Your house is very nice-but you are right if I was looking I would be thinking I needed to update the kitchen. In your market to people leave appliances with the house? Because simply having SS or all black appliances would help in my mind. Are you willing to spend some money or put in some labor? You could replace the counter tops too-it doesn't look like a huge space and would really give it some pow.

cpang74-
we thought of replacing appliances but stove opening is 36'" so even if we did it cheap, we are talking close to $3000. Do you think it would make a difference if I turned the dw panel to black? I thought white made the fridge/stove, dw look more like a "set" but maybe black would be sleeker?

As far as counters- not really willing to spend the money unless we have to and besides, I don't think we could change out counters without upgrading appliances (black and white might look even worse!) and that definitely seems like too much $$ to spend. I'm saving my pennies for our new kitchen but realize to sell I may just have to put out some more $$ and effort.
1st open house is Sunday- I'll be curious to see what kind of response we get.
Thanks for your thoughts.

doing some cosmetic fixes is a good idea, of course, and i'd probably do them if i were in your position, but, as someone who's just recently bought a house in this market, i can tell you that my wife and i actually *prefer* to see houses with really outdated kitchens because that means that the value of the house is a bit lower and we can gut the kitchen and re-do it to our liking without feeling bad that we ripped out newer perfectly good stuff. i don't think your kitchen really fits that description. you're kind of in that in-between area. not super-old and outdated, not a WOW kitchen.

so, it all really depends on your buyer.

one thing i'd do for sure, though is change out that ceiling fan for a nice light fixture.

edlakin-
That is exactly what my realtor said... I just hope it isn't enough of a flaw to turn off a potential buyer.

One good thing... there is room for expansion if someone wanted to put an addition on to make a bigger kitchen and dining room.

Gee, I woudn't put more than $100 into the kitchen. It's neat, clean, attractive enough & functional, & fits in with the rest of your house. What could you spend money on that would be worth the expense? If you upgrade the counters, then you still have the old appliances & layout. If you upgrade the appliances, then you still have the old counters. If you upgrade one thing, there are too many things that counterweigh it. (does that make sense?) I'd leave it as is & let the new owner make the desired changes.

I'm with edlakin; I'd rather an owner not upgrade so I don't have to deal with his/her tastes.

Otherwise, your house is cute as a button!

I'm agreeing with edlakin & awm03. The only think I would do, you've already mentioned: switch the DW panel so it's all black--will go better with the stove. Ceiling fan is a plus, IMO, esp. since your kitchen is like mine and in a raised portion of the house. I'm planning to use one in my kitchen.

Ditto on the dw panel - make it black. I wouldn't do another thing because whoever buys it will probably want to gut it and redo it anyway, within a year. My daughter and SIL looked for a house that hadn't been done since it was built in the '60's so they could do the kitchen the way they wanted to.

Your kitchen is neat, clean, and spacious - with great potential.

How do I view this house? I went to the Coldwell Banker site but no where did I see a place to plug in the listing number.

I agree with the folks who say do nothing else. Leave it neat and uncluttered, as in these photos. People will either want to redo it, in which case they can see the potential from the neat way you have presented it, or they'll live in it as it is, which isn't bad. You don't have time to do much now, and anything more major really isn't worth it at this point. You've done the best you could with it.

As someone who loves to go to open houses and is always looking at for sale ads (and I too live in Jersey!), I think your house will appeal to a lot of people, especially those looking to remodel.

Thanks for all the quick replies and great comments. I changed the dw panel to black and am going to keep my fingers crossed. We leave in the morning for a long weekend trip to the Grand Canyon (planned before putting the house on the market). I am thrilled- have always dreamed of going and it will be great to be FAR away for the open house.
Thanks again. Hopefully I will be updating with good news next week or else looking for granite recommendations:)!

Here's a link...

Here is a link that might be useful: Crescent50's House for Sale

The one thing that glared out at me was the too-large rectangular tablecloth on your dining room table. If your table top is attractive, I suggest that you style the table with coordinating (to your chair fabric) place mats and the table with sparkly glass, silver, candles, etc.

If the top is not usable, at least swap the tablecloth with one that is the correct size and coordinates better with your chair fabric. Then set the table with pretty, sparkly stuff.

I just looked and think your house is really nice! I was expecting a much much worse kitchen from the comments here.(tough crowd ). While it might not be up to the minute state of the art, I think its fine and totally agree to do nothing.
By the way I used to live in the next town until 1990!
I think your house shows great.
Good luck and keep us posted.