This is wrong on so many levels.  First, Old World is now officially “old”.  It was the hot thing for a long time, longer than I thought possible.  But no more.

Secondly, any faux finishes are an individual taste.  Some potential buyers may love what you’ve done to the walls, but some will hate it.  And some will try to overlook it, but they’ll probably end up buying a different house that has a more neutral color palate.  You only have about 2 seconds for your house to make a favorable impression when a buyer walks through the front door.  Winning that first impression won’t get your house sold, but they’ll keep looking.  But if you lose that first impression, you’re finished.

We faced another shock when we saw the kitchen:

Now I’m one who likes color.  Our bedroom walls were this color for a lot of years & I really loved how it looked.  And I think this is kind of a cool look.  But most people will have the reaction my buyers had: “What were they thinking?”  This look may get attention and comments for being bold, but it won’t make buyers fall in love.

The staging in this house was unusual as well.  Everything was miniature.  In the photos it made the rooms look bigger.  But my buyers commented that they came to the house expecting more space.  And in light of their expectations, the house didn’t measure up.  It seemed small because they came expecting more.  Take a look at the size of the chair in comparison to the chair rail in the doorway.

If you’re listing your house for sale, the more people you can appeal to the better.  Even with the most perfect staging most people will just look and go on to the next one.  And anything you do that narrows the potential appeal to the average buyer makes your chances of selling your home drop like a rock.

Termite damge to window frame

Termites can eat the equivalent of a two foot 2 x 4 in a year.  But they don’t eat all that wood in one place.  They leave paper thin remnants to use as a highway to the rest of the house.

A potential buyer told me about a house she had her eye on.  It was a foreclosure, so I went by to have a look.  The first thing that hit me when I opened the door was the odor of cat urine.  The carpets looked clean–perhaps they had been shampooed.  But whatever number of cats who had lived here previously didn’t see fit to use a litter box.  The pee was somewhere in the carpet, the pad, and probably the sub-floor.  If it’s in the sub-floor, even new carpet won’t help.  You have to strip out the carpet and pad, put an odor-killing sealer on the sub-floor, and then install new carpet.

The odor was severe, but treatable.  The rest of the house was in dire need of updating.  But could be fixed as well.  But if I were thinking of making an offer, it would be significantly less than the asking price.

But when I went outside I saw where the termites had been.  They had eaten the

Termite damage on siding.

siding and around a window frame.  It was more than just cosmetic damage here.  I saw the wall bowed a bit right under the window.  I’d seen termite damage like this before.  Long ago I set out to repair what looked to be a small amount of termite damage and ended up replacing all of the floor and 2 exterior walls in a living room.

If I were ever to buy a house that has termite damage, I would give myself a large margin for error when estimating repairs.  The problem with termites is that the damage is hidden.  You really don’t know what you are getting into until–well, until you get into it.  You have to start demolition before you know how far the damage goes.

With the amount of other good deals on the market, I’d much rather just go down the road and find a house that’s not at risk of being a money pit.

The good: Builders are finally using some design sense when building high-end homes.  Ten years ago the trend was to build big for the sake of bigness.  Kitchen/hearth rooms were cavernous.  The result was a feeling of exposure and “lostness” for those who lived in such spaces.  We need to feel somewhat enclosed to feel secure.  These homes, even though they are expansive, feel very livable.

The bad: The homes priced over $1 million were “themed”.  One feature in particular stood out to me–two pine tree logs were in the family room and supported the upstairs floor.  The house was decorated with a “western” or even a “cowboy” theme, so they fit the decor.  But Brenda & I both agreed that we would get tired of the theme after six months or so.  Also, the colors were all a medium brown tone which caused the house to feel dark and cave-like.

The ugly: With houses priced this high I didn’t expect to find anything truly ugly.  But in one master bath a free-standing claw-foot tub stood front and center as you walked in the door.  Some people might like this feature, but we found it unattractive.

We went to 7 open houses within 2 miles of our house.  We found a few nice ones, although overpriced.  (Brenda wonders if we’ll be the same way and let our emotions get in the way and make us inflate the price.)  We found some good values.  And we found one that was a real gem.

The Good: We found a split entry that was totally charming.  It is an older home and so it is smaller than the others we toured.  But even though Brenda hates split entry homes she said she could see us living there.  The upper level has a large living room with a vaulted ceiling.  The master bedroom is also on the main level.  The deck is big and the lot is 1/2 acre.  The homeowner did a great job of decorating.  The house has a very inviting feel about it.

The Bad: A house down the street from us was supposed to be open.  It wasn’t.  The flyer box has been empty for at least 2 weeks as well.  Bad agent!  No doughnut for you!

The Ugly: I walked to the top of the stairs in a 2-story entry and I saw a small tray ceiling.  I thought this to be an odd feature in itself, but in the middle is a very ugly light fixture.  It’s brass with a white globe & looks like it belongs in a powder room in a rental house.  In fact, when we rehabbed our rental house, we took one these out and put in a nicer one.

We also encountered several houses with wallpaper that didn’t quite qualify for ugly, but will definitely be a turn-off for most buyers.

Note:  If you have something like this on your house, don’t worry about dressing up the front yard.  All the staging and merchandising tips in the world can’t overcome this.

Today is Tuesday, the day realtors host open houses for other realtors.  I picked out 2 that looked promising.  I entered the address of each into my phone and set out.  The first house was listed on the open house tour, but it was locked up tight.  I thought about calling the agent and say “Where are you?”, but decided to let it go.  I dont’ want to give myself any excess stress?

At the turn-off to the next house I saw a sign that said “realtor lunch”.  Hmm.  Looks promising.  This one was truly open for showing.  It’s listed for $189,000.  The flyer says it “would be a good “starter home”.

The good
The floor plan is an atrium split.  This is gives the feeling of a lot of open space.  The trade off is that it’s got lots of levels.  It’s been well kept and is decorated nicely.  It shows well.  There’s a finshed lower level that looks to be used as a play area.  The bedrooms are on the upper level.  They’re average size.

The Bad
The agent made a point to tell me that it “has neutral colors”.  This is true.  The paint is in good shape and looks fresh.  There were places, however, that should have been repaired before the paint went on.  The bad thing about the paint is that these neutral colors look dead.  Because of my life with Brenda I know that choosing the right paint color is important.  In this case I can really tell the lack of emotional impact because the colors–although pleasing–are lifeless.  They were too gray.  They weren’t awful.  But I’m listing this as a “bad” because they are a long way from “good”.

The Ugly
The floors in the living, kitchen and dining area are all laminate flooring.  It’s starting to wear, but the thing I don’t like is that it sounds hollow when you walk.  All laminate sounds like this so I’m not surprised.  But the real ugly comes from a straight seam in the floor right in front of the back door.  Maybe there had been carpet or tile and they just put in more laminate–too lazy to do it right.  Maybe the crew had a new guy on the job.  Maybe I’m too picky about some of these things.  Many may not be concerned about this ugly part of the floor, but in my not so humble opinion,  it’s still ugly.