If you have cable behind that bookcase I would definitely move the TV there. Place the chair and floor lamp in the TV's place and move the bookcase to the office/bedroom.

What a beauty!
Don't start messing with it.

If you start hiding and getting rid of ,then you
are going to have a house, not a home.

I love the colors and I am normally a white person.
MB is beautiful. You don't need to do anything in there.

If lookers see the fan, the woman will know you are having hot flashes and she will relate lol.

It is spotless and no clutter. What more could a buyer
ask for?

The first thing I would notice would be that I wasn't
going to have to clean or paint!

Ok, I have to be honest here. I would have to paint the
brown bath wall.

I'm not a fan of cho on walls. For your home, its a
great look.

Happy showing and selling.

My two cents? It's absolutely gorgeous. Why you are leaving it is beyond me. But if a potential buyer really believes that your home doesn't have room for a large TV because you have it in front of your window or refuses to buy your home because the wall colors are not to their liking it's their loss. And why the real estate world thinks we as potential home buyers are so darn stupid that in this day and age of DIYers we won't realize we can place our furniture anywhere we'd like or paint the walls any color we want if we decide to purchase a home is rediculous. Give me a break. We weren't born yesterday!

Your house looks great! Nice job and I know it's a TON of work! Someone mentioned something about the photography angles - the only suggestion I'd have would be to crop some of the ceiling out of the pics of rooms without cathedrals. For instance, the brown bathroom has a lot of ceiling in the photo and that's not what you want people to notice. Cropping so it just hides the vent would make the eye see the details rather than a long narrow room. You may be able to do this with other pictures as well, and if you are retaking some photos, try taking them while you are in a tall squat to see how the resulting pictures compare. Again, beautiful job! I LOVE the colors (especially the master bedroom)!

justgotabeme I could kiss you! You took (at least some of) the words right out of my mouth. I've been reading and sitting on my hands because this staging mania has me absolutely twisted sideways. This makes me want to bang my head agaist a wall. Is this really necessary? Do we really have to go through those kinds of shenanigans to sell a house? Are we (we meaning potential buyers) incapable of looking at a house that someone lives in and understanding that it's a used house??? It will have trash cans and the odd towel here and there, maybe even (heaven forbid) a box of tissue visible - can you imagine knowing someone actually blows their nose in that house? I could NEVER consider living there after that, it would just creep me out ;-) Please excuse me - I have to go lie down now with a cold compress.

I think that's a lovely home, very appealing and needs nothing more.

One thing, I can't get a sense of how the house is situated. Where is the front door and the entry??

Well, the poster asked if there was anything we would do or stage differently and we told her/him. Yes, I agree, the pictures look good and everything suggested except maybe where the TV goes is pretty nic picky but I think everyone was trying to be helpful.

Karen asked and she's getting responses. The sarcasm serves what point?

Dh & I occasionally visit open houses in the neighborhood even though we're not shopping. Staged always trumps daily life. It's like interviewing for a job. Dress the part.

Beautiful home, looks flawless to me. I would buy it exactly as shown in your pictures.

I agree with the people who said the house looks great! The only thing that distracted me was the trash can in the kitchen, but that is reality. I especially love the combination of colors in the dining room. Can you tell us what those colors are?

Beautiful home! It looks great - ready for sale. We just sold our home a few months ago, on our own, without a realtor. Those who walked through our home, and the buyers who ultimately wanted it, stated that they really appreciated how clean the house was. I removed everything from the countertops, tops of cabinets, desks, vanities, etc., except for the minimum. Also, I made sure everything was clean, including floors, insides of closets, countertops, tubs, and toilets. I packed everything possible that wasn't a necessity. I had the carpets professionally cleaned. Our walls received repainting, and everything, except for one room, was neutral in color. The buyers had ideas about the colors they wanted, and it was easier for them to envision them with a neutral palette to start.

In your case, your home is already extremely neat and clean. I focused a lot of effort in the bathrooms, as I had read these are places people really expect to be spotless. I purchased new shower curtains, towels, and bath rugs.

To add more color and life, consider what others have already mentioned about fresh flowers and fruit, and maybe some plants/greenery.

The television is overwhelming the living room space, so I would consider moving it, as already stated.

I don't think you'll have any problem selling it, as it is so obviously well cared for. Best of luck in your sale.

Jan

For those who are saying that Karen's house is lovely and she shouldn't have to do a thing to sell it, you're absolutely right. In reality, most buyers should look at a room size and not the color it's painted, or see the beautiful fireplace and realize that when it is their home, if they should buy it, they will not have a TV next to it unless they choose to place it there. However, buyers today can be unwilling to even paint a room or two in a home they may wish to buy as my realtor told me. She had a client who felt the home they showed them was perfect in every way except for the paint colors in a few of the rooms but her DH just couldn't or wouldn't see past the colors. Maybe he didn't like the house but they did end up buying one almost exactly like it, same price range but different paint!! It sounds crazy to me but thanks to HGTV and similar shows on other networks, buyers expect perfection or what they've been led to believe is perfection.

If in today's market you have to set the stage in order to sell a house, you do so, that's why Karen asked for suggestions. Otherwise, you can leave your wallpaper on the walls and figure a new buyer can change it, leave outdated fixtures that might cost a couple hundred dollars to replace and you might wait a longer amount of time to get your house sold. Or you might luck out and get a savvy buyer from this forum who can see the potential and will offer a bit less to buy your diamond in the rough. It's a chance you take in today's market.

With homes in my neighborhood, that normally sold within ten days of listing, sitting on the market a year later at well-reduced prices, it's definitely a lot riskier not to present your home at what the majority of the buyers' market will consider its very best. Stepping down from my soapbox now.........

General comment: IMO the oh-so-frequent suggestions to get rid of televisions entirely are a bit unreasonable - the presence of a TV in the main living area, especially one of that size, implies that the person who lives there actually LIKES to watch TV and it is probably one of their primary forms of entertainment. Even the nicest houses can take a depressingly long while to sell these days (several beautiful houses that we looked at last summer are still on the market now, at very reduced prices - average prices where I live have dropped over 10% in the last two years and DOM has more than doubled) and the whole "tiptoeing around your own home" routine gets very old after about oh, three days. For goodness' sake, leave yourself something to do to enjoy yourself that doesn't make a mess you have to frantically clean up for an unexpected showing! (And if you have to clean up after watching TV or a video, perhaps you should be watching different channels while the house is for sale. LOL)

Since there's a cable outlet where the bookcase is, I agree to move the TV over there and find somewhere else to put the bookcase. They don't need to trade spots exactly, and I'm sure there's another spot in the house where it'd look fine. The small white easy chair, lamp, and a nice little side table (I'm sure you can scrounge one up somewhere) can go where the TV was, facing the couch, so you don't have an empty hole there. Now you have two separate focal points that you can see from the couch, neither one a distraction from the other, and a buyer now gets clued-in that they can do that.

Ditto the advice to crop off the ceilings in almost all of those pictures. The amount of ceiling shown in the dining room photo or the second master bath one is just about right. The kitchen especially looks like a bowling alley. :-(

I disagree with shannon01 about showing the picture of the entry. Showing what really amounts to a hallway with a closet is kind of a pointless waste of space that could be used for another photo or even none at all. Having too many pictures up can actually be counterproductive because there's nothing else for buyers to come look at, they've seen the whole house already. The photos should be a tease, an enticement, to arouse someone's curiosity about the rest of the house. One picture of the master bath is plenty, too, and I would use the one that shows the tub because the first one shows some dated stuff (faucets, Hollywood light fixture) that could turn off some people. Get them into the house first.

Fresh flowers are a lovely idea for the pictures and for open houses but I found I went crazy (and broke) trying to keep fresh flowers around constantly. The flowers leahcate is trying to remember are alstroemeria aka Peruvian lilies; I have never gotten a full week out of them before they started shedding petals and looking tatty, and I've had a LOT of them because DH brings them home pretty regularly.

dlm2000 and justgotabme - trust me, staging my house had me beating my head against walls too, but at least in my market it IS necessary to bust butt to present the house in the best possible light to the widest variety of potential buyers. It's just the way it works now. Here the people who are willing to pay the most want houses they don't have to do ANYTHING to besides move in - not everyone's into DIYing! Maybe in better markets or if you can afford to sit around twiddling your thumbs until lightning strikes, you (generic you) can afford to take the attitude of "it's their loss", but I don't think most people can do that. Yeah, it's annoying as all get-out to live in a house up for sale - but you have to remember that it's not your HOME anymore, it's just somewhere you're staying temporarily until the new owners show up or you move on to somewhere else.

To add to onourway's comments... A realtor we interviewed told us about the trouble they have narrowing down the selection in our market. A buyer she was recently helping wanted a house with certain specifics -- price, size, location, etc. When she entered those parameters into the MLS, the computer returned 89 possibilities.

Eighty-nine!

So, if Karen lives in an area where she might be competing against 88 other houses, she really needs to think about the little things as well as the big things. It's not nice and we can all say it shouldn't be so, but it's the reality of the real estate market in some areas, including mine.

(Karen, I hope it's not so bad where you are!)

Hey Mari, cross posted with you...

Your comment about living on tiptoes getting old after three days....we're at day 8 and I am already saying the h@ll with certain things...like the fish last night and the Mexican tonight! Stinky food....bad bad bad...

I'm not saying don't get a house ready for sale. I'm trying to address what I see as an unrealistic attempt at 'perceived perfection' - not specifically by the OP or the followup posters but by our perfection seeking society in general. Maybe that's an overly abmitious subject to address in a decorating forum and my timing could have been better. Yes the OP asked for suggestions - I have no issue with that. And suggestions were offered - I have no issue with that either. Sometimes I simply feel we set such impossibly high standards - how our homes look, what or how we age - as a result of all that we watch and read and I want to stop that madness. Not my job, I know, but I still believe the message is valid - I'm OK, You're OK

Amy, good comment about the competition out there! I was watching that HGTV show, Property Virgins, the other night, I think it was my first time to catch this one, and they had a young woman on that show who was unbelievable! Not only did she want a super duper superlatively clean place with hardwood floors and a granite kitchen, she wanted it for almost nothing. And it's not that we don't all want that--it was her manner. She had an I want what I want and won't budge on anything manner. So unattractive. But the thing that made me think of Sharlyn was this thread. The realtor took her to a condo that was very similar to the perfecto-mundo one she wanted (way too much money for her budget) but that needed paint and different furniture. Incredible!! It wasn't a dirty condo or a wrecked condo, it just had unpalatable wall colors and sad furniture. The possiblities were amazing. She could see nothing!

So, stage? Arrange? Paint?? Re-work?? Oh yeah. There is a huge segment of the home-buying public out there--the ones with the down payment--that have no imagination. You have to be there for them.

Karen, your house looks great. Good job!

Red

Lovely and good work! You've gotten some great ideas here. For the pics I'd hit the grocery store for lots of fresh colorful flowers for the photos. They appeal any time, but especially in the dead of a dreary winter.

This poster did ask for advice--having bought and sold 12 homes across the country, I was just trying to give some hints that we have picked up through the years..once a FOR SALE sign is planted in my front yard and the MLS has been listed--my home becomes a House For Sale...and the faster we can move it, the better $$$...so again, in that particular house--I would get rid of the TV..
Susan

very nice!

love your master bathroom colors - do you mind sharing what colors they are? thanks!

good luck!

Hi,
It is a beautiful, and clean home.
I do have some advice though.....each room needs a punch of colour, in the Great Room some pillows of a bright different colour.....in the kitchen, lay out on that tray , a cup/saucer and Teapot...with a tea towel.........
You have beautiful colours, but all could be augmented by something bright, to make the room pop.
Another thing......a few throw mats. Beg, borrow or steal some.....or buy a few inexpensive ones.....for bedroom, great room....it will make the home feel cozy and everyone wants to walk into a house and not want to leave. Candles are a must....and fresh flowers....
I went to an open house once.....or twice, one open house, one an arranged showing, and the owner of the house, had flavored coffee perking, with two mugs by it on a tray, and pretty napkins and a little note to help yourself to a coffee and enjoy viewing her home.
It was the sweetest touch.
***
Maddya

Like everyone else said, the TV. It's way too big.

I'd also mention what type of flooring you have in the bathrooms. It looks like travertine, but at first glance in a photo it could be perceived as a beige carpet.

I'd also do something to set the table nicely. Make it look like they can just move in, sit down and have dinner at a cool-looking table.

I love your home and feel it shows well. So if you did nothing, I feel it will sell but since there is so much competition out there right now with so many homes on the market not selling and since you did ask for advice, here are my suggestions.

I would move the big TV to the wall with the book case is now to let buyers see how wonder the home is to have all that natural light. I would move the chair and lamp where the TV is now. I would find another place for the bookshelf or ask a friend to store it for you.

I would remove the extra towels on the bathroom vanity. I would update the sink faucets.

I would remove the two mismatched towels in the bathroom and two white towels. If you are able to, I would paint the Master bathroom a lighter neutral color that maybe then you can have light blue towels in the bathroom to pick up the colors on the pillows on the bed.

Maybe you add a nice vase of flowers on the kitchen table as a center piece. I would remove the single tray in the kitchen. I actually had to look twice to see where the kitchen trash can was and do not feel it needs to be removed. It is neat and matches well. Maybe just buy trash bags that are all white.

Again, if you do nothing, the home shows well as it is but with all the competition out there, these are suggestions I have from talking to neighbors that could not sell their beautiful homes until they made a few changes due to very picky buyers when there are so many homes on the market for sale.

I like the picture of your entryway since I want my next home to have a nice entryway.

Your guest bedroom is warm and inviting. I like your Master bedroom also. Your rooms are nice sized and show well. I like how much natural light you have.

I never put anyone down for giving what was asked for. What I said was it's crazy that we as home owners are expected to do all this to sell our home. Yes, common sense would tell us to clean our home and get rid of any clutter, but to have to get rid of a large TV or paint? HA!

For one, the TV won't come with the house most likely. And if it did the buyer could move it anywhere their little hearts desired. Two, the buyer could easily paint over any color they didn't like.

What about those that would love to see color in a home? Color on walls is very popular now. What if you loose a sale because you painted over all those beautiful colors and someone thinks your home is boring and colorless?

My point is, you can stage all you want, but there will ALWAYS be some that love it, some that don't. I see no reason to do more than I did when we sold our last home. I removed all family photos nick-nacks and wall decor, leaving only a bit of greenery on top of cabinets and bookshelves (left the books there) to keep it from looking barren. Made sure all flooring and surfaces were clean and dust free. Our home smelled fresh at all times.

I didn't paint my colorful walls. One agent called after her client veiwed our home and told me he absolutely LOVED our home. It reminded him of the house he grew up in. Just when I expected to hear an offer she instead told me he hated the paint treatment I'd done on the main baths walls. 8-We had deep blue carpet. Only one person didn't like it even though we had a carpet allowance. Because of it age, not color. I'm sure that could have detered some from purchasing it had it had we not added allowance.

All in all those things didn't keep the young family that truly fell in love with our home from buying it.

P.S. Right now our monster TV is in front of one of the two sets of french doors in our Gentlemen's Parlor. Good thing we're not selling! ;~P

Hi,
I'm making one suggestion just in case your entry faces the bookcase in the current arrangement of your great room. The suggestions you received to move that TV should not be underestimated in their value! You think it doesn't look so bad IRL, but trust us on this one. You've been around it too long. It is a HUGE distraction to the sale of this home. If your entry doesn't face the bookcase, then you could put the TV there, but if the entry faces that direction, here's an alternative arrangement since you don't want to see a huge TV staring back at you at the front door. Split the sectional so that the end with the chaise goes in front of the half wall maybe with a table behind it if needed, and float the other part of the sectional so that it faces the fireplace with the left end of it near the left wall and hopefully room for an end table at the end that will not have an arm (because of the separation.) Then move the TV to the large wall on the left of the fireplace, and put the upholstered chair angled into the room by the left of the fireplace. Our daughter recently rearranged a room and split hers, and it looks surprisingly much better, and one hardly notices the missing arm of the couch. It has to look better than seeing that TV where it currently is unless the other suggestion above about putting it where the bookcase is will work for you.

Your home is so delightfully clean looking, which is as it should be. I loved the suggestion to put two barstools by the kitchen counter. Many home buyers will be looking at new homes to compare with homes like yours, and as natal (I think) said above, they will almost always trump "lived in" unless you really put forth effort. Many people, believe it or not, really do keep their homes very clean, and want to see it that way when they shop for one. I've sold real estate and know it's worth the effort since it will drastically help. You really have a pretty home and the suggestions will only enhance what you've done. Best wishes with your sale.

* Posted by onourway2nc (My Page) on
Tue, Jan 29, 08 at 20:10

For those who are saying that Karen's house is lovely and she shouldn't have to do a thing to sell it, you're absolutely right. In reality, most buyers should look at a room size and not the color it's painted, or see the beautiful fireplace and realize that when it is their home, if they should buy it, they will not have a TV next to it unless they choose to place it there. However, buyers today can be unwilling to even paint a room or two in a home they may wish to buy as my realtor told me. She had a client who felt the home they showed them was perfect in every way except for the paint colors in a few of the rooms but her DH just couldn't or wouldn't see past the colors. Maybe he didn't like the house but they did end up buying one almost exactly like it, same price range but different paint!! It sounds crazy to me but thanks to HGTV and similar shows on other networks, buyers expect perfection or what they've been led to believe is perfection.

If in today's market you have to set the stage in order to sell a house, you do so, that's why Karen asked for suggestions. Otherwise, you can leave your wallpaper on the walls and figure a new buyer can change it, leave outdated fixtures that might cost a couple hundred dollars to replace and you might wait a longer amount of time to get your house sold. Or you might luck out and get a savvy buyer from this forum who can see the potential and will offer a bit less to buy your diamond in the rough. It's a chance you take in today's market.

With homes in my neighborhood, that normally sold within ten days of listing, sitting on the market a year later at well-reduced prices, it's definitely a lot riskier not to present your home at what the majority of the buyers' market will consider its very best. Stepping down from my soapbox now.........

OR SHE COULD SPEND $25,000 and sell it at a loss since the market is not exactly jumping right now.

If you think of this group as a small sample of the buying public, the fact that so many have suggested removing the TV and, to a lesser degree, changing several other things, should be convincing. Why not give yourself an advantage in this buyer's market by making a few simple changes?

It's not so much about whether buyers are too dumb to see past the big TV or a paint color that's not their first choice. It's about making a good first impression, including subliminal suggestions (clean, bright and airy = healthy, good place I'd like to live, with plenty of space; whereas kitchen trash can = someone else's garbage; fan = too hot! Maybe the air conditioner doesn't work!). Many buyers make up their minds in the first few minutes, based on their immediate emotional response.

Let me clear that I have no qualm about TVs or the fact that "reality" has them in 99.99999% of family rooms. I have a problem with a TV that big blocking a beautiful window. I also think that putting it on a wall that is not facing the couch (where the bookcase is) is a mistake. I don't know about anyone else but when I walk into an empty family room the FIRST thing I think about is where the couch would go and where the TV would go. If one would want to put a small TV in that corner, that's wonderful. But I don't think a TV that big should be anywhere in that room. Leaving it there or putting it on another wall just magnifies the fact that there is no better place to put a large TV besides blocking a window or out of view from the couch. Therefore I'd vote for a smaller TV (32 inches perhaps?) on a lower stand, or no TV at all (and leave that corner empty so buyers could see that a TV could go there).

FWIW every single model home I've visited in the past 10 years has a TV in the family room. I don't see an "anti-TV" decorating movement at all. Maybe on HGTV, but we all know that's not necessarily how we live.

I suggested setting the table because it would just be pretty. Part of staging, and effortless to do. At least do it for the photo.

No cost in those changes. It's a beautiful house. And yes, I'd buy it.

I really do appreciate all the comments. And I agree with wooderlander, who said that if I think of this group as a small sampling of the buying public, then it would definitely behoove me to move the TV. I will try that out this weekend, as well as some of the other suggestions. Our market is pretty slow, so while I definitely don't want to spend too much money on this place (as we won't be getting that much out of it), I will do things that don't cost much or that I can do myself.

For those who requested names of paint colors, I'll check those tonight and respond tomorrow.

Have a great day!

Karen, your house looks beautiful and you have been very nice amidst this storm of advice!

I just wanted to say that the last house we bought had different floral wallpaper in EVERY room, as well as a TV in almost every room. The owners had moved most of the furniture out for the uncluttered look, but there were 9 TVs! We bought the house and enjoyed living there. So you are already way ahead.

Beautiful all around!!!!! What paint colors did you use for the master bathroom?

I have to chime in to say that it's a gorgeous place and you did a great job with the staging. The house looks well-maintained and bright and clean. Brilliant idea to capture the ceilings in the photos as the clean white ceiling accentuates the space and airiness (is that a word?) of your home.

I do agree that the living room TV is a distraction and could make the living room seem much smaller than it really is; however, I suspect that most of the homes yours is competing against also have giant TVs in their living rooms.

There have been some comments about setting the table. My own personal opinion is this looks a little gimmicky or cheesy. It wouldn't stop me from buying a great house, but each time DH and I visited a house that had a set table, we sort of chuckled to ourselves. We feel the same way about guest bedrooms with tea sets on trays sitting on the bed.

Good luck on your sale - I think you'll have no problem attracting viewers with these pictures.

try_hard

OR SHE COULD SPEND $25,000 and sell it at a loss since the market is not exactly jumping right now.

Patricia, I'm not sure why you added that after my post since nowhere did I advocate spending a lot of money. Since we just sold two homes, I'd be the first one to advise someone not to spend a lot of money in getting a home ready to sell. But most of the posters were advocating removal of and rearranging of existing furniture and while I agree that homebuyers in general are expecting way too much when they walk into a home today, we still have to make the best of what we have. It is well worth it, IMO, to spend the money to remove outdated wallpaper and change fixtures that may cost a couple hundred dollars to change the look of a vanity or dining area. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your post but I wanted to clear things up. Thanks!

Another vote to move the TV (to where the bookshelf is) and/or get a smaller one.

I also echo adding the fresh flowers, at least for the pictures.

Those are the main things I'd do.

On another note, one of my friends saw a house-- a slight bit out of her range. What turned her off (it didn't me!) was that it was TOO nice! She said they wouldn't feel like they could really just "live" there. So, I wouldn't aim for looking like a magazine necessarily, but I would aim for clean (which your house is!!!) and inviting (a few touches will fix this).

I think the little details (I wouldn't change the paint) will make a big difference. Cheap/free with big rewards.

No.

I can see how much time, thought, and effort you've put into the house, and you've done a beautiful job "stageing" it. But that sort of work means nothing to ME, personally.

But I have no interest in a home like that. I'd be more intrigued by a home that "needed work"... a home on the market because an elderly owner died recently. Also, I am more drawn to the lot, LOCATION, and the possibilities they offer to a passionate gardener.

Hi there;
Let me start by saying you have a lovely, clean, fresh home. I am a realtor in West St Louis county and am very opinionated most of the time. This is the reason I have luckily done well. First of all, the TV does over whelm the FR. Either trade it with a friend of family member for a while and use a smaller one or none at all. During open houses or showings if possible, the fireplace should be going. There needs to be a splash of color in the FR and fresh flowers on one side of the hearth and on the coffee table would be perfect. I get the Kalaches and they seem to NEVER want to be watered. All rooms should have lights on when showing! (No fans, just lights) At night I request all lights also be on in the front of the home. You never know if people drive by and say wow, what a pretty house at night.The FR is pretty monochromatic. If you choose red flowers how about a red throw?

Dining room, nice colorful flower also on table.

Kitchen, the tray is fine, BUT a red flowerr in a vase and even maybe go get a pastry or a bunch of cookies and out them there. I am not fond of the ceiling lights though!

Blue bedroom is nice, ditch the fan, makes people think the a/c is NOT working well there!

Master bath: do not like the towels at all. Use a pretty finger tipo towel on the vanity and make the towels on the towel bar match. I see one on top of the other alot with raffia tied around them and it does look nice! I question rugs, sometimes they hide problems. Also, beware of too many personal pics. People get engrossed in them during a showing. Pictures of flowers or places seem to work better than of people. Toilet seat ALWAYS closed as it is here and full roll of toilet tissue.

Guest bedroom is lovely but would like to see a bright flick of color, ie. flower, vase, or plant.

Guest bath, OPEN shower curtain, it closes off the room too much and makes it look small. I like to use a valance in addition to the shower curtain but certainly not necessary. Get some pretty hand towels in there too. Too much stuff on top of the wall cabinet.

Now, please do not be offended what so ever. Your home is lovely but I am a picker and 99% of the time my homes sell FAST. I tend to be a seller's agent more than work with buyers, so I do have a little edge.

Good luck to you. I would love to know what market you are in. Take care. Phyllis

Hi;

Let me just add one more thing. It is important to know the area as well as, the city in which you live. This is a TOUGH market, and you have to stand out! You do stand out however, and there is no such thing as, too clean, EVER!

Hi there;
Let me start by saying you have a lovely, clean, fresh home. I am a realtor in West St Louis county and am very opinionated most of the time. This is the reason I have luckily done well. First of all, the TV does over whelm the FR. Either trade it with a friend of family member for a while and use a smaller one or none at all. During open houses or showings if possible, the fireplace should be going. There needs to be a splash of color in the FR and fresh flowers on one side of the hearth and on the coffee table would be perfect. I get the Kalaches and they seem to NEVER want to be watered. All rooms should have lights on when showing! (No fans, just lights) At night I request all lights also be on in the front of the home. You never know if people drive by and say wow, what a pretty house at night.The FR is pretty monochromatic. If you choose red flowers how about a red throw?
Dining room, nice colorful flower also on table.
Kitchen, the tray is fine, BUT a red flower in a vase and even maybe go get a pastry or a bunch of cookies and out them there. I am not fond of the ceiling lights though!
Blue bedroom is nice, ditch the fan, makes people think the a/c is NOT working well there!
Master bath: do not like the towels at all. Use a pretty finger tip towel on the vanity and make the towels on the towel bar match. I see one on top of the other alot with raffia tied around them and it does look nice! I question rugs, sometimes they hide problems. Also, beware of too many personal pics. People get engrossed in them during a showing. Pictures of flowers or places seem to work better than of people. Toilet seat ALWAYS closed as it is here and full roll of toilet tissue.
Guest bedroom is lovely but would like to see a bright flick of color, ie. flower, vase, or plant.
Guest bath, OPEN shower curtain, it closes off the room too much and makes it look small. I like to use a valance in addition to the shower curtain but certainly not necessary. Get some pretty hand towels in there too. Too much stuff on top of the wall cabinet.
Now, please do not be offended what so ever. Your home is lovely but I am a picker and 99% of the time my homes sell FAST. I tend to be a seller's agent more than work with buyers, so I do have a little edge.

That TV probably does not look too great from the dining room side either.

Cheapest(most reasonable) places to get flowers: Costco, Sams, Grocery Stores
Vases, accent pieces or great looking artifical flowers: Home Place, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Michael
towels: HOME GOODS, TJ Maxx, Marshalls

Just a Fyi

Hi Karen 76, I would really like to know the paint colors in the master bath if you get a chance to post them. Thanks

Yep, ditch the huge t.v., open the shower curtain and you've got a beauty - love your home!

Sorry, I forgot to get those paint colors for all who asked. I'll try to do that this evening.

Also, phyllisjm, I'm in the Indianapolis market.

Karen 76, any chance you looked up those paint colors... I'm dying to know the colors you used in the master bath. Sorry to keep asking, but they look exactly like what I've been wanting to do in my master bath. Thanks

Can I hire you to stage my listings? You home looks fantastic! I have to agree with the above posters about the TV. I don't know if you have another Tv or a bonus room to put it in but it takes away from a otherwise flawless room. Your room will look bigger and space=$

The kitchen: Could you move the pretty rug for the MLS pics and showings? Little rugs while absolutely necessary for function show up as cluttery in pics. Again, I have to agree about the garbage can. If you don't have the undercabinet room for a small one, Consider buying a pretty metal one. Better there be a pretty one than just a totally functional one. My only other suggestion is putting some flowers in a vase for your dining table or something more substantial.

That for the most part is just tweaking, it's great as is. I hope you don't mind your pics being my shining example when my sellers ask what I mean by uncluttered.

Buyers are being a little fussy now. (I'm being polite-they are asking for the sun, moon and stars-and I'm in a GREAT market) I don't know alot about the Indy market but as long as your home is priced correctly, pretty (it is), you offer some $ towards closing the norm in my market is 3-3.5 of the listing price (that might be totally false in yours), offer the home warranty and it WILL sell. Spring is coming and in my area I am very optimistic for things to pick up.

I think you did a WONDERFUL job and I'm serious about making you my shining example with your permission of course.

I think your home looks lovely. Its so clean and decluttered which is so important. (I am assuming your closets and the yard look just as good) Do you have some pretty flowers planted out front.....pansies, etc.) The tv is big, but in reality its probably not possible for you to replace it so I am not going to suggest it. I dont think that is going to make that much of a difference. One thing I noticed is the dishwasher is black and it appears the stove is white, along with the frig. Many times there are two panels on the dishwasher, one side white and one side black. The controls will remain black but I think the dishwasher should look like it matches....that stays with the home, not the tv. I was surprised no-one caught that, or at least I didnt read any comment about it, I could have missed it. Kitchen are a key area...I did like the idea of 2 bar stools, but there might not be room for them since we didnt see the seating area. I also thought there were a lot of towels, but not a big deal. And I do agree with the flowers. If the outside looks as good as the inside, the buyers will want to see your home. Can you show us the outside too? Best of luck for a speedy sale!!! You did a great job!

I would get a smaller lower TV stand and turn it against that knee wall, to open up the windows it's blocking, and set a pretty table, with place settings for pics. make ppl want to sit right down to dinner....

I say take out the tv and add plants just a couple and fresh flowers. I also say add a nice area rug with maybe some color to it. There is little color going on. Also, above the sofa that picture looks small and lost and again, not enough umph in color.

Good luck with everything. Your house is lovely!

karen_76, you may want to post and/or read the Gardenweb Buying & Selling Homes Forum.

The rooms look great with one exception. EACH room needs a plant or fresh flowers in the photo. It would make all the difference. A room always needs something green to balance.