I hang out in the decorating forum, too :)

Can you give some more details - # bedrooms? one is staged as an office?

Is it slow in your area? Could you be overpriced or over hopeful ;) ? Does the roof or anything else major need work?

The little table in the kitchen is the eat-in area? If so, then yes, it's very small, barely enough room for one person. If it's a 3 bed/2 bath home, then that means there's no room for a family to eat. Do you have kids, where do you all eat? For me as a parent I'd have to have a family dining space.

Which room is nearest or open to the kitchen? Can you fit a 4-seat table, and add a chandelier (even a candle type) + maybe a console type table to act as a buffet/sideboard?

Could one of the bedrooms/office serve as a cozy den with TV - and then the family room could be both a DR and seating/living area?

No DR space would mean I'd have to turn your house down, but otherwise your home is very charming, and looks clean and well kept.

Hi, what a nice little house! But you want ideas... Have you considered possibly rejigging the living room sofa (and TV) to a configuration where the TV is against the back window (facing us as we look in, to the right of where it is now) and the sofa facing it, leaving some room for a rectangular table against the wall near the little black hassock in left forefront (wouldn't have to be huge, just enough to suggest 'eating' room outside of the kitchen)? In other words having the living room on the diagonal is taking up all that space, and maybe looks cool, but could be hurting things now.

My only suggestion is that the front photo may be better from the other side of the fence (include it in your photo). There is a lot of mulch in the photo and not much height in the plantings. I think the fence in the photo would better frame the house.

Good Luck

It's a very cute house, and looks quite clean and well kept. However, these pictures look more like photos of your decor than listing pictures to me. It would help if your agent took new pictures that show more of each room.

It's hard to know if a dining area in your family room would work, because we can't see the whole space. Would a drop leaf table, shown with the leaves down and just two chairs, fit? If so, I might try that in addition to the little table in the kitchen.

I hope you won't mind a few other questions and comments. The first thing that caught my eye in the kitchen was the gap at the end of the cabinets. If it's not possible or affordable to put a narrow cabinet there to fill the space, what about building in some white shelves? Maybe they could be made to look like a vertical wine rack.

In your family room, it might help to pack away some of your personal and decorative items. Our real estate agents have always suggested removing things such as the crucifix, wall clock, family photos, and about half of the books and knick-knacks.

Some folks would be turned off by the wood toilet seat in one bathroom; a white replacement seat would be inexpensive. I've also been told to use white or neutral shower curtains (I do like your print, but others might find it distracting.)

Is the large black bed placed in front of a door or window? Something is showing behind the massive headboard. Also, you might consider replacing those dark curtains with some light panels. Both beds appear to take up nearly the entire space in each bedroom; is that the case? If you don't need large beds in both rooms, you may want to try showing one with a twin bed. We once staged a bedroom with a cheap air mattress on top of boxes; covered with a comforter and bedskirt it looked like a regular bed.

Good luck!

What a lovely home! My suggestions:

Spritz, steam, or iron some of those curtains-- I can see the 'just out of the package' folds and that distracts me and makes it seem stagey.

Remove a few more personal knick-knacks such as the crucifix and clock

Find a spot for a larger table and chairs, poss in the living room as suggested above

That one spot under the counter bugged me, too--- Love the idea of a wine rack there. It could just dort of fit into the space. Or a trash can. Or shelves. Or a pullout hamper on wheels or recycling bin.

I had a hard time grasping the layout. Have you used a wide-angle lens? It helps to show the whole space a little better.

By the way, love your decor-- I was drooling over one of the quilts and then the very next picture was the quilt I have in my own room!

I have no suggestions but I just wanted to say that my impression is that the large beds make the rooms look very small.

Good suggestions above. I also thought the beds took up too much visual space in your bedrooms. Can you take the headboard & foot board off the black bed and hang something on the wall instead? I also think the dark curtain panels make it seem too small and cave-like. The eating space could definitely be a problem. Without seeing a better layout of your house, I can't make any suggestions. It's a very cute house. Good luck!

Looks cute overall. I can see the dining thing being an issue.

Here are some of my overall impressions that I would think as a buyer, but I would be able to look past all that as I would just bring out the tape measure to see how my stuff would work, but not everybody does.

- This one is just related to the front picture (probably not real life) xmas is gone - remove the lights. So I would suggest have your listing agent take a new pic of the front since I'm sure you don't still have the lights up.

- overall the rooms looks small, but I think that is just the impression from photos because all the furniture looks very oversized for the rooms and the angle doesn't show the full room. Anything you can do to make the rooms appear more open would help.

- The living room arrangement makes me think this room will be hard to put furniture in and it looks very enclosed with the angled sofa. I might suggest removing the entertainment center and put the TV on something smaller in the corner put the sofa straight along the back wall and yes less optimum for TV viewing but more open looking and it won't be permanent for you. Then maybe you could fit a table in there too for dining. What are the dimensions of the room?

In addition to the other good suggestions I would have the pictures retaken with a wide angle lens. Since your rooms are small, you need that to get more of each room in the pictures. The exterior pic should definitely be retaken because of the Christmas lights and tree. Where in Oregon are you? If you have snow on the ground right now I would wait until it is gone though. I like your shower curtain, and wouldn't change it as it adds some necessary color and life to the bathroom.

it's a little house. W/ little rooms. And should have a corresponding price.

Is your market full of houses that size?

Anything you can do to make it look bigger would be good.

People are SEEING it, so you pictures aren't that huge a turn-off. If you want to retake pictures, consider taking them from OUTSIDE the room looking in. (if you can get far enough away)

I think that makes the rooms look much larger, actually, and gives you a sense of their shape.

At least try pics like those, and see how they come out.

It's a nice little house. You know immediately from looking at it from the outside it's well maintained and you know immediately that it's not a big house so not having a dining area isn't a big surprise. It is what it is and it is attractive to people in that price range providing it's priced accordingly.
What struck me instantly was that humongous tv entertainment center and secondly the sofa on an angle. Have it taken out and stored somewhere else and put the sofa back against a wall or perpendicular, anything, just get it out of the house pronto.
The poster bed as well it too gargantuan for the room but doesn't have the same negative effect that tv does. If you could switch it for something to the proper scale do so but focus more on getting that tv out of there..
The rest of the house looks very nice.. the kitchen looks fine, the bathroom looks fine.

oops I erred.. I didn't mean the poster bed, I meant that other bed with the headboard competing for size with the great wall of China.

Wow, thank you so much everyone! Fresh eyes, and honest comments. Exactly what I needed. Pkguy, you made me laugh! The great wall of China! :-) Yes, it's huge, but perfect for our new house. We're building and it's perfect for the new master, but our family has grown and so we passed the poster bed off to our daughter and refused to buy anything less than a king-sized bed. Yes, our bedroom is suffering for space now, and we will be moving in March.

Ladynimue,

This is a four-bedroom, 1 and a 1/2 bath. I didn't include a pic of the fourth bedroom. It's 1561 sq. ft. plus a full basement on .25 acre lot. Basement has a workshop area and a craft room too besides the little rec area shown. The market is so-so in our area. Average 120 DOM. We're at close to 60. Asking $237,000 which is agent's suggested asking price.
We have 2 small children, so a fold-away high chair and another extra chair come out at meal times. But we bought this house when we were first married, and if we were out shopping now I too would want a definite dining space so I see it as a major drawback to selling this house.

Lucy and lyfia,
Love your suggestions. I think you're right on about the family room and I'm going to talk to DH about getting the entertainment center out of here. After superbowl, of course. ;-)

New toilet seat on the list. Take new pictures. Open up more space. Pack away more personal items. The gap at the end of the cabinets does house the trash can but it was removed for pictures. Having the trash there is so much easier than putting it underneath our child-proofed sink cabinet.

Thanks again, everyone. Any more ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Very cute house. Looks like a starter home, good for a single person or young couple. Everything looks pretty good to me, but I would remove the crucifix from the living room wall...religious symbols turn some people off...and maybe change the shower curtain...it's a little busy. It's the first thing I noticed in the bathroom. The rooms do look quite small. I'd advise removing as much furniture and knick-knacks as possible to really open up the rooms. What sits behind the sofa? Is there room for a small dining room table there? I'd also suggest staging the basement room better. I can't tell if it's an exercise room, playroom, or junk room. Maybe it's all three? Define the space and then remove everything else. Buyers need to be shown how they can use a space. Most of them are not very imaginative. Good luck!

Hi,

Your house looks very well maintained and nicely decorated. I like your paint colors.

I agree with terrig, the crucifix on the wall I would remove. The beds look too big for the rooms. The flowered shower curtain is a bit overwhelming. I also agree about the dead-space at the end of the cabinet.

The back yard looks nice but is there an industrial building or large garage in the background?

Maybe adding a largr area rug to the basement will warm it up a bit and make it seem more useable.

well, it's not THAT little, bigger than my home, and bigger than the 3BR, 2ba I want to move into (1,100 sq ft). Of course, I'm in NYC

I think the beds and the camera angles make it look smaller than it is.

Try to find way to back up.

And, can you take pics w/ smaller beds? Or get a family member to swap beds w/ you just for a month or two, so the big beds don't overwhelm buyers?

Everything in the house is too large scale for the size of the rooms. When will your new house be ready? I'm thinking you might move out and stage. This is a darling house, but it will sell faster with a few small-scale pieces in it, including some sort of dining table that seats at least four.

A buyer doesn't want to see your shower curtain; he wants to see the tub and surround. Pull it back. Remove the too-large botanical print and topiary, too.

Do something with the basement to make it look 'liveable'. The rug idea is a good one. Right now it looks like it's only fit for storage. Store the exercise machine.

Four BRs and 1 1/2 baths is GOOD! The house looks in perfect condition. Yes, it's a small house, but it looks much smaller with the oversize furnishings.

I'm thinking--the 3br apt. I want to buy has 1,200 sq. ft. If it had another 100 sq ft (1,300), I could fit a 10x10 bedroom. and it has a 14x14 dining room and a 13x15 living room (OK, the kitchen is small and one bath is TINY).

Where *is* the room in your house?

I think you should retake the pics standing outside the rooms.

Staging wise it looks good to me. I do think no real eating area is a drawback. seating for 2 at a small table seems lacking for a 4br which is basically selling to people with kids. Is there a bedroom that is centrally located to suggest to make a dining room.

I really like your house, I have a small cape, very very similar in style, with the same exact siding in that color.

Mine is a 2 br 1 bath with no possibility to finish the basement. Although I do have a dining room and large living room to offset the lack of bedrooms.

The angle of the pictures seemed to make the house a LOT smaller than it is - I was expecting you to say it's under 1000sqft.

I wouldn't even say it's a furnishings issue (although the huge entertainment center could be replaced with a much smaller black corner unit and I think it would make the room look gigantic) but just a camera angle/zoom issue. All of the pictures look like they are taken at a downward angle and zooming in on the far corners of the rooms. I think that combined with the darkness of the bedroom and kitchen pictures really seem to close things in.

I absolutely lovelovelovelove the hardwood floor in your living room. Is it original? If we end up not being able to save ours, that is what I want the new ones to look like.

You are going to get all sorts of suggestions for changes, but the fact that you have had 25 showings means that your photos are fine and doing what they are supposed to do.

What is the feedback after the showings? That might give more insight.

the fact that you have had 25 showings means that your photos are fine and doing what they are supposed to do

good point; do the rooms come across as small in real life as they do in the photos?

What is the big metallic thing behind your yard? Is it an RV garage?

I agree about pulling the shower curtain back as well as the curtains in the LR. You want people to see natural light.

I agree with all other comments. While you're getting showings, the photos seem dark and make the rooms look small.

What type of feedback are you getting from showings? Honestly, you're getting alot of them, so people must be showing some interest, even if the photos aren't that great.

That little bisto table in the kitchen is telling people there isn't enough room for a family sized kitchen table. Is there anywhere you can put a regular sized table in your LR off the kitchen by moving around the furniture?

Thanks, everyone. We've already started working on the dining area issue. It was nearly unanimous here that it would be a big issue, as we suspected. Our feedback is very good on the inside of the house- these pictures eliminate the scope I guess and IRL the rooms are actually larger than what you find in many new builds nowadays. All of the bedrooms are 12x14 or 10x14. So not tiny by my standards anyways, although a larger master is certainly desirable. One of the most common negative feedback remarks we've gotten is something we can't do anything about- the location. Although we are on the outskirts of our community, we have a commercial building on the south side of our fence, and our neighbor behind us has a huge ugly shop (that's the big metallic thing). We should have planted a green screen back there when we first bought, but didn't know it would be such a distraction for future buyers.

This would be a starter home- it was for us! But nice schools, nice backyard, TONS of storage (basement, standing height attic over garage, oversized brand new garage).

Anyway, thank you for lending me your eyes. We are staging a dining set to the right of the couch, but behind where the camera shows. There's a piano there now, which we are going to move out. We're going to borrow a small dining set from some friends just to show the possibilities. Plus, we're going to leave the bistro table in the kitchen which would then show two seating areas for dining. Packed up more stuff already, and hubby's looking for different stand for t.v. Thanks, all!

This would be a starter home- it was for us! But nice schools, nice backyard, TONS of storage (basement, standing height attic over garage, oversized brand new garage).

Let me tell you that I would be having my agent advertise the heck out of the stand up attic! Such a huge thing for me. I would overlook some stuff just for that luxury.

It's one reason my dad's house was so desirable. For someone like me with a bad back, not having to crawl and to be able to actually use the attic space is a large plus.

Like was said, your pictures are apparently not stopping people from viewing your home. But, you aren't getting offers! Lots of people have addressed the perception of room size, but I would have to say that price must be an issue. All things being equal you should be able to get top dollar because of the condition of your home. But you have some ugly stuff around your house that is going to affect your value.

Your house is darling and has obviously been well cared for - a huge plus in my book! The new bed in your bedroom is beautiful, but you may want to consider putting it away until you sell your house, and using the poster bed temporarily. A good portion of the general public will have a hard time getting past the size of the bed and will just assume their stuff will never fit.
Our rule of thumb from the realtor the last house we sold was if we didn't have an offer after 10 showings, it was time to examine the price. Which we did, and it sold within a week. (We were also very motivated as we were excited to move) Now, this market has gotten a little tricky, so maybe after 15-20 showings may be more realistic.
Best of luck!

I'd stress the attic, too! Not as storage, but as possible expansion -- maybe a big, beautiful MBR suite.

Sorry you have the irremedial defect problem: bordering on commercial properties. That needs to be taken into consideration in your pricing.

Don't fret, a buyer is out there for your Big/Little house!