Picture B is so much more appealing! I would simply move the car though so it's not in the picture.

Definitely A! It doesn't show the closeness of the house on the right. It doesn't show the power lines. It doesn't show the two driveways so very close together on the left. The house looks much bigger in picture A.

Photo B shows better detail on the house but lala44 is right, the car, the powerlines,etc are pretty off-putting.

Definitely picture B. I had to go back and look for the "power lines". I thought how could I miss that. I was picturing "HIGH TENSION LINES". Every house has power lines, thats not a big deal and usually every house has a couple of cars in the driveway. Sheesh. As far as the "house next door", both pictures show a house next door, so thats a wash. Picture B is much more appealing. I looked harder at the picture and just skimmed by picture A as it didnt appeal to me at all. One thing I will say however, is, as an agent, you know that the only reason a house doesnt sell is price. If your MIL's house has been on the market for a long time with no offers, she hasnt reached the price of her competition yet.

Pic B. Pic A looks like a portrait of the chimney.

You can always photoshop out the power lines, altho I don't know if i'd bother. Houses have electricity and phone service nowadays.

I'd even not worry about the car if a new pic you might take would be missing the shrub in flower.

Picture B. I'd view that house, I wouldn't schedule an appointment for Picture A.

I agree with the majority. Picture B is much more appealing. It's brighter and the house looks a good size. I also missed the power lines in my first view. I was too busy thinking "Wow, I'd much rather look at a house if it had a picture like B." I don't think I would look at the house from picture A, but I would consider looking at it from picture B.

Picture B for sure! It captures the colorful flowers in the foreground, and shows the cute little window on the 3rd floor/attic (which is obscured by a tree branch in Picture B). Either pic is going to show nearby neighbor homes. So what? It is what it is. Pic B exudes charm with the cute little brick walkway. It also puts the landscaping in context. Pic A shows neither.

I noticed the same things as Kylie M did, the little window, flowers, walkway. I also like B better because it shows an interesting bump-out, maybe a built-in window seat or buffet in the dining room? It makes me want to go inside and see.

Another vote for A here. I saw (and had a negative reaction to) the power lines and the car in the driveway immediately in picture B.

The house in pic A looks like it is surrounded by greenery, almost pastoral.

Isn't it interesting what different people notice first?

B - just move the car.

Another vote for B, makes the home & surroundings appear more interesting and vibrant. The power lines & car are a non-issue for me.

I prefer B too, didn't notice the powerlines and to me the car made no difference. B looks much more inviting to me.

Definitively B.

When I looked at the A photo, I thought it was a side entrance.

I would use B but rotate it to the left a little, for some reason the house or property appears slanted to me, then I would try a bit of creative cropping on the right of the house which shouldn't make the power lines look so long. The car doesn't bother me and the bush blooming is a bit more appealing then the drab look of pic A.

While the pic won't appeal to me, my main concern is if the house has what I want. I have some really doggy looking houses saved in my realtor profile. I know that pics don't always do a house justice and if I don't care for the color, I can always chage it but not everyone thinks like that. You need to have a pic that is inviting, which pic A is not.

E-mail me and I'll tell you who NOT to use as a handyman! We are less tahn two weeks from closing on our house in Norfolk which has been empty since July when we had to mvoe to TX.

We used Floors Unlimited in (I think) Chesapeake) to put in new vinyl floors in the kitchen and utility room and they did a GREAT job. We updated the rest of the kitchen ourselves with Ikea cabinets. used Beach Countertops for the counters and didn't think the job was well done.

We had a great plasterer, plumber and roofer, but could NOT find anyone reasonably priced for handyman stuff.

Robin

B looks slanted because the camera was tilted upwards to shoot the picture. You can avoid that by going atop higher ground next time, where you don't have to tilt the camera up. But, you can also fix B up with Photoshop.

I'd also do a little bit more landscaping for B, cleaning up some of the bushes that block part of the house to make it look as large as possible. And, I might actually move in closer, at the same angle, to reshoot B. I'm not a big fan of how the surronding, dark bushes that are emeshed in shadows seem to dominate the picture, and diminish the house.

Thanks for the comments everyone - it just goes to show that there are definitely people who like (or dislike) both pictures.

I think the house is priced a bit high - but it's not my market, so I can't say definitively where it SHOULD be priced.

I have been advising her for months to do some tidy up work inside the home, but the lack of a handyman has held her back.

We just got the following quote:

1: To paint some outside trim and downspout
2: Power wash small deck
3: Paint trim (but not walls) in living room/ dining room and entrance way
4: Install new burber carpet in small office room
5: Paint cainets white - there aren't many of them.

Quote is $5000 +.

Does this sound high? It sounds very high to me. My guess is that there is approx two to three days work.
This estimate sounds higher than I would have expected even for my area in the North East.

I feel so bad for my MIL - she has got herself into a difficult situation and is struggling to get out of it.

DH and I renovate a lot ourselves, but I can understand why MIL is overwhelmed - when I spoke to her agent, the list of things she mentioned was extremely long. I have no doubt that many of the items she mentioned will need attention at some point, but we need to target specific areas which will make the biggest impact.

I have made a list of items which I think can be done by MILs partner and handy friends. I think she just needs to have the things narrowed down so she doesn't feel so overwhemed by it all.

So now we are going to tackle 'phase 1'!

Wish us luck!

How about taking a long weekend and going down to lend a hand? If she has any kids, now would be a great time for everyone to visit for a few days. There's nothing like the family touch, you may do things someone else may not think of. Southwest is always running specials, you may get a cheap flight...

When my dad was selling his house my husband, myself, son and a neighbor went up to Union County on almost a daily basis until we fixed the place up. We saved them so much money. I truly feel that if it wasn't for the kitchen remodel, paint, fixtures and carpet out / wood floors refinished he never would have gotten as much as he did. The look on his face was priceless when he came by a few months later and saw the finished house

Could she maybe hire a student to do everything but the carpet install? The handyman's estimate does seem high.

Maybe you could help her by looking at or posting an ad on Craigslist?

I'll add my vote for photo B. The 3/4 angle gives you a real idea of the size of the house which doesn't convey at all in the realtor's photo. And I know it has nothing to do with the property but the flowering shrub in the foreground makes the area seem as if you are in a country setting. It's very appealing.

I like picture A better!

I am a former resident of the Hampton Roads/Norfolk area, and my parents still live there. In recent years there has really been a real "run up" in house prices, to the extent that I really don't know how folks afford to live there on the salaries I thought they were making. So, I'm not surprised the house is priced higher than you thought it would be.

Recently when my Mom & Dad have tried to hire handy-people to do smaller jobs they have had a hard time. They finally found a contractor (who they knew) who was willing to do the work (some replastering)--but only if they had a job over a certain amount of $$$. They added a bunch of stuff, but while the replastering went ok he didn't do such a great job on anything else. I wasn't happy with it, but they literally could not find anyone who was willing to take the work (!)

The contractors they talked to told them there was so much money in new construction in the area (like in the $300,000+ range, which used to be a lot of $$$ there) that they could make a lot more money working on those sites than small jobs. My parents have lived there all their lives and have a lot of connections, and still had a hard time--so I'm not sure how to advise you.

The $5,000.00 seems like too much for what you want them to do--but if there is only one or two guys working on it, it will probably take more like a week than 2-3 days. Maybe that is some of the cost?

To give your a comparison: in North Carolina (where I live now) it cost us $5,000 and took a week to have two guys do a two color paint job on our two-story foyer, hallway, stairway, and ceiling. If it had not been a risky (two story) paint job, we definitely would have done it ourselves and saved some $$$!

Would it be worth it to just sell the house as is and not worry about the improvements? As long as your Mom has not purchased it in the past few years, she may hopefully still be able make a profit and you will not have to deal with the headache of trying to arrange and supervise repairs. This is the approach I am considering with my parents, if it is not work that I can do myself. But, she may have already tried this approach...

Good Luck, and sorry I don't have more useful advice.

bunniemae, the house isn't priced higher than I thought it should be - it's not my area of expertise, but I think the house has a lot of potential and is charming from the outside. Buyers have a lot of choice though and I think that is a problem because it does need some updating.

We would definitely like to get down there to help out - the problem is that we are in the final stages of a MAJOR renovation of our house which includes redoing the bathroom, adding on another one and a half totally new bathrooms, a new two story addition to include the kitchen etc. Now is a totally critical time in terms of finishes. the tile work is in progress and the kitchen is being installed this weekend. Then my Dad is arriving from the UK next weekend (for the first time in 5 years), then my friend comes over, and then my Mum flys over at the end of the month. None of these people have been able to come for a year because of the renovation, so we have a whole bunch of people coming.

We have offered so many times to go down and do stuff, but MIL wasn't in the right mind set to do work at the time despite our encouragement. Now she is and we don't have time. It's a shame.
DH just started a new job a few months ago and hasn't built up much holiday yet or he could go down. It's also his busiest time of year right now.

I don't think the work can wait. If I can manage overseeing kitchen stuff and our furniture move in on my own, maybe DH can get down there next w/end to help. I think she needs to do stuff RIGHT NOW, before she loses the urgency again.

I understand, we're also in the same boat trying to finish up the master bedroom / bath here. Hubby was supposed to meet his mom in FL next month, but probably won't happen.

We've run into what bunniemae is saying. Very hard to find people willing to take small jobs. At one point I had a broken front door, due to the sub mailman not closing it all the way. I called a lot of people, couldn't get any interest. Hubby & a neighbors friend ended up doing the job.

Hobokenkitchen

This is a long shot but... the previous owners of our house in Norfolk used this guy to replace half the roof after Hurricane Isabel. On closing day, there was an ice storm, an ice dam and a leak in the kitchen. The seller's realtor called this guy and he fixed it pretty quickly, then offered us a lot of advice. I can't remember for sure but it seemed he mentioned being available for handyman jobs. His prices were reasonable for the roof work (he charged a lot less than he already knew was in escrow to fix it). It's worth calling and asking if he can do the work or recommend someone.

E-mail me and I will send you his info

Robin