I can safely say I will never bring a gift that has anything to do with cooking. I wish everyone would restrict their gift donations to gardening items. Books on gardening are good items, garden tools, garden hats, gloves, aprons, clogs, lotions, trugs, soaps, seed containers, garden accoutrements such as a garden totem would be nice. Food items are acceptable, but they should be substantial, for example a pie or a pan of brownies would be great, one or two slices of pie or brownies would not. Normally we save food items just for sharing though, so consider whether you would want to get a pie as a door prize. ( I think I would, but if I had a choice I might go for the garden tools first.) Anyway, use your imagination when selecting a door prize to bring and before you bring some old, dated, tattered item that you haven't been able to sell at your last three garage sales, remember that it will likely be the last item left on the table after everyone has chosen the "good stuff" and you may actually overhear the comment, "what a cheesy door prize" from the picker-upper. Personally, I like to bring something that everyone says, "Ooh, I want that!" IMHO-Cheryl

Depends what comes as standard features. If you are in a cold climate get the best insulation package you can get. In a hot climate the best ceiling insulation that they order. If it comes with plastic faucets, spring for metal. If the fixures don't have shuts off before each one, orderit with them. If a steel house door isn't standard, try to get it as an option. If windows are single pane, go for insulated. The best "bang for the buck" are the things that will save you money in the future or make the home easier to live in and not necessarily the things that look pretty and shiny.

OK, my two cents!!! We put our last home on the market 6 years ago. It was a 1970's colonial (I'm from New England, the land of colonialdome!!). We had dark stain on the moldings in the living room, dining room and family room on the main floor. Most of the doors were the same. We also had dark stained bifold doors on the laundry room and family room, plus we had dark wood paneling in the family room. The upstairs had all light natural wood stain and all the doors were the same. We had several agents who suggested we paint the living and dining room molding and 6 over 6 windows white, which we did (it was a pain). They suggested to leave the family room and upstairs. The reason was that the first thing you would see when entering was the living and dining room and it would create a great first impression. We also removed dark brown wall to wall carpeting in those two rooms and had the floors sanded and refinished. All of those things I wanted to do when we first bought the house, but didn't because they really weren't offensive and easy to maintain. After we did, we were sorry we didn't make those changes at the begining because it really updated our house. We just loved it as did the prosepctive buyers!!! We didn't have much time to enjoy it after we did it, though. I was sorry we didn't paint the family room wood because I think it would have looked very nice, but we really didn't have enough time since we had already bought another home. It didn't seem to make much difference to buyers that the upstairs wasn't done. Up here, dark molding is considered "dated" and young buyers hate it (and wall to wall carpeting too!). We have recently been looking at codos in a 30+ year old complex and there is a ton of dark wood there, and all of those units just sit there or drop in price. The ones that have new white molding and doors get a much better price. It just seems like an inexpensive fix to make a house set apart from the dated ones. It also may be a regional preference! For what it's worth, ~L

Update- after making a few calls today, I actually found someone who might be able to help.. am actually very optimistic.. I am very frustrated with my current bank, who I used to love!! From mid 1990s to a few years ago.. they were the best!. but currently they are in way more trouble than me! on the watch list and is behind in their government loan payments. I thought they would want to keep a great customer like us.. who borrows money and pays it back. I wasn't asking them to lower my rate to current rates, just lower it a little.. re: selling the other properties.. well on our last house if we could have we would have.. we never intended that to be a rental. At the time we first put it up for sale mid 2007, the real estate market in my neighborhood completely went to hell in a handbag! We waited about 2 minutes too long to list that house.. if we had listed 3 months prior would have sold at top $$.. After our last renters left in April we tried to sell again(at 20% below last asking price) had lookers.. but still no go.. got great renters again.. and they might buy in 2 years. And our business is in our commercial bldg.. that keeps us able to pay the bills! I have just heard sooo many stories about people who quit paying on their loans and the bank then will give you many options. My old next door neighbors lived in their 700,000$ house over 2 years without making a payment. Then the bank renegotiated their terms..with very reasonable terms. I think they must have paid a little bit on that, but then quit paying that and lived there at least another year before they foreclosed. I realize banks are in trouble, and I'm paying for my neighbors, but I was hoping someone knew of a program to help lower interest rates for those who to pay their bills..