Lscatx and Linda have good suggestions. I agree with not painting the cabinets, but that gel stain does wonders if done right.

Don't take this the wrong way, but you say your price is a WOW factor, but the buyers are not agreeing with you. Active listings with a WOW price do not last on the market long. The "market" can not be fooled. It can only make a fool of someone, as it has done to me on more than one occasion.

Before you tackle staining your cabinets, may I recommend that you go to the Home Decorating forum and start a post directed at Sheesharee and ask about her just completed project of staining oak cabinets in her kitchen? Ask her to link you to her very specific and detailed process (I would but I can't find it) before you jump on this project. I've seen beautiful end results with this product but please don't kid yourself that it's a cake walk. The worst thing that could happen to you is that you try to do this in a hurry (and you do have a tight timeline) and end up with something that looks like loving hands at home IYKWIM. I'm in the home buying market right now and can tell you that I may not love your kitchen but the oak would not scare me as is - it's clean and cared for and perfectly livable while I determine what I might like to do. But if you do a half a$$ed job with staining them (not saying you would, but you could) - it would be a total turn off to me. Think on this one before committing.

BTW - your gardens are spectacular.

I don't think we can judge price from here. I know I can't. We don't even know how long it's been on the market, much less what other properties are like. Boston has been in the news here in Texas for the record snowfalls and any market is traditionally at it's slowest point between mid November and sometime in March. And everyone knows that if you have a special property, you need a special buyer. Or you can cut the price until anyone would know it's too good to pass up. Agents are quick to point to price, but if you don't have the right buyers in the market, you have to cut to a point that you change the market. It's a balancing act -- price and market, agent commissions and seller's price. You can't balance it without more info than I've seen.

Good advise from DLM2000. If you try it, have some test material -- maybe be prepared to replace the inserts in one of the uppers with glass if it doesn't work out and you don't have anything else. I've never used gel stain, so I can't help you any further on that. I first saw it in the kitchens forum when I was working on my kitchen about 8 years ago. There have been some threads discussing it here an there -- and I've heard it can be a mess, so you want to do some homework to get it right. Or leave it. Oak is not my favorite, but it wouldn't keep me from buying the house either -- not with all the other things it has to offer. I'd try some staging first while you do your homework on the stain -- then you can evaluate both halves of that equation.

I think the island end is looking better. Are the shelves adjustable? Making the spaces more even would give you more options. Some color would be good, but it isn't essential. The color is more important at counter level. Check out library books (free) or see if thrift, resale or used book stores have a few cookbooks cheap (permission to buy a couple if you've been wanting them or will use them). Borrow a couple of things from a friend -- even your realtor. I know mine had a stash of stuff for staging homes. Perhaps yours does.

ncrealguy - I hear you on the price. What you say makes sense. In November we did our 3rd price reduction (about 8%) since June. No one was looking then but I wanted one last try before we went off the market. We are off the market for 3 months to return as "new" the middle of April with our 4th price reduction (10%). The WOW in price comes from the distinction of being the lowest cost per SF in town for a colonial. There is a 1950s Cape that is a little lower but it is so dirty and beat up it looks like it was a frat house. The small kitchen which is up 4 steps from the entry, has yellow laminate counters and laminate cabinets. I don't think either Trulia or Zillow have a search based on SF cost so this may be a distinction without a difference but a distinction none the less, so I'll take it as a marketing plus. I want our house to stand out on some merit :)

Lascatx - Here is your grill girl - right off the kitchen and next to the herb garden. We moved the big birdbath to the new house but I have a small bright blue ceramic one I could bring back to add some punch here. Little peeing Louis the VI now pees into the stream at new house.

OP,

You have to stop thinking about your listing price as compared to the entire town. It makes no matter. What matters is your price position in comparison to other SOLD homes in YOUR neighborhood. How does that look?

My earlier comment about your home not being listed at a WOW price was not meant to convey that it is overpriced; only to let you know that buyers are telling you otherwise. Homes listed with a WOW price do not linger on the market for long at all. No matter if the kitchen has oak cabinets and white appliances.

In general, If you are getting no showings and no offers, you are way overpriced; if you are getting a few showings and no offers, you are still overpriced; If you are getting a lot of showings and no offers, you are getting close to having it priced correctly.

Do this... take a look at all of the homes currently Active that share the same criteria as yours, but do not include price as one of the criteria. Take an honest look at these Active properties, and ask your self if you honestly think the next buyer would choose your home over them. To make this exercise more meaningful, find out what the absorption rate is for your homes criteria. If 12 homes sold in the last 12 months, then one home per month is selling, on average. Now look at the Active comps. If you are competing with 12 Actives, then there is one year supply of homes on the market. And a buyer only comes into your "pool" about every month. If you miss out on that buyer, you have to wait until the next buyer walks into your "pool". You have to make certain that you will be the next home that the next buyer chooses. Or it can go on forever w/o a sale. Have your agent keep track of this Competition and as soon as one goes under contract, it is imperative that you find out why the buyers chose this home over yours. After a couple times doing this, you should see trends that should help you determine what it will take to make you the next home that the next buyer chooses.

I agree with ncrealestateguy to a point, but I think first you have to consider what is the size of the town too. I mean a town of 5000 the comps end up being sort of the town in a way as there may not be specific neighborhoods in the same sense. I happen to live in a town where that is the case. There are in town homes and outside town homes for comps. Often not enough is sold in a specific area in either to actually make it narrow enough to be in the actual vicinity.

belfastbound, may I ask what town you're in? You're not right in Boston, right? Could you post a link to your listing (even if it's off the market for the time being)?

If you were on the market all last summer, you aren't just waiting for the thaw to take effect. You may have been priced well with the reductions, but sometimes a house sits priced too high at the beginning and agents cross it off mentally -- may even tell interested lookers not to bother. They may not even remember what it was exactly -- just have a negative mental image and cross the address off. Taking it off the market for a while may help, but watch everything that comes on the market as well as those that sell carefully in the meantime.

You may be comparing you home to the wrong comps. Your home may be at a weird point in the market where it can be challenging to draw the right buyers. Look at the home, size, location, gardens, degree of updating, any deferred maintenance. Who is the most likely buyer for you home? Are they being drawn to your neighborhood? If so, why not to your home. If not, why not? What can the agent do better to target the right buyers?

As I've said, I don't know your market, but if the neighborhood is active young families, the gardens will have a much more limited audience. Your buyer may be a professional couple with no children who would want that yard for entertaining, a family that can afford to pay for yard care and wants a yard for children to play (and might be looking at listings above your price point in other areas), the chef who would love the veggies, fruit and herbs or that person who simply enjoys gardening as much as you do. Which of those are likely to be drawn to your town and neighborhood? How do you target them? An outside the box listing might require some outside the box approaches. Trade magazines? Club meetings? Flyers. Think of ways to catch their attention if their search parameters might be close but just missing your home. Just tossing out thoughts.

For me it's the cabinets and the location of stove and microwave. Who cares about appliances with all the other work plus money. I've moved 9 times. I've looked at over 2,000 homes through out the country. I am young with a young family. large lot is my most important thing on the list. But at 700,000(my budget) I cannot afford to redo your kitchen. So it would be a no for me. Second thing. What do bathrooms look like?

I'm with ourgeorgiahouse re. location of range and microwave right next to the window. Is there any way to address that? At the every least, I'd remove the MW and cabinet and add a freestanding exhaust. Google "range next to window".

How big a deal would it be to put a cooktop in the island or peninsula and add an oven somewhere else?

Also, is the DW in the peninsula? That's a weird location, too. It should be where the range is.

Here is the Zillow ad

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/11-Agawam-Dr-Scituate-MA-02066/57225787_zpid/

Here is my website, with yes, too many photos of the outside but this is GW despite our new HOUZZ :)

https://sites.google.com/site/11agawamdrive/home

so if that is annoying you can go here for a quick photo collage.

https://plus.google.com/photos/101680809997022538539/albums/5968564752094855265?banner=pwa

Do NOT put the cooktop in the island, or peninsula. That would be a non-negotiable (must remodel kitchen ASAP) for me...

DW appears to be to the left of the sink--cabinet fronted (not white).

I think the fridge reads dated. If it were paneled... But, really, that is a silly reason not to buy a house.

The white appliances and oak cabinets are very "80's" looking(is that a trash compactor on the peninsula?). The stove next to the sink is an odd location, it should be next to the fridge. I also don't like built-in microwaves but there's nothing you can do about that. I would buy SS appliances and get black granite(or Corian) counter-tops, the oak would go with that.

Overall it's not bad, I'll bet buyers are passing it up because the asking price is too high.

Links to comparable sales

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/167-Tack-Factory-Pond-Dr-Scituate-MA-02066/57225821_zpid/

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/232-Beaver-Dam-Rd-Scituate-MA-02066/57552451_zpid/

Your home based on these photos, it is very clean. This would make me happy. However, it looks very sterile and non-inviting. The wallpaper in the dining room should be removed. This is a chore people hate doing. I think you should hire a staged. I also think the banister needs to be gel stained. Spring is coming. Hire a stager, price the home with comparables in your neighborhood. The outside is gorgeous. Great curb appeal. The inside is a huge letdown.

The interior is a let down. I suspect you freshened and neutralized the home to get ready for selling -- but it's too blah. And the wallpaper and the border have to go. I'm assuming you took down window treatments, art and other pictures and painted an off-white. As much as I love the exterior of your home, if I were buying in your area, I would only consider making an offer if it was priced below market. You are probably losing far more folks who look at the photos and don't even look at the house than you are getting showings. Photos won't sell a house, but they will sure kill interest.

I know it's fresh paint, but I'd paint again, remove the wallpaper and border, get help from a professional stager (there are a handful of realtors who are great stagers and will offer assistance -- other should know who to recommend).

Which house are you living in? Is this furniture headed to the other house? If re-painting isn't an option, I'd show the house essentially unfurnished -- leaving a few key pieces to show perspective and room sizes with some accessories to fill in warmth and direct the eye. You might need to make some small purchases or bring back a few things from the other house. And get better photos of the interior taken for the new listing.

Look at other real estate listing photos. The ones that look like magazine ads will be the ones that sell fast and at top dollar. The ones that look ordinary but homey will follow and anything that looks tired, awkward or uncomfortable will lag behind and generally sell below average and take longer than average. I hate to say it, but that's where you appear to have been sitting. The house deserves better -- and I don't think it will be that hard to get it there. But you do have some work to do.

This type of question is so contingent on what your local market is... I think your best info would come from your local professional(s) - is there a way you can get second, third, fourth opinions from other people? Are you locked in to this one person?. Around here (so. Wisconsin) that kitchen is new enough to be considered a desireable asset by the typical middle class buyer.

I would not do glaze, paint, or staining unless you really know what your e doing - the gel stains do require a certain touch and aren't totally idiotproof, imho. Instead I would choose some beautiful rich but tastefully neutral colors for walls AND ceiling... whether that's grays or latte or spice colors, I dunno - maybe ask at the home dec forum. That would I think achieve the same thing of breaking up that blah blonde look (ie as some might see it) as well as give it a little bit of an updated feel. As someone once told me - the goal is not to AVOID color, but to find the RIGHT ONES.... in this case ., what would flatter /harmonize with/ not draw too much attention to the oak/wood of the floor?

About the gardens.... sigh. I would love it! A gardener knows that certain easy care plantings can be not any more difficult than a lawn - maybe even less work. With some things you just cant anticipate every buyers sense of what they value. I myself detest humongous 3 car garages and would not want to pay for one. The difference between features that cant be changed (overly large garages) and ones that can (gardens) is that the latter is easily removed at no great expense or effort... by the buyer.

One thing I noticed while looking at your online pictures, is that in a lot of the rooms, there is almost half of the picture taken up by the ceiling. I hope I'm being clear in my description. It makes the ceilings look low. I would retake the photos using examples of the many pro pictures out there. We are getting ready to put our house on the market and our realtor is hiring a professional to take the pictures and a video. She showed us examples in her brochures and the rooms showed extremely well in the pictures. So hiring a pro might be an option as well.

I also think less is more in the online photos. One good view of a room, possibly two. But when I see many photos that are almost the same but just a foot or two difference in the angle, I just start to glaze over. To me it's harder to see the continuity and flow of the house when there are too many pictures that are nearly identical. I know it's hard to cull the pictures. I think every picture taken of my grandson is perfect but in reality, if he weren't my grandson, I could toss out 90% of them and truly come up with the pictures that show the best side of him. I would get help from your realtor or a friend who can be honest with you.

So many people look at houses online these days that you might be losing them before they even get to your house. Which I'm sure shows better in person.

I do agree with the other posters about the wall paper coming down. When I saw that, my first impression was 'oh no, not wallpaper". Our last house I took down so much wall paper that I never want to see it again.

Good luck to you!

Agreed. My first thought after looking at the pics was that the home has 8 foot ceilings! It really does catch your eye.

In regards to the two comps posted above... those comps are from the same town, but are they from the same neighborhood? It could make a big difference. I know I keep harping about the neighborhood comps, but the OP has not addressed this. The neighborhood comps will fill the big picture in quite a bit.

Thanks again to all posters. Tonight I will start at the top and make a to-do list. The house is blah. After painting we were reluctant to put the art back up. We may have over de-cluttered. I will re-hang an oil of a clipper ship over the living room couch - that wall is so big and surely a clipper ship for a colonial in New England is not objectionable.

We are going to buy stainless stove and fridge this weekend. The microwave is tiled in place. The next folks will just have to deal with it since so many folks here think that is weird. The home repair forum said I should swap out the realtor before the microwave :) The house is a mirror of the builder's house across the street and indeed - their stove is in the island which I wanted to use for baking and seating. We do a lot of stir fry and I can not imagine having guests sitting across from that steam and oil.

Here is the scoop on the neighborhood ncrealguy: The 1960s houses in the outer cul de sac are smaller at about 2400-2800 square feet. It is annoyingly de riguer in town now to add basement square feet into above ground as during the housing crisis many families redid their basements instead of moving. So many homes here, as is the norm, would list at 3200 sf. There was a home in 2010 that was a 3000 sf listed as 3600 sf with 600 sf being the finished section of the basement, colonial that needed wallpaper removed from each and every room, new appliances, had original 1960 cabinets, floors, immaculate, sold for 610. House behind me, updated and immaculate sold to desperate sellers in December 2011 at 525. 2014 had 1 house 2,566 sf sell for 525. Here is the listing

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/40-Old-Forge-Rd-Scituate-MA-02066/57224854_zpid/

Our town is in transition as the train to Boston was just put in 5 years ago. Houses are being torn down on roads with a 40 mph speed limit and replaced with houses of my sf and half the lot and sell in the 800s. They sit next to a 1930s 1,400 sf ranch and still command that price. So I am really confused, as you point out, about how neighborhood impacts price and it is why I came out of the gate last June with an inflated price. Thank you for your continued counsel on this house.

Please do not buy appliances without buying the microwave. Better yet. Use the money to hire a stager.

I agree... you will be going from outdated appliances to mismatched appliances. Buyers dislike both.

Can you remember how long the house that sold in 2014 stayed on the market?

Don't change to mismatched appliances. This will only highlight the microwave more and the fact that it is tiled in will be noticed - more work for the buyer. Plus the placement of the stove means to me that I'd have to rip everything out and re-work the kitchen anyways. somebody can't be doing stuff at the sink at the same time as I'm cooking without either risk getting splattered by the other. It is essentially a one person kitchen with the current setup and not workable for our household at all. I don't think it is worth spending any money on it as it currently is unless the layout is changed.

I love your incredible gardens. The exterior of the house is absolutely charming. I doubt a dated kitchen is what is holding up your sale. I agree with the need for some staging. I absolute would not do an espresso kitchen in your house, as I do not think it fits the feel of the house. Gel staining can be a wonderful option for some homes but I think it is not a good fit for yours. A new white fridge may give you an updated feel but beyond that, I would leave the appliances be since you cannot remove the microwave. I think that lowering your price again is the most viable option for impact.

Agree not to go espresso gel stain. However, a slightly darker stain --- General Finishes Brown Mahogany or Antique Walnut -- may be what will give it some oomph. You can image google these terms and see what they look like on oak.

For gel stain Brown Mahogany or gel stain antique walnut (scroll down)

Where does the mirror image builder house have the oven?

If the range stays where it is, I'd consider removing the MW and upper cabinet and add a n exhaust hood, like this.range next to window

ncrealguy: 37 days from list (2/17/2014) @ 539K, to 519K to offer 510K. The seller was motivated having an accepted 825K offer on a million dollar home that had not sold in 2 years. It has been very hard to price our homes as we come out of the crisis and the town becomes more desirable because of the train. Realtor thought my price was on target at 709K and that is what she used to list in September.

Another plea not to mismatch your appliances. A white micro over a stainless range will make each look worse. I would seriously stagefirst using what you have or can borrow and then revisit. If I were to buy your home, I would want to rework the kitchen at some point, so the appliances would be wasted on me -- but I could live with what was there until I did. I've lived with worse. More than once.

If basements are now included in listings differently, you need to adjust. If yours is not finished, at least include it as an additional xxx sq ft basement waiting for their finishing touches (unless it has 6 foot ceilings and no light, etc.). Show the potential.

I am not convinced that the price is the problem for the house itself -- just the current case of blahs on the interior. Seriously, get some help from a stager. That and you wallpaper removal would be the first things I would do.

ncrealguy et al : More info. This is the 2011 built home my neighbor bought 2013 in a new sub division in our town that was 3,320 sf and they paid 837,500. And yes, I will stop obsessing over that the 20 feet of counter space looks a lot like my kitchen if only it were white :)

http://www.commonmoves.com/property/6-Evangeline-Dr-Scituate-02066/MLSPINsold/71392296

So OP was white or expresso. If I do a cream, at least they could go darker if they wanted - and darker may make more sense. The 12K resurface firm said very few people are going dark here, so I have to think - do nothing and lower the price, as many have said.

New appliances - wow I never thought a $200 microwave would be dictating what to do with the entire kitchen but the consensus seems to be leave bad enough alone and someone else will fix - and give them the money to do it.

Again thanks to all. You guys are the best and I am chomping at the bit to reveal my new kitchen at the new house. Yet another white kitchen but with some fresh ideas I hope you can use in your own next kitchen. See you in the kitchens forum in a month or two.

Or another way to look at it is that it IS overpriced in it's current condition... no?

If your comp took 37 days to get an offer then it was not severely under priced. Maybe somewhat, but probably not by much.

It looks as though your agent took this comp's price per sq. ft ($199) and just multiplied this number by your square footage to come up with your list price. But, larger homes almost always carry a smaller dollar per sq. ft. price than does a smaller comp. It's like going to Costco and buying a case full of nuts for $30 which contained 10 jarfuls, and then going to WalMart and buying the same comparable nuts by the single jarful for $5. The larger commodity goes for only $3.00 a jar. The same holds true for the largest homes in a neighborhood.

I can not say that the correct price for your home is or is not your current list price, as RE is very, very local. But, I hope this gives you something to think about.

I am not sure what most buyers would want, but here's what I would want... White painted cabinets and stainless appliances. We recently painted our kitchen cabinets, and my husband vowed to NEVER do it again (DIY). So... he would take one look at all that oak and say no way. It would cost at least $3000 to get them professionally painted in our area, so the $2000 appliance allowance wouldn't be much of an incentive for us. Even if you didn't get top-of-the-line stainless appliances, it would be nice for the buyers to know they are new and will look nice until they decide to do a more substantial upgrade (or until they need replacing years down the road if they're happy with them). Just my 2 cents. :)

ETA: Just looked back and saw your Zillow listing. I think your house has a lot of nice spaces. That front room (with the piano) is really lacking, though. It needs color. I would consider hiring a stager to come just for that room. It looks like it's one of the first things you see when you walk in the house, so putting some effort into that space might be worth it.

The 2011 house you are comparing to is just that. A 2011 house that looks new and fresh . Your gardens are beautiful but I believe the rest of the house needs major refreshing and I think the kitchen is one of the nicer rooms in your home.

I would not concentrate on the kitchen.

I think NCrealestateguy and I are coming to the same point from different angles. As is, you may be overpriced but certainly don't seem underpriced. To compare to a 3-4 yr old home, you would have to have updated kitchen and baths, newer appliances, newer roof, newer HAVC, etc. Some buyers will care more about the newer systems, some about the cosmetic updates and some both, but all buyers are going to see your house as different. Without doing something to give your house some wow on the interior, your house is probably overpriced. That is the easy fix -- cut the price, and it can be steep when talking about every room in the house needing more appeal.

On the other hand, if you can give your interior some interest and character to parallel the exterior, you might be able to pay for some help in staging and do some minor things to give the house warmth and character -- even make the kitchen more inviting. Then, instead of every room needing work, you may get to the point where you can appeal to the large portion of buyers who want a clean kitchen but aren't kitchen obsessed -- they will love the house and grounds and be content with the kitchen or see it as one project they don't have to do right now and can tackle when ready. That's much less of a discount. All of us pointing at staging are trying to help you get there before revisiting both price and kitchen updates. If you get started on kitchen updates, you can sometimes rearrange or do minor updates that make a huge impact -- but you can easily get into a series of decisions that mean an entire remodel or making wasted efforts.

There is someone who does color consulting -- I have seen her referenced on the Home Decorating and Kitchen forums -- who might be who you really need. Does anyone know who I am thinking of?

When I look at the kitchen/family room again, once again I don't immediately see the functionality (or lack of), odd appliance placements etc -- and I would bet that many buyers don't either. What I do see is the color of the tile, counter, cabs, floor, and fireplace that don't work together -- in a major way -- for me. It gives me an overall negative feeling in a space that really should be positive, without having thought about it.

Now my reaction to the color scheme may be unique and not really a problem for anyone else. But, the point I am working my way to is, I think that a color expert might be able to recommend wall & ceiling colors that make it all look good together. Maybe some touches like painting the window/door frames and the toe kicks in a different color too, to break up the overwhelming gold.

Funcolors--Lori. She posts regularly in Home Decor.

I just wanted to say thanks again to everyone who was so generous with their time and thoughtful in their comments. A fresh pair of eyes has opened up my own and I am really grateful to the community.

Best of luck with some staging and your renewed selling efforts. You have a lovely home. I would look if it was inn my area or I were moving that way.

Come back with an update once you get back on the market. Good luck.

I don't hate your cabinets in your house. So, I hate oak cabinets, a lot of people here do, I think. But oak in general is such a feature in your house that I suspect anyone who buys your house is going to appreciate oak. I think you have a staging problem. I would not rush out and replace my cabinets so much as just pay someone to stage it for you. Two thousand dollars to freshen the place up will probably go a lot farther than painting or staining the cabinets. Having said that I love white cabinets, and in your kitchen I think they would work well.

I think you need more color on the walls and updated light fixtures. I see a lot of brass....although I hear it is coming back. People like a move in ready house, or a great price in a great location.

I am the target market for your house: mid 30s with 2 kids who can afford it. Other than the kitchen which is a complicated puzzle, there's a few other things I would recommend to update your home.

Dining room: remove the wallpaper and replace the blue curtains with floor to ceiling sheers. Currently the room looks busy and the beautiful view is obscured by the curtains. The items on the mantle look too small and the picture looks too small above the fireplace. Make the fireplace look grander with a much larger work of art above it and nothing on the mantle.

Living room: get crisp and tailored cream colored cotton slip covers for the couches along with new decorative pillows. The ones on the couches look beat up. Remove the single clock on the mantle and the TV trays. If you have any wood side boards or other wood furniture you can put the TV on use that to place the TV on instead of the metal stand and pare down the components and speakers. The stand doesn't go with the decor. Remove the clocks and candle sconces as well since they aren't on trend.

Formal Sitting Room: It feels like a room with too much furniture and no purpose. Many buyers from my generation aren't interested in a formal sitting room next to the entry. I would either make the piano the focal point instead of sticking it in a corner or restage it as a formal gentleman's office if you have the right furniture. A lot of homes being built of that size these days have a formal office in that spot instead of a sitting room.

You want your target market to envision themselves living in your home. You have beautiful furniture and things but they are things that appeal to a different generation than the ones that are the target market for your home. Members of your generation are usually either downsizing or moving. Check out the websites for Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel to get a feel for the aesthetic of your target market and you'll see the difference. Unfortunately a lot of people looking at homes don't have vision or creativity so you have to help them along.

Looking at your Zillow listing, it looks like you have a lot of this tone of oak all over your house. I think it's a nice looking house and you should just kind of "go with its style" on the oak as best you can. Because you have so much of the oak in other areas of the house, I wouldn't stain the kitchen- then it would be mismatched to the rest of the house. I personally would paint the cabinets white - we've done this three properties we've sold and it's made a big difference. One we listed unpainted and after it sat on the market for a while we took it off and painted the cabinets (and took down wallpaper) in the kitchen, relisted it, and it sold in two weeks. Maybe that was coincidence, or maybe painting the cabinets helped. I agree with posts above that staging would make the biggest difference. I don't know you, nor do I want to offend you, buyt a good stager can bring in updated wall hangings, rugs, furniture, pillows, towels.etc that will make the house feel more updated without actually needing to redo all of the surfaces. The house can look more updated and "on trend" to what current younger families are looking for. The suggestion above to look at pottery barn, west elm, crate and barrel, and other websites and catalogs is a good suggestion.

If the budget allows, my "to-do" list after staging would be: 1) Paint kitchen cabinets white. 2). remove wallpaper in dining room. 3) stainless appliances including microwave (patch tile if necessary).

Good luck!

I don't like SS (I had it in a previous house)---would much prefer an appliance allowance. HTH!

If you really want your house to be considered fresh when you re-list it you have got to get rid of all the old content on the web. Too much content, too many pictures and too many descriptions sends up warning flags. It can signify desperation, too emotionally invested or a high price mark up for personal touches that are only meaningful to the homeowner.

What?

Whatever happened with this house anyway? It ever sell?

She said earlier that they were taking it of the market, staging and would re-list in April.

ncrealestateguy, was your "what?" directed towards me? I was pointing out that there is all kinds of content on the web associated with the address. Pictures, picture accounts, descriptions, personal web pages, etc. Some of it look unprofessional, other things point out that it languished on the market for a while. To me, it sends up warning signs. YMMV.

I'd paint the cabinets white and the walls a soft green or beige. That would really make the kitchen nice...and work with the counters, floors AND the white appliances :)