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! 

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. 

Tips for Landscaping on a Budget

Money Doesn't Grow on Trees... Or does it?

I've talked a lot about how important it is to have great curb appeal, and that empty flower beds are sooo ugly and depressing. The solution is to put something in those beds, but that costs money. And we're just in the staging process, the house hasn't even been seen much less been sold yet! So I have a few tricks up my sleeve to help with that expense that would otherwise be out of your pocket.

Propagation

To propagate a plant means to grow one from another one. Some plants are propagated very easily; others take professional horticulturists and since I'm assuming there are few horticulturists in my audience, I'll just stick to the easy ones. :)

If you have a flower bed at home that you can sacrifice for this, or a sunny window sill in your garage, you can propagate a variety of plants yourself for your staging projects. It takes a little space where you can work with potting soil and fertilizer, so if you don't have a work bench in the garage or a garden shed, then just do it on the back porch.

Suggested Starter Plants

One of my favorite kind of plant is the succulents. They come in a variety of shapes and colors, and look great in potted arrangements in window boxes, pots on the porch, and also in the ground. Here is an arrangement I have and love:

Don't ask me to name all the varieties... there are too many to remember. But the reason I bring them up is that no matter what kind it is, it propagates the same!  To propagate a succulent, you start by snapping off a leaf. It has to be a clean break from the stem:

Succulents usually grow tall and leggy, it's just what they do and it's not as pretty. When this happens, I snap the leaves off the lower part of the stem and lay them out so they can callous over. It's important to let the leaves callous over where they once were attached to the stem. They won't root properly if you skip this step. Let them "dry" for about a week. I do the same things with the tops:

I just snip the tops off with a pair of scissors or garden snippers and let them callous over as well. Tops are the easiest to regrow. You just stick them in some nice nutrient rich topsoil and water them with a spray bottle 2-3 times per week. Once they are strong enough you can move them outside. That's when they will really take off!  Here's a top that I restarted this week:

This start lost a leaf already. Chances are, if I just leave it alone it will sprout a baby on its own. This is what the babies look like after a few weeks in indirect light, being watered only with a spray bottle:

Aren't they cute!  Notice how the "Mother" leaf is withering. It is best to let it wither and fall off on its own. That way you won't damage the baby when you transfer it and its new little roots to a pot.

After you have stripped off the leaves and decapitated the stem, leave the original stem in its pot and keep on watering it. New babies will grow where the original leaves once were and you'll have a nicely shaped succulent once again!

 

Spider Plants!

Spider plants are one of my favorite staging plants. They are a beautiful shade of green, they require little to no maintenance other than watering a few times per week, and they look fantastic without any pruning whatsoever. You can put them in pots on the front porch or in the kitchen window (if they're small) and they are SO EASY to propagate!  Spider plants when they mature grow offshoots. These are stem-like growths that come out from among the leaves and attached to the stem are usually several baby spider plants.  I use my snippers to cut the whole baby plus a bit of the stem right off and put them in fertilized water until I see white roots. White roots mean they're ready for the dirt!

Now, I said fertilized water. It can just be tap water, but fertilized water makes the roots come out in just one or two days whereas regular water it can take up to a week or more. My daughter has a planted fish tank that has the BEST WATER oh my goodness, it is FULL of growth enhancing fertilizers so when she changes the tank water once a week I save it and use it to water all my plants! Smart? Mhmm. :D Regular fish tank water is good for plants also, as the nitrate content of the water is very high. I used it for a long time before she got the planted tank. It's like fish water on steroids!
Here is a spider plant I just started (there's a succulent start there, too but the light washed it out):

It was nice and healthy so I moved it outside. I will water it with fish water 2-3 times per week until it needs a bigger pot. Here is one that I put a spider plant and some rose moss together in a small pot:

The rose moss will bloom with small colorful flowers in a few days. Here is what a full grown rose moss looks like (this one is in my garden):

I think it will look good with the spider plant next to it. Now here's a spider plant I started three weeks ago and it has absolutely exploded!  It already needs a bigger pot AND it has offshoots!  I couldn't believe my eyes! (It's that fish tank water, I'm telling you!)

Rose moss also propagates very easily. You can take a stem right off the plant and stick it in dirt, water it and it will grow. Seriously, it's that easy. You'll never have to pay for rose moss again! It makes a nice ground cover, or border, or in a potted arrangement with other plants.

Ok, so I haven't done the math, but I know that one small to medium succulent arrangement costs about $10-$15 depending on your florist. Think of all the plants you could have with a little propagation!  And the spider plants!  I see them at the Home and Garden store and laugh at how many people still buy a cart load of them, when really all you need is one to start with and they will be coming out your ears!

So now you have some tips on how to get plants on the cheap for your house staging projects, or just for use in your own home. I will do another post with more propagating tips because there are a ton of them!  Did you know you can stick a long stem rose in a potato, plant it, and grow a whole new rose bush??  I haven't done it myself yet but I sure am going to try!  I will definitely post about that! If you have other plants that are easily propagated that I haven't mentioned here, leave them for me in the comments and I'll include them in a future post!

Ps. If you stage a lot of houses, more than you can keep up with by planting what you propagate, use nice planters that you can put the plants in, improve your curb appeal and then take the planter with you for another staging. Here is a beautiful plan for a container garden I found at www.bhg.com:

And here is another one you could stage and then take away for your next staging project:

I keep my nice containers on my own front porch when they're not in use at one of my project houses. Sometimes my porch gets quite crowded, but people always say it looks nice! Some days the mail lady can hardly get to the door! lol

If you're going the container route, be sure you still mulch the beds tho, at the very least! Ok, bye for now!

Next: The Painted Door

Trash To Treasure: Strike it Rich!

Trash to Treasure

This post is dedicated to my good friend Sarah Z.  She is also an artist, and has an uncanny knack for finding free stuff people have discarded and turned them into treasures for her own home. One thing for certain: I need to hang out with her more often!

This first photo is of a storage hutch that we got free from a friend cleaning out his garage. Sadly, at the time we brought it home, that ugly green actually matched our interior. But since we've gone all grey, we had to do something about that hutch:

We used an oil based Behr paint (no real reason for using oil based, that's just what we had left over from when the fireplace was painted so we used it!) and painted most of it black, leaving the pale wood color for some variation. We also removed the red wooden hardware/knobs and replaced them with brushed nickel instead. But what a difference! And it was free!

Now this will make you jealous. This is Sarah's latest find. Can you believe someone left these two beautiful pieces out by the curbside on bulk trash day?

Unbelievable!  I spoke with Sarah yesterday and she agreed to let me do a blog post on her amazing treasures and also feature the makeovers she's currently doing in her own new house.  She's in the middle of moving right now, so it could be a while but trust me, you won't want to miss that post!  I'm totally excited to share it with you!

Here is another trash to treasure transformation that I found on Pinterest:

I love how she repainted it distressed white and added the black hooks and replaced the glass with mirrors. So clever!

Next Post: My Studio (the BEST room in the house!)  :)

Landscaping vs. Blandscaping: What Sells

Blandscaping

Blandscaping is when you see a house and it has nothing, I mean zero landscaping. Basically, in the spots where landscaping is supposed to be?  Is nothing but dirt, or overgrown with grass and weeds. If there is one thing I hate to see, it's a listing that shows pictures of blandscaping. That is not going to attract anyone!

Landscaping

Landscaping a property that you own and are going to be in for a long time takes time, lots of effort, planning and maintenance. That's not what I am talking about in this article. The focus of this article is to talk about the very simple and inexpensive ways to improve your property with easy, DIY landscaping tricks.

When the property has flower beds, but nothing but dirt in them, invest in a couple of pots of monkey grass and some mulch.  Clean out any debris in and around the bed, including grass and/or weeds, using round up if you need to. Plant the monkey grass strategically so that it looks neat and symmetrical. Then mulch. We are only talking about a couple of dollars here and we're not putting any high maintenance plants in for the new tenants to stress over. You can even put gravel or landscaping stone instead of mulch if it is a really dry climate.

Take this house, for instance. To the right is a raised bed that runs the length of the porch. There is nothing but dirt in it. That's a real shame because it is a focal point when looking at the house from the street. Imagine a row of monkey grass and mulch. So simple, yet it makes the property look less "abandoned."  Speaking of the porch, there are so many cool treatments for cement, I don't even know where to begin. At least a coat of neutral colored paint, like grey. It would look cleaner, and better kept.  Now if this was MY house, I would break out the colors and paint a mandala or a Persian rug onto the concrete, like this:

or like THIS:

Do you see why I am just dying to learn how to flip houses?  I see so much potential in these poor little properties that are just begging to be bought and fixed up!  And the work to me isn't hard. I actually enjoy it.  One day, when I have the capital, I will buy a house and rescue it from a life of misery, bringing it to its full potential and let it bask in its own glorified spectacularness. Ok, that's not a word. But I think you know what I mean. :)

Here is my own back yard before and after. Blandscaping to Landscaping 101:

and my favorite corner:

See how much it adds?  Look at the before pics. So blank and lonely looking. Like no one cares. Then you see the after pics and it's totally happy and inviting! This took more elbow grease than anything. Many of the plants used we already had in other locations, we just moved them around after we extended the flower bed to follow the length of the back fence. We did spend some money on plants for this: 6 rose bushes, 2 hydrangeas, 2 flats of ivy, 4 hostas, 2 elephant ears, a crepe myrtle, some brown eye susans, rose moss and monkey grass, my favorite border plant. And MULCH so much mulch. But it was completely worth it. I actually enjoy going out into my back yard now, whereas before I avoided it. Our next project for the backyard is installing a pergola over the back porch and adding outdoor furniture for entertaining. I will, of course be posting that when we do it!

Next Post: Room Makeovers!

My PhD is in Cleaning

Cleaning Basics

When staging a house for sale, the number one priority is to make sure it is CLEAN.  Especially prone to dirtiness are the sinks, toilets, blinds and around the door handles.  To do a basic but thorough cleaning of these areas, you'll need these:

By no means is this my entire arsenal of cleaners, but with these basics you can pretty much clean the most visible parts of any house. They are: Windex, Clorox Cleanup with Bleach, Clorox Wipes, Wood polish, Febreeze and Microfiber cloths.  I would also add a feather duster, a vacuum and a steam mop but they wouldn't all fit in the picture.  Do you know about Spot Shot?

Spot Shot is the Holy Grail of carpet cleaning!  With Spot Shot and a scrub brush there is no stain or spot that can't be removed I SWEAR BY IT.  You spray it on the spot and can watch it start to dissipate; at that point you step on the spot with a pad of paper towels to soak it out of the carpet fibers, then use your scrubber to scrub the carpet back into shape. I wish all cleaning products were this amazing!  Wait till it dries and then you can vacuum (NEVER vac wet!)

Speaking of rugs: My neighbor had a bulldog with a bladder problem and had hauled this rug out to the curb thinking it was ruined. I said "You throwing that away?" He thought I had lost my mind when I drug it across the street to my back yard. Long story short, I totally rescued this rug AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL!  I would have had to pay a fortune for this new!

Ok, so blinds. Hardest thing to clean, like, ever, especially if they've been dirty for a long time. I take the blinds down (you unhinge the things at the top of the window and they slide right out) and set them in a bathtub of warm soapy water. The grime comes off with a sponge. Yes, you have to wipe down each slat, but you will be glad you did it. Rinse them off, pat dry and rehang. Another way to do it is to put a couple of nails on the top of your fence out back and spray them with a hose. You still have to use the sponge, but some people think it's easier than hauling them to the tub. I will admit, the slats don't move around as much with the hanging technique, but I use the bath tub method for the ones that are extra grimy. They just get cleaner.  If you use the fence technique at a property that isn't yours, be sure to carefully remove the nails when you're done!  :)

Floors

Vacuum: I have a Dyson and I love it.

It's bagless, and it truly never loses suction (unless it's completely and overly full. Don't do this, as it gets hot and is really bad for the motor). It's also very easy to clean the brush head which catches a lot of hair, strings, fibers, etc. You just flip it open and clean it off. I typically do the vacuuming very last if I can. I know it seems crazy but I like to see the lines in freshly vacuumed carpets! LOL! My kids grew up going around rooms that I had just vacuumed so as not to leave footprints in THE LINES.  Besides, you want potential buyers to feel like they are looking at a brand new house and that they are the first to see it. I don't know why this psychology works, but it does. And agents always appreciate it.

Steam Mopping: I can't say enough about my Steam Mop. It is so much better than traditional mop and bucket mopping, you will wonder how you ever lived without it. It cleans hardwoods, tile, laminate flooring, concrete floors, any hard surface floor can be steamed and it uses no cleaner! The steam does the work. My steam mop has three settings, low medium and high. Most of the time I use it on low, and medium in the bathrooms. I have used it on high on some tile in my daughter's rental house that I thought would NEVER come clean, and sure enough, it did! I had to go over it twice (it had once flooded and not ever been cleaned. Can you believe a landlord would leave a floor like that?)  But we left it looking spotless.

Febreeze:  I know the realtors usually like to light a candle before they show a house (some agents bake bread or cookies!) because let's face it, nice smells put us in a positive mood and people in a good mood are likely to feel positively about the house you're showing.  But I leave the candles to the agents. After I have cleaned a property, I give every room a couple of spritzes of Febreeze.  It's fresh, not over powering at all and leaves a nice clean smell in the house, like you've opened a window on a fresh spring day.  Personally, I like the smell of bleach; it means I GOT STUFF CLEAN! But it can be kinda harsh, so Febreeze is my friend.

Clorox Cleanup Spray: great in sinks, on counters, inside showers, toilets, just know that it does have bleach in it so use care not to get it on carpets, curtains, etc.

Clorox Wipes: these contain NO BLEACH and clean grime off of just about every surface, especially around door knobs, window sills, baseboards, banisters (you don't realize just how nasty banisters can get until you clean one)!  I couldn't do without my Clorox wipes. My husband bought a store brand (see photo) but I protested. Clorox Wipes smell nice, they are thick enough and they truly get stuff clean!

A clean house is more likely to get higher offers, plain and simple. A grimy house is going to make potential buyers wonder what else is wrong with it that they can't see.  Never show a dirty house again!  Call me!  :D

Next post: Landscaping

Freecycle and Thrift Stores: A Stager's Haven

Freecycle

How many of you know about Freecycle?  www.freecycle.org is an online organization that is all about finding new homes for things you don't use any more, or for finding things you need/want and don't mind if it's slightly used.  I'll explain how it works.

You sign up and create a Freecycle account for yourself and designate what cities' groups you want to be a part of. Nearly every city has a Freecycle group!  For example, I belong to four. 1) Flower Mound, where I live; 2) Lewisville, the next town over; 3) Midwest City, because that's where my daughter lives and 4) Del City, the next town over from Midwest City.

There are two types of posts: WANTED and OFFER. WANTEDS are people who are looking for something specific. I always go through the Wanteds to see if I can help someone in need. It's a great feeling when I can. OFFERS are from people who have something that still has some value or that they think someone might get a little (or a lot) more use out of. I always look through the offers for my DIY or staging projects. I have found everything from area rugs, to house plants, decorative pots, a trellis, even outdoor furniture! I used all of these things **THAT I GOT FOR FREE** when we made over Kelley's rental house as she was on a very tight budget. But we practically furnished her whole house, and did the landscaping for nearly nothing!  

Here's another success story:  I saw an Offer of "ladies shorts, size 2-4" which at the time was my daughter's size. I went to the address and there was a HUGE trash bag full of denim shorts, and they were all current style and most of them designer brands!

 

Alex, my youngest, loves to DIY. She added lace trim to the cuffs of the shorts...

 and some of them did a Galaxy design with paint, and SOLD THEM FOR $20 EACH TO ALL OF HER FRIENDS!

But back to staging. There is also treasure to be found at Thrift Stores. Many people don't like to go into thrift stores because they are full of junk. On the contrary!  I'll let you in on a little secret. You know those cards you get in the mail from Paralyzed Vets, ASPCA, Leukemia Lymphoma Society asking for clothing and household donations?  The next time you get a card, call and ask them where they take the donations to be sold. I live in a fairly nice neighborhood, so I found out just where mine and my well-off neighbor's cast-offs were going. So that store is now on my list as a favorite! You can find things like planters, candle sticks, silk plants, rugs, all for a fraction of what they would cost new at a Hobby Lobby or Home Decor store! I found a set of three square glass planters that I had just seen at Hobby Lobby for $35; at the thrift store they were marked $1.99! For the whole set! And candle sticks are about the easiest thing to spray paint if you need staging material for a house. Use them again and again! 

I found this huge silk ivy/hosta/spider plant arrangement, in a basket that was dusty and looked like it had been passed over for a while. I saw the VERY SAME THING at Hobby Lobby for $65 not one week before! Took it home and cleaned it, and WOW new silk planting arrangement!  

Whether you are staging a house to sell, or simply want to add to the decor of your own home, Freecycle and Thrift Stores are so the way to go. I can't remember the last time I paid retail for anything!  Now go to www.freecycle.org and sign up! Tell 'em Stacy sent ya! 

Next post: Cleaning

It All Started With a Little Cleaning...

Midwest City: 1809 Sandra Drive

My oldest daughter grew up in Midwest City, Oklahoma, not far from Tinker Air Force Base. The neighborhoods there are former military housing: small, usually one bath but with vintage tiling, hardwood floors, good sized yards but hardly ever updated and very few have any curb appeal at all. It is a house-flipper's DREAM. 

I am dedicating my first blog post to Midwest City, and to the rent house we did so much work on in 2013, inside and out. 

The top photo is how we found the house after an irresponsible renter left it. It was full of trash, full of junk, and full of **POTENTIAL!**  The second photo is after we cleaned and re-staged it. Hard to believe it's even the same room.

Then we tackled the outside. The backyard was a wonderful size, but had been neglected for years. Embedded in the weeds we found all kinds of debris: silverware, bits of plastic, broken glass, old wiring, rusted tools, the list goes on. After disposing of the huge rolls of fence wire, I took a weed eater to the concrete patio to remove years of built up dirt and weeds. After treating the whole thing with round up and trimming the shrub beside it, I staged it with two outdoor chairs and an outdoor table, both of which were free (I am addicted to Freecycle.org. I will do another blog post on Freecycle... if you are not familiar with it, you should be!)  Total cost of this makeover: $0.00!

My youngest daughter agreed to help me create this flower bed. It runs the length of the back of the house. There's a story behind this garden. My oldest, Kelley, was diagnosed at age 19 with ovarian cancer. She was living in this house at the time. For her birthday, I asked all my friends and family to donate one plant to put in Kelley's new garden. Everyone pitched in, and we named it "The Giving Garden."  It was a lot of labor, but labor of love! Alex and I removed the old grass, trash and weeds, laid landscaping fabric, cut timbers for the edges, planted all the donated plants and mulched.  Donated plants included: monkey grass, bougainvillea, rose moss, some succulents, a crepe myrtle, black eye susans, a rosemary bush, another flowering bush, ivy, salvia and three agave plants. Cost for this project: timbers, fabric and mulch, about $50.

Kelley said the hardest part about leaving this house on Sandra Drive was leaving the garden behind. Personally, I loved that house. It had its problems, but with a handful of repairs it could be an awesome investment for a flip. 

Next Blog: Freecycle!