultant works with the home owners (and sometimes agent) to re-stage each room to its full potential using things that are already in the home. This could mean rearranging furniture, de-cluttering, cleaning, moving furniture out and into storage, and updating the landscaping.  Most of this can be done without spending a dime. It's all just a matter of looking at a room with a fresh set of eyes and setting it up so that the highlights of the room are spotlighted.

The following staging was done without spending any money. In this bedroom, the junk was removed and a bed was brought in from the garage. The blinds were raised all the way to show off that awesome window and a lamp, also from another part of the house was added in the corner to add some ambiance. Of course everything was cleaned. Cost: $0.00  

Next: the Kitchen
This kitchen had lots of potential, but all of its good points were missed because of all the clutter, on the counter tops, the stove and the fridge. All of that was removed and the wood cabinets were cleaned. The extra shelf was brought in from another room and holds a lot of the items that were cluttering up the counter space. Cost $0.00

This was perhaps the most dramatic change made in this house. All of the toys were moved to the kid's rooms; the white sofa was moved to storage, and the whole room was de-cluttered. The area rug was removed and WOW!

See, NOW we notice the nice chandelier fixture, the double glass doors, the marble counter top and the hardwood floors, whereas before all you saw was a mess of toys. A small table was moved from the kitchen area and topped with a nice centerpiece. The room took on a brand new air of sophistication. Again, $0.00.  This house was sold for the asking price within a week of the re-staging.

Here is another house that was occupied, that the owners actually had staging in their budget ($1,000) so there was money for a few small changes that made huge differences:

Most of the staging in this house was de-cluttering. In the bedroom, the outdated bedding and curtains were replaced and a large mirror was put over the bed.  Cost: $180, Target.com

In the kitchen, the clutter (oh my) was removed from the fridge and counter tops, and two new bar chairs were added at the right height to make that portion of the counter space useable in a whole new way. The owners wondered why they had never thought of that. It's perfect for a kid's eating area as well. Cost: $180, 2 chairs from Rooms To Go

This finished basement was definitely a diamond in the rough. It had been used as an extra TV room but had also been the dumping grounds for more clutter. The windows were cleaned, which improved the natural light in the room. Once the clutter was cleaned out, a side table, a second lamp and a piece of artwork was added. Even though there was furniture added to this room, it looks a whole lot bigger, and its purpose is known right away. Now when you look at it you can tell it's a media area (dare I say, "man cave?")! Cost: lamp, side table, poster $165 at a local consignment store.

So the total homeowner investment was $525, $475 under budget! (Win!). The house was re-photographed and the listing updated; they got two offers the first week and by the end of that month had sold their home for the asking price.

Selling No-No's

Here are a few things that definitely turn potential buyers away. I always make sure these are clean before I stage and photograph for my Agents. If you are selling, take note; this is unacceptable:

Here is a tile shower with a fully tiled bench; a real asset to a master bath, but NOT when it looks like it's never been cleaned. Here is before and after:

To clean moldy tile or discolored grout, usually my standby cleaner of choice is Clorox Cleanup. But if the tile is too far gone for that, I mix bleach with baking soda and put in some elbow grease to scrub it all down. If the house is occupied, I might suggest these things for the owners to do; however, if the house is vacant, that leaves one person (you guessed it, Me) the Staging Consultant with Cleaning Super Powers. I actually don't mind doing it, because I know how much of an impact it has when the agents are showing the house. They always appreciate it, too.

Landscaping

Landscaping is such an important part of your curb appeal, which is essential to sell a house. But in these two examples, all that was done to vastly improve it was (Surprise!) cleaning:

This house has a gorgeous flagstone walkway leading up to their front door. But who would notice it under all that dirt?  Cost: $24 at Sears for the Outdoor Windex Cleaner and hose attachment.

 

This house was an older home that at first glance we thought we would have to repaint. As it turns out, window cleaner and spraying with a garden hose was all it needed!  Cost: $24 at Sears for Windex Outdoor Cleaner and high pressure garden hose attachment.

This is what I use for outdoor surfaces, with a high pressure attachment on a regular garden hose. It works on windows, porches, walkways, siding, patios, driveways, garage doors, brick, anything on the exterior of the house that gets dirty:

Here is an example of an easy and inexpensive way to brighten up an otherwise neglected looking spot outside. There's my Spider plant in the middle, with some flowering annuals I got on sale at Home Depot. Plus I freshened up the mulch. Cost: $14 for a flat of annuals and a bag of mulch:

Here's a corner of my own yard that was in desperate need of some love:

See how much better it looks? But also how it *feels. You want potential buyers to see your landscaping and get the feeling that the house and yard has been loved and well taken care of. 

Not all Staging Consultants are willing to get down on their hands and knees to clean moldy grout in a tiled shower, nor are they prepared to clean out landscaping or do windows. I actually enjoy doing these things because of the dramatic difference it can make to the appeal of the home. Agents hire me because I don't mind getting my hands dirty if that's what it takes to get a house ready for them to show, and more importantly, SELL.

A typical job goes something like this:

1. An agent calls me and we arrange to meet at the house.
2. We do a walk thru, inside and out, while we make a list together of things that need to be done.
3. I give her a time estimate as to how long I think it will take me to finish everything on the list and we agree on a price per square foot (that's how I bill, see below) for my time (I charge more for heavy cleaning and less if the house is already fairly clean) and materials (mulch, annual plants, cleaning supplies, touch up paint, etc.).
4. The agent gives me the code to the key box and I get to work. I try to remember to take "before" pictures but I'm so bad at forgetting that!  After the work is done, I do take professional grade photos, at least two to three shots of every room, highlighting the best selling points and architectural details in the photos. I then edit the photos to make sure they look professional and in high definition. Photos are so important when listing a house!
5. I get the photos to my Agent and she composes the listing. Sometimes she includes all the improvements I've made in my staging process such as "updated landscaping" or "super clean inside and out!"  I love that. And Yes, I would be guilty of going to the MLS listing to admire my own work. :)

More About My Pricing

For example, a 2500 sq. ft. house, *unoccupied* with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths with showers, tile, carpet and wood flooring:

• Medium-high degree of interior cleaning (kitchen, all baths, toilets, blinds, vacuum and steam clean the floors, garage interior, ceiling fans, fireplace) and exterior cleaning (pick up trash, rake out flower beds, wash off walkways) and landscaping (adding mulch and annual flowers) and then taking and editing the photos, I charge .25/sq ft or $625 for time and materials such as cleaning supplies, mulch and annual flowers. 
• For the same size house, unoccupied, for a light cleaning and photographing I charge .15/sq ft or $375. 
• For a major overhaul that includes heavy cleaning, painting interior rooms, cleaning out junk or furniture left behind by previous owners or renters, trimming outside hedges and/or trees, mowing and edging the yards, deep cleaning of stained or damaged carpeting, or heavily stained tile and grout, I charge .40/sq ft or $1000 for a 2500 sq. ft. house which includes time and materials such as heavy duty cleaning supplies, spackle, Behr premium paint, mulch, annuals. 
• For a house that is show-ready but just needs good photographs I charge a flat fee of $125.

Note: I prefer to be paid after the work gets done rather than waiting for the house to close. The number one reason for this is that houses for sale often are not sold by the original Agent that listed it (and hired me). A change in Agent most likely means I would not be paid. Another reason for being paid upfront is that it could take 6 months or more to sell the house, which would mean I would be waiting that long to be paid. I can't stay in business without getting paid, so these are my stipulations. There are always exceptions, though, so I do try to remain flexible.

Backyard Staging

Backyard Staging

First things, first: the cleaning. Chances are if a house has been vacant for a while, things in the backyard landscaping probably need some TLC.  Trim the hedges, make sure it's getting mowed regularly, and of course clean out any grass or weeds in the flower beds.  Some properties may have been REALLY neglected, but in my experience, CLEANING was all it needed.

Example: the backyard where my daughter was renting was horrendous. But it was so big, it was too overwhelming for her to do anything about it. That's where I stepped in. Out of all the work we did to that back yard, 80% of it was cleaning.

Here's a before pic of the concrete patio in the very back of the yard. Totally unusable:

Not sure if you can tell from this photo but there were two giant rolls of metal fencing material on the concrete, along with several inches of dirt and weeds covering most of the patio.  I had the fencing hauled off (Freecycle! So it was put to good use) and took a weed eater to the concrete to get all the dirt and weeds off the surface. After it was edged, I cleaned it off with the garden hose sprayer.

I had two outdoor chairs and an outdoor table (Freecycle again!) and this was the end result:

Price of this project: $0.00!

Now if I owned this house, this would be the perfect spot for a Pergola! I would repair and do a decorative concrete treatment, stone edging and more landscaping. String white lights and maybe even add a fire pit, wouldn't that be cool?

Here is another perfect example of a patio just teeming with potential. First: cleaning. Always. Suggested staging ideas:

• planters on each side of the back door
• a 5'x7' indoor/outdoor rug ($35-$200 depending on where you shop)
• ask if you can paint the door (optional, but would add so much)
• a small bistro table set (Freecycle, thrift store, or buy new.)

Here's an idea for the painted door. It even looks cute from the inside!

This wicker outdoor bistro set sells at www.target.com for $170:

And here's a cute idea for the 2 planters. If you know someone handy with building boxes, this could totally be a DIY project:

Expenses

Now you might be cringing at the thought of buying things for your staging needs. Keep in mind, these things belong to you and will be returned to you after the sale. You can use these things over and over, house to house and they will more than pay for themselves. 

Tip:  When not being used for staging, bring this stuff home with you. If it's furniture, use it! If it's containers of plants, decorate your own porch or interior of your house.  I have been known to take things out of my own home to stage a property!  As long as it's in good shape, make use of it. Just remind the agent to mention to potential buyers that the furniture and landscaping containers don't come with the house. Anything you put in the ground stays, obviously. ;)

Next: Windows