The Most Popular Home Features in Different Regions

Wendy Transon Broker, Re/MAX Winning Edge

Certified Residential Specialist (CRS), Accredited Staging Professional (ASP), Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES), Accredited Buyers Representative (ABR)

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Condition is critical in today's market. With such an extensive inventory of homes available to current buyers, if your home isn't in top condition, buyers will move on to the next property. Most of today's buyers don't have the time, energy or inclination to make significant repairs. In addition, if the home feels beat up, with needed repairs readily evident, a buyer will wonder what additional repairs may be needed that are beyond what they can see. It will reduce their level of confidence in the home.

• Spacious kitchens, with granite or quartz counters and natural wood cabinets. The kitchen remains the epicenter of the home, and buyers, regardless of price range, want large workspaces, ample storage and light-filled rooms. Most buyers also prefer a kitchen that is open to the breakfast area and family room, for effortless flow and ease in entertaining.
  
• A room that can be used as an office. The home office has, to a large extent, replaced the living room as a "must have" space in the home. Most popular is a first-floor room with French doors that can be used as an office, sitting room, music room or other. Other buyers are content to have an upstairs room, whether extra bedroom or otherwise, to use as an office. What's key is having such a space in the house.
  
• A "mud" or laundry room. Buyers in our market love space to organize the clutter, store the backpacks, drop the shoes and ditch the coats. A separate mud room or laundry room located off the garage is very popular with buyers for this reason.
  
• A place to take in the outdoors. Whether a deck, patio or screened porch, having a dedicated space to relax and entertain outside is increasingly in demand. Screened porches are particularly popular in our area; with our temperate climate, they can be enjoyed year round and in addition, keep out those pesky mosquitoes. Among higher-end homes, we're also seeing greater use of dramatic outdoor hearths, stonework patios and grill stations.
  
• Bountiful natural light. Buyers are increasingly requesting open, bright spaces. An abundance of windows, great flow among rooms, and high ceilings are all popular with buyers in our area.
  
• Universal design features. With the aging of the population, and the recognition that universal design benefits homeowners of any age, features such as low threshold entries, levered doors, wide hallways and first floor master bedrooms are increasingly popular.
  

Wayne Kohl

ReMax Broker, CRS, GRI

Greeley, Colorado 80634

Kitchen and bathrooms are the two keys to selling homes. Kitchens should be open, light, bright, warm and inviting. The kitchen island, eating area, granite countertops, along with upgraded appliances are very popular. Another trend in kitchens is to change the cabinet finishes on the island to make them different but complimentary to the other cabinets.

Master bathrooms are the other item of high resale. The popularity of a separate shower from the tub is very popular. A make up area for morning preparation is also a hot item along with upgraded counters of granite or tile. Dual shower heads and jetted tubs are also very popular.Philip Kent Kiracofe
resident, Manhattan Association of REALTORS

New York City

Years in business: 6

Stainless steel refrigerator and dishwasher, exotic stone or granite counters, an island kitchen, lots of glass and stone in the bathroom, earth-tone soft colors, open floor plans combining living rooms with kitchen and dining area, workout space, and sleek modern fixtures are all very popular features.

Melissa Galt

Lifestyle Expert/Speaker/Author

Highlands, North Carolina

Years in business: 5

Women are the primary decisions makers and look for:

• Up-to-date bathrooms
  
• Up-to-date kitchens
  
• Ample storage
  
• An inviting color scheme (it doesn't have to be builder beige, but not grape or Caribbean blue either!)
  
• Clutter free, including closets
  
• Tailored window treatments as in blinds, shutters, woven woods (ditch the ruffles, flowers, and loud prints)
  
• No smell or an inviting smell (get rid of the pet scents, the mustiness, and others)
  
• Layers of light (this goes way beyond overheads which are best used for cleaning, but creating pools of light draws people, invites and welcomes)
  
• Well laid out furniture for family and friends
  
• A place to hide the TV
  

Men look for:

• Ample garage
  
• Basement build-out opportunities
  
• Man cave options
  
• A place to showcase the TV!
  

Why Go Green to Sell Your Home?

"Green" is in. Green is also rapidly becoming mainstream. However, learning about what is or is not eco-friendly can be time consuming, intimidating, frustrating, and misleading. But relax…this chapter will introduce you to what green means, why it's important and how to make eco-friendly changes to help sell your home. My hope is that when you see how easy it is to make green choices in the home you are selling, you will also want to make them in your new place.

Greening up your home will give you an advantage over much of your competition, which will sell your home faster.

All the agents I interviewed were enthusiastic about green features and believe the addition of them helps sell homes faster. Make sure your agent is just as enthusiastic, as that excitement will be conveyed to buyers which can encourage them to buy your home!

Benefits to Adding Green Features to your Home:

• Make it more energy efficient. That means utility bills are reduced and money is saved. Buyers want to save money!
  
• Improve air quality, which makes the environment healthier for inhabitants.
  
• Make your home worth more money.
  
• Make your home more desirable, because people want green features.
  
• Make your home more desirable because green is hip and current and buyers want whatever is new.
  

There are a number of factors that will help to determine what green features to make in the home you are selling. Almost anyone can make minor, eco-friendly home improvements that will make a home more desirable. Major changes—like adding a geothermal pump or solar panels—would make sense only under certain circumstances and will be explored in the next Step.

If you are putting your home on the market in the future and have some time before you sell it, adding insulation, new windows and other energy efficient changes can prove to be extremely beneficial. You will be able to show how much money you have saved by making these changes. If you have less time, however, you may still make energy efficient changes, as you can compare energy used in your home to comparable homes. I highly recommend you ask your agent what eco-friendly improvements they are seeing in comparable homes.

Why Going Green is Essential

If all the talk about words like eco-friendly, green, sustainability and so on has gotten you confused, you are not alone. For all the good information that's available, there is an equal amount of misinformation. The following section presents what I hope will be an easy to understand explanation of what green really means and why it is so important for the survival of the planet and its inhabitants.

I understand that you don't need to know why it is important for our health and the planet to sell your home, but it is my hope that, if you are new to this subject, you will see why it's important and you will want to make these changes for both your current and future homes.

General Cleaning Tips to Get Your Home Ready to Sell

Unless you are a cleaning fanatic, when you clean your home to sell it, you will need to do more than your standard cleaning. Walls, ceilings and floors should be immaculate. Check things like vents, fans, radiators, exhaust fans, fireplaces, glass-covered lights, chandeliers, and anything in hard to reach places. Clean all light switches. Make sure all light switches and light fixtures work and replace burned-out bulbs.

• Use microfiber cloths for cleaning kitchens and bathrooms, dusting, cleaning mirrors, and polishing. Microfiber cloths actually pull dirt to itself, and they don't streak or leave behind lint. They can be washed hundreds of times. Just do not dry in dryer with anti-static cloths, as the anti-static molecules coat the cloths, cutting down on their effectiveness. Air-dry instead..
  
• Clean from the top to bottom. Because dust settles, start with dusting the ceiling, including fixtures or fans, then walls, then objects on furniture, then furniture and molding. Then vacuum and wash the floors.
  
• To reach the high spots, use a long-handled telescoping pole with attachable tools. I attach a lamb's wool duster to the telescoping pole to reach high spaces. Have two dusters available; one for inside and one for outside work like taking cobwebs off the house and for other really dirty areas.
  
  • Clean hanging lights and chandeliers. Dust and clean off bulbs.
    
  • Remove and clean ceiling mounted fixtures that accumulate dust and bugs.
    
  • Dust ceiling fans. Use a lubricating spray if squeaky. (See Resources section for non-toxic products.) If a fan is still noisy, tighten any loosened parts.
    
• Use a spray bottle of all-purpose cleaner. Spray floor, counter tops—whatever—makes cleaning fast.
  
• Replace your mop with a Microfiber floor mop. They glide over floors making washing easy. Remove cloth, wet it, put back on mop, and spray a bit of cleaner on it. When it gets dirty, rinse and repeat. These are great on all hard floors.
  
• If you have a mold problem or have black mold, consult an expert.
  
• Clean the creosote on glass fireplace windows with rubbing alcohol and a straight edge razor, see chart. When I moved into my home, the creosote was so thick on fireplace doors that I didn't think I could remove it. Rubbing alcohol really cut through the grime. Alcohol does leave a film, so follow up with a glass cleaner like vinegar and water.
  
• Clean curtains in washing machine or at dry cleaners.
  
• Blinds can be cleaned fairly easily in the bathtub with warm soapy water. Allow them to dry outside or on some old towels or a drop cloth.
  
• Dust everything on walls and all woodwork, including picture frames, banisters, molding, baseboards, around windows and sills and above doors.
  
• Clean all glass surfaces, including glass picture frames and mirrors with glass and mirror cleaner.
  
• Don't forget to sweep or vacuum an unfinished basement, attic and garage. Wipe down handrails and hot water heater, furnace and other stationary objects.
  
• Clean cobwebs inside and outside house, garage, and on any other buildings.
  
• Keep cars in your garage clean.
  

Kitchens and Bathrooms Must Sparkle!

These rooms must be spotless or it will turn buyers off. With clutter gone, it will be easier to maintain the kitchen and bathroom. If you follow the advice in the book, you will clean cabinets, pantries, refrigerator, closets and whatever else holds stuff when you remove clutter.

Kitchen

• If you didn't clean inside cabinets and pantry when removing clutter, do so now.
  
• Clean vents and hoods.
  
• Get in the habit of regularly cleaning counters and walls.
  
• Clean refrigerator. First, turn off the refrigerator. Fill a container with warm, soapy water and begin with shelves inside doors. Going shelf by shelf, remove and wipe down all contents, wipe shelf, then put food back. Throw away anything that is past due or that looks nasty. Remove drawers and wash. Remove everything that can be removed and clean. The interior of the refrigerator is easy to clean once the moveable parts are removed. Turn refrigerator back on. To prevent odors, keep all food covered, and add a container of baking soda to be on the safe side.
  
• Clean freezer. Turn off the freezer and remove contents. Allow freezer to warm up a bit then clean as you would refrigerator. Replace contents neatly. Put freezer back on. Note: If you have a freezer that does not self-defrost, it's time to buy a new one. Put a container of baking soda in freezer.
  
• Remove the grill from the front of refrigerator and pull out the pan that collects excess water and wash. Unplug refrigerator and vacuum coils. Pull refrigerator out and vacuum floor.
  
• Keep sink empty and spotless.
  
• Clean the kitchen from top to bottom.
  
• Clean lighting fixtures. Remove bulbs to clean them and wait until they are thoroughly dried before screwing them back in. Keep fixtures off when removing and replacing bulbs.
  
• Unless room was painted recently, a fresh coat of paint is recommended. Unless wallpaper is in pristine condition and is a neutral color or pattern, remove and paint.
  
• Clean curtains or get new ones. Better yet, remove to allow more sunlight into room.
  
• Keep floor spotless.
  
• Clean oven and stovetop. If the stove has stains, or baked on food that cannot be removed, or is damaged, consider replacing those dirty parts or buying a new stove.
  
• If a garbage can must be in sight, use one with a cover and change regularly to prevent odors.
  
• Empty recyclables regularly and keep neat.
  

Cabinets

Natural wood cabinets should be polished and any marks or spots removed. Handles, pulls and any other hardware should be cleaned or polished.

Cabinets with washable surfaces should be clean of all marks with an all-purpose cleaner.

Tile and Grout

If tile is in good shape, simply keep it clean. If not, consider replacing. Grout can be "cleaned" with paint meant for this purpose.

Once the kitchen has been thoroughly cleaned, maintenance is fairly easy. Get in the habit of keeping kitchen clean at all times and ready to show.

Bathroom

Like the kitchen, everything must be spotless.

If toilet, vanity or tub is a funky color, stained or damaged, replace with new.

Walls and Ceilings

While you might not notice how dingy the walls in your house look, buyers will see walls that need to be painted immediately. How to choose paint and repair walls and ceilings will be discussed later in Step 6 and paint colors in Step 9.

Cleaning Windows

Your windows need to be absolutely clean and in good condition. Seriously consider replacing windows with new ones if windows:

• are too old to get clean
  
• fog up with condensation
  
• have cracks
  
• open and close with difficulty or not at all
  

Either hire a professional window washer or clean windows yourself.

If you clean windows yourself, buy a professional squeegee. I used to buy squeegees from the big home improvement stores, and they drove me crazy, because they would leave streaks. I found affordable, professional-quality ones in The Clean Team Catalog and they work great! (See "Resources" under Cleaning Supplies. They also carry microfiber cloths and other good cleaning supplies.) Makes cleaning windows almost painless!

Wash windows with a microfiber cloth or rag or window scrubber using solution shown on page 92.Try an extension pole instead of a ladder to make work easier. Dry the top inch of the window with a rag and then run squeegee down window, starting at the top on the dry section. Wipe squeegee dry with a clean, dry cloth. Continue until window is finished, then wipe rag along three sides of window to mop up any remaining water.

Don't forget to clean around sills, frames and hardware. Squeaky or hard to open and close windows can be lubricated with eco-friendly BPL™, Bio-Penetrating Lubricant by Renewable Lubricants. WD-40™ works, too, but isn't eco-friendly. (See Resources, under Lubricant.)

If you are selling your home when screens are in windows, make sure they are in great condition, too. You can easily clean screens with a microfiber cloth and water. Just wipe them and the dust and dirt comes right off.

Cleaning Flooring

Flooring should be free from debris, clean, odorless, and in great shape. Replace or restore any flooring that is not in good condition. (More details on replacing flooring in Step 6.) After vacuuming, wash floor.

Bye Bye, Bad Energy!

Just as every home has some odor, every place has an energetic "feel." And, as you seek to minimize odors, you can also minimize negative energies and raise positive energies.

If you have been cleaning, removing clutter, and organizing, you have already greatly reduced negative energies. For that matter, simply opening the window and allowing fresh air into your home reduces negative energy. Using eco-friendly products also reduces negative energy.

Arranging your furniture to allow for a good flow of traffic increases the positive energy in your home. Adding houseplants and fresh flowers adds even more positive, vibrant energy—these are the things that make your home feel great. How to arrange furniture and more about plants and flowers are explored in the next chapter.

Negative Energy

This section goes one step further than simply adding objects to make your home positively vibrate with life-affirming energy; it shows you how to eliminate any leftover negative energies. You can choose to think of this section as "extra credit," as it is certainly not imperative to do the exercises in this step to sell your home. But, it might just sell it that much faster.

That said, if anyone in your home has been ill, or there has been a death, an angry divorce, or other devastation, I highly recommend that you clear your home, as these situations bring negative energy into the home and buyers can often feel or sense it.

An explanation of energy follows, then a guide to clearing your home.

Everything on and of the earth has energy—a continuum from the highest vibrational positive life-force energy to the lowest vibrational negative energy. The earth itself has positive and negative energies that affect its living inhabitants. Buildings and other structures have energy and absorb either negative or positive energy, or a combination of both. Plants are able to absorb negative energy (such as toxins) and convert them to clean, fresh energy in the form of oxygen (air). Animals, including humans, can pick up and create both positive and negative energy.

Some animals, including dogs and cows, seek out positive energy. Cats, conversely, prefer negative energy. If you have ever wondered why your cat is drawn to friends or family who dislike them, this is the reason. Given the opportunity, cows in a pasture will graze in the areas that emit positive energy.

I had my own validation of the difference in energy early on in my practice of dowsing. Several years ago, by dowsing, I cleared (removed negative energy) a client's newly purchased condo. The next day, she called me and told me that her dog, who had always slept in a particular spot on her bed in her old apartment, but had refused to sleep in that spot in the new condo—was now back to sleeping in "her spot" on the bed. When I had doused my client's bed, I had detected and cleared negative energies. It was a wonderful validation of dowsing. Obviously, the dog could not understand what I was doing, but recognized the difference in the energy afterward.

Like dogs, humans feel best when surrounded by positive, life-force energy. And, just like dogs and cows, we know when we are surrounded by positive or negative energy. For many of us, this knowing is hidden from our general state of awareness and may be consciously ignored. But our bodies are paying attention and understand shifts in energy.

When we enter a place that is filled with negative energy, our instinct is to leave the area as quickly as possible. But, when we are somewhere that emits positive energy, we want to stay and soak up the good energy.

It's common sense, really. What buyer would want to spend time in a dilapidated, dirty, dark, cluttered, and creepy feeling home? If you were a buyer, wouldn't you rather spend time looking at a light-filled, clean, organized, and beautiful space that feels great?

Interview with Chris Cipriano, Owner of Cipriano Landscape Design, in Ramsey, New Jersey

Following is an interview I had with Chris Cipriano of Cipriano Landscape Design. Chris does upscale landscape and pool design for his clients and is aware of what the hottest trends are today. Note that some of the suggestions—as in the first question—apply mainly to upscale, expensive homes. A custom fountain would look inappropriate on a small lot with a starter home.

1. What are the most popular features you install for your clients?
   

   Installing urns loaded with flowers and custom fountains are incredibly popular and a great way to increase your home's sales appeal. For those on the more creative side, installing an outdoor kitchen is a great way to differentiate your home and make it more unique to buyers. In terms of adding value, renovating an out of date swimming pool will provide favorable return on investment.
   

2. What are the most important features a homeowner can add to their property to add value?
   

   It is incredibly important to have a professionally tuned outdoor landscape. Creating a natural and comfortable outdoor setting by adding the right combination of shrubs, trees, flowers and natural stone is certain to add value and is an essential element to selling the home.
   

3. What are the biggest mistakes people do to detract value?
   

   The biggest mistake people make is ignoring the outdoors. Too often, homeowners who want to sell their homes focus all their time, energy and money on fixing up and staging the indoors of the house. A poor outdoor landscape will negatively influence potential buyers before they even enter the home, thus detracting from the home's value and appeal.
   

4. Describe the features that would give a home good "curb appeal."
   

   Curb appeal is essential. The view from the street is the first, last and most important impression on all potential buyers. If a home does not have curb appeal, potential buyers will drive right by without stopping to take a second look.
   

   If you want loads of curb appeal, great layering of plants, trees and flowers is essential. Use groups of the same plant types to create a natural look, and be sure to install an abundance of color. Color sells!
   

5. When on a budget, what elements on the property are the must-do's to sell a home?
   

   For those staging their outdoors on a budget, it is often just as important what they take away from their property as opposed to what they add. Make sure that all old equipment, tools and clutter are put away and that everything looks professional. Mow the lawn professionally and remove weeds and debris.
   

   Pressure wash porches, decks and the siding to create a clean look for the buyer. Spruce up the gardens by adding a variety of color and install a few hanging plants on the front porch. It is also affordable, and incredibly beneficial, to fix up the front walk or install a new pathway leading to the front door.
   

   Finally, install outdoor lighting that reveals your home's most favorable characteristics, even in the dark. Remember, most people go house shopping after work when it is dark out. If they can't see the home, they will pass it right by.
   

6. Describe a dream landscaped property.
   

   A dream landscaped property would have all the latest features: a custom pool and fountain, a nice porch or deck, an outdoor kitchen, an entertainment area and a great assortment of shrubs, stones, greens, trees and flowers. It will look well thought out and natural at the same time.
   

7. Do you see any changes with what people want over the past 5 years?
   

   
   

   Recently, homeowners have begun to look for more unique elements to add to their outdoors like kitchens, entertainment areas, cabanas, fountains and spas. With the down economy, more people are "staycationing" As a result, they try to create a vacation-like resort in their own backyards.
   

8. Are people spending the same, more or less (adjusted for inflation) than they were 5 years ago?
   

   
   

   In general, homeowners are looking for value and prioritizing spending on luxury landscaping as compared to five years ago.
   

   Due to the challenges in the real estate market, people are prioritizing curb appeal and spending more money on home staging services.
   

9. Is there anything else you would like to add?
   

When performed correctly, staging the outdoors will increase the value of your home and help it sell quicker on the open market.

Go to Chris's website: www.PlantNJ.com