Butch & Jon discuss ways of preparing your home to sell that will increase your home's value and will get you the most for your money.
Butch & Jon discuss ways of preparing your home to sell that will increase your home's value and will get you the most for your money.
Hello world, my name is Butch Whitfield. We're calling you from Atlanta, Georgia. I'm with my colleague here, Jon Howard. In fact, my friend of 20 years and we thought we'd start podcasts. Tell you a little bit about what's going on in Atlanta in terms of real estate life and I guess everything. But hey, let's tell you a little bit about ourselves. Jon, tell us about yourself. Three years into this business, I previously had worked in the music business for most of my career, about 30 years there. I worked mainly with record labels and with artist management, so demanding high profile individuals. Basically, Jon is really patient. I mean, I so Jon and I've been friends for 20 years and so my background is in landscape architecture, horticulture, moved here to be a landscape architect and then jumped into the same field of dreams, I guess, as my parents. We have a firm in North Carolina and I also got into real estate and this was with Harry Norman a little around 20 years ago. So Jon moved to town and I was like, hey, let's make some money together, Jon's incredibly patient. He's a really good buyer's agent. I am patient, I don't want to say it's forced, but it comes in that more naturally.
Okay, so today's conversation, we wanted to open this up to what's going on in the market and is the Atlanta housing market cooling down? Jon, take it away. I think a little bit, you know, I don't think it's nearly the pace of other cities and just because of the many people that are continuing to move into the state, it's still a pretty healthy market. No, it wasn't like it was last year, which was a little bit more crazy. I heard it said this past week, it was buyers just feel like it's 2008 and sellers think it's 2021. That's right. I mean, it's adjusted. We can't price our homes and strategize if it's 2021 if you're a seller. And we've had crazy, you know, appreciation of home values over the past three years and we're going to hold strong here in Atlanta, think for a little bit longer. And if you're a buyer, it's still a fantastic time to buy. What do you think about these interest rates? Oh, they're up there. What about 6% right now. So it's crazy because we were dealing with two and a half to three, some crazy numbers then, which I don't know if we'll ever see those numbers again. Another quote we heard this week was, was it marry your house and date your interest rate, which means I think the new strategy now, which is I'm also getting used to it, is to buy that rate down. So yeah, whether you refinance or negotiate to throw some money into it to get that rate back down, maybe it won't seem so bad. And arms are back. Yeah, arms are back. Yeah. Which is not so bad if you're going to live in your, so it's adjustable rate mortgage, meaning if you, if you don't plan to live in your home for 15 or 30 years, it's for a much shorter life span of the loan. I think that is also a good point. Sure. Five to 10 years and hopefully, you know, if it drops back down below six, five?. We will. And what was it? I think before COVID average home ownership was four years. And I think it moved up to about five to seven during COVID, if I'm remembering that statistic correctly. But let's talk about some other statistics. Let's talk about what's going on in this market. Some inventory updates for you. You know, the active inventory in 2019 was about 850 active listings on the market. This is in Metro or I'm sorry, this is in Atlanta, Metro Atlanta. And then during 2022, it has dropped to 483 as of September. New homes of 2019 are about 403 right now, 265. I mean, it's ticking up. Sure. So things are calming down, but it's still, it's still challenging market. Okay, supply three months of demand, three months of supply back in 2019 and now we're at 2.1, meaning if nothing else were to come on the market, we'd only have two months worth of inventory on the market before there would be nothing. So it's, it's pretty strong out there and a balanced market is six months of inventory. So you can see, we're still far cry from a quick balanced or normal market. Yeah. 30% of our market is investor owned. That number surprised me. Yeah, but it's been that way for the last year. It was that way, you know, and that way the year prior. And what they're saying now is not really Wall Street investors. It's just regular, regular investors. Yeah, mom and pop, which that are buying. I mean, I don't know how I feel if it's, if it makes me feel any better that they're not international buyers or Wall Street, or if it's just normal people like you and me that are investor-owned. By the way, Jon and I both manage investment properties. Maybe we can get to some funny stories during managing real estate properties during COVID later. That was trial and error. So let's see here. An interesting statistic I heard too recently this week was that the average sales price for Lenox, Lenox and Morningside Park was $995,000 making it the most expensive neighborhood in Atlanta. That's big. That's a big number. I always attribute, I always think of like Tuxedo Park, or you know, any one of the 35 neighborhoods in Buckhead. That's pretty cool. I mean, it's cool too, because our office is right there in Morningside. So, you know, it's the hotspot. It is!
So, multiple offers are still a thing. You know, the market has, the ceiling has not fallen out here. So, I think some things to take away from this segment is it's not the fevered market that we had a year ago, but it's still a really strong market out there. And it's the right house, the right neighborhood, you're still seeing multiple offers. Last week, I was, we were competing against eight for a house. Really? Yeah. What neighborhood was that? That was in Buckhead. Wow. Yeah. What price point? It was 675. Okay. And two level in Buckhead. That’s tear down price in Buckhead. It was underpriced. The house was totally under price. And that's the reason I believe they had eight offers and everything, everyone offered above list. So how do you think the strategies changed for a seller in this market versus a seller in a year ago? I still think cash is king, of course. Right. And still short, you know, due diligence, clean offers. It's still, you know, still happening. So as a seller, it's recommended that we still list at a fair price where that maybe a year ago was list just under where we think it would sell with the anticipation it would sell above. And now it's adjusted. Maybe now we're listing it what that we expected to sell at. So it'll just sell faster. No. Okay. And our average days on market, by the way, now is 24 up from 41 prior to COVID. Interesting number. Right. So the sky's not fallen from this market. In fact, we're still doing incredibly well. A couple quick numbers for you. Average days on market here in Atlanta for 2022 is 24. And this was down from 41 days from 2019. Still good number. Still okay. Okay. Let's talk about median house price. We have our days on market are starting to increase a little bit. We're now back up to, I believe 55, I mean, 52 days metro wide, 26 days in the city. And our median house price is up substantially. Yeah. Almost 500 grand. 500 right. We're just below that. So that's nearly a, I believe it was hovering just about 425,000 prior to COVID. Yeah. And it's near like 480, I believe. Yeah. 480 500. It's so and it's still doing well. I believe also too. It's just reported that our year over year appreciation is 14.5%. That was down a little bit from 17% earlier this spring. So we still it's slowing. But what's a seller to do?
Okay. Let's walk into our next segment of this. How to prepare your home to make more money and sell faster on the market. This is going to be fun. Just because these notes are from my parent’s business from back in the early 90s. And we're sort of going to make fun of them a little bit. But I think they're good. I mean, they're good notes regardless. So we're going to have a solid notes. Okay. Jon lead us here. What are we going to talk about repairs? Like you're getting your home ready to sell. What if you got some problems in the house? What should you do? I mean repair it. Let's talk about these repairs. It's going to be cheaper for you to do it now. Yeah. This is the first one. Yeah. Real thawing. If something needs repair, fix it. Yep. And then of course, you want to look at all the interior walls. Right. Scuffed up. Had the kids, you know, colored on them, I love the magic eraser. I think that solves lots of problems. In fact, I've even used white toothpaste as putty to fit to repair the holes once you pull down. If you're re taking down your personal items, of course, and putting up some art to cover up some wallpapers, wallpaper, toothpaste is a really good tip. Tip number one. Right. So, and so the, I mean, simple repairs, get them done. Make them ready. And if you have large repairs, what's the roof needs fixing? Again, we suggest you fix this now. One is if you're on the market and you're trying to negotiate this repair, odds are you're not going to have the time to find the best vendor, the one that you trust. And it's really going to be the guy that you can just make it there, the guy or guy that can make it there to give you a number fast for you to negotiate. So, make these repairs now. One of the rules is treat the buyer as you would treat yourself. You know, just set the expectations high. Just like if you walk into the house, you don't want to see, you know, what the hole in the wall or, you know, the thing, the carpets got, you know, holes in them are dirty. Take the time, spend the money. Get it ready. People still want ready, you know, homes. Move in ready. You know, my, my, I think that people really want to move directly into their home now, as opposed to maybe prior to COVID. Actually, I think it was probably maybe a decade before COVID when people were buying homes in a more, I don't know, rough and tumbled fashion. People are in, this is the largest exchange of wealth happening. It's been happening for the past 10 years. And I feel like this generation of buyers, they expect it to be finished because they've got the money to buy it, how they want it. And also to, at the end of the day, to be a competitive seller, to attract the most people that you can, you want to make it attractive to the most, to the broadest market, which is fix it. Make it, make it appealing to the most people, to the most people possible.
Okay. Next, next up is let's talk about cleaning the house, getting it ready. I mean, throughout the drawers, I went to look at the show of house two weeks ago and you opened up the drawers in there. It's filthy, you know, and they're like, what? All their drawers were junk drawers. They'd moved up and left everything filthy. I have one junk drawer in my house. Well, I mean, cleaning my house is embarrassing. I hope nobody ever looks at it. I guess if you talk to my husband, he might give you a different number. Okay. So cleaning the house, cleaning the windows, inside and out, making sure they sparkle. I put it, I put it in this perspective, I was making a joke about the other night. It's almost like getting ready for a cocktail party that you're not invited to. You're sort of the cater waiter to this cocktail party. So get your house ready. Everything lit. Ready to go. Smelling right. And then you've got to leave for your showing. Right. Bring in professional carpet cleaners. Have the carpet's cleaned. You know, it's amazing how cheap carpet cleaning is. Not that bad! Now, rugs are a different story. Sharian Rugs in Decatur. I think they're one of the best. Drop it off there on East Ponce. They're just on the edge of downtown. Right. So again, pre-planning, we can walk through your home and give you these pointers too, just FYI. Because it'll take about a month to get these carpets. So you want to let you polish things, makes the wood looks good. Change light bulbs. If the light bulbs are out, replace them. And can we talk about the color themes of lights? Like when you walk into house and you feel like you're in a fluorescent showroom versus a warmer light. The LEDs are, I think, catching up with our needs and making sure that all of the lights in the house are within the same color tone. And you would want to make it a lighter one. Yeah. A warmer one. A warmer one. Yeah. You know what? It's like a school library. Right. Florescent. My friends say that we're blonde like “blue” like the underbelly of a catfish. So anything that gives me some skin tone, some color. I appreciate that. All right. How about inside like neutralizing the house? Like, you know, painting the walls more of a neutral color. Still important, right? Right. So yes, just a quick rule of thumb here too. When you're thinking of painting your room, well, first of all, just do it. If there's ever a question and the magic eraser, doesn't fix it. On average, it costs about $400 per room. This is not including your trim and your ceiling because typically walls will cover this. Now, this is not your expansive rooms or, you know, something, but your average sized room, I guess that would probably fall within about 12 to 15, you know, 12 by 15. So just quick rule. Right.Okay. Paint your rooms. Personal taste. Hey, throw it out. Forget about it. You know, go with what's, you know, the, you think the buyer's going to appeal to those buyers. The broadest market will help you bring the broader or the broader taste will help you feel to the broader market. Right.
Space management. Space management. Okay. Let's talk about this. Declutter. Now, my, I love pods. How do you feel about pods? I like pods. The shipping pods. They're the best way. Absolutely. They pull them up. You can fill them up with however you want to. We've got movers and stages to help you maybe even organize that. Yeah. But fill those suckers up and get them out of here. What rule of thumb do you, what percentage do you say to think for telling people of how much to move out? Probably 30 percent. Yeah. That's not very used to. Not too bad. Yeah. Remember 30 percent. Okay.
Unless you’re a horder. Right.
So let's talk about collectibles. What, when you grew up, let's put your mom on the spot. What was your mom's most favorite collectible? Oh, man. What's your favorite collectible? I don't know. Now or then? I don't know. It was, you're an old lady. Come on. Yeah. But my mom did lots of arts and crafts stuff. So she's a crafty mom. She did. She did. We were like doing work stuff and then she painted and it being, you know, something ugly. But it was. Oh, mom. I know he doesn't mean that. My mom, my mom's collectibles really came out at Christmas because she collected all of her friends crafty stuff, which I liked it. But you know, 30 years later, the crafty stuff continues to come out and they're starting to fall apart. So I've got to be, I've got to be the one to tell her that maybe they shouldn't come out this year. So she brings it out at Christmas. Oh, yeah. They're all around. No. But okay. So yes, we were talking about this a couple months ago, Granny Sheik. People are taking their collectibles and they, they're starting to hoard their grandparent’s stuff. And now it's become a new design term called Granny Sheik. I love the term. I'm not a Granny Sheik person. Right. No, it's not for me either.
Okay. So pack away clothing, clothing, you know, in your closets, you've got a bunch of off-season clothes. Yeah, get those out too, you know, remove clothing. Make it look, the make the closet look good. Now this is number 14. I'm going to try to start counting so that you can keep up where this is nine again, 90 ways to keep your, again, this is 90 ways to help your home sell faster and for more money. And we're a number 14 organizer your clothes. I mean, that's an easy one just to get an organizer in there. Just read or you can call my husband. He loves to just criticize the way I fold my clothes. Or don't, it's the pile's getting so big. I sort of like ball it up and just sort of toss it. Oh, yeah. That's great. Yeah, that's me. That looks good. You should see the size of my closet. All right. So lighting, you know, lighting is extremely important, right? Yes. I learned from clients every day on this one. Those, those battery-powered LED lights in a closet or laundry room and sticking them above the door so that when your house is being shown, first of all, when your home's being shown, isn't it great to walk in when all the lights are on? Right. It's show ready. So have your house show ready. But the other one is if you mount one of those lights above the door and turn that thing on when you leave, it makes the closet seem bigger. Right. Yeah. But back to the clothes. How do you tell them to pair their clothes down? I think you would be great person to tell people what to do about the closet. Well, I think, I think my rule of thumb is is keep this shut, the south is tough because we seem to go back and forth between seasons. But I think pull out the season of clothes that you're not in. That's an easy one, right? Sure. Okay. Right. It helps keep it cleaner and less clutter and not so packed. Stick it in your pot. Okay.
Number 15, create a sense of light and space. Open up your drapes. So when we tell you to open up, turn on these lights, open up these drapes. And again, you said this earlier, think you jumped ahead, replace those burnout light bulbs. I mean, this was night, this was information from the 90s. I think this is still legitimate today. But you can wind all the time and there's light bulbs out throughout a house. Yeah. Absolutely. My husband right now, we have one light in his office. It's working out of four. You know what? I'll be over tomorrow. I'll change it. Please bring some light bulbs. I'll bring a ladder too. And you know what color it was? It's that really white blot bright blue one. I hate it. Let's move on to atmosphere. How about change the batteries in your in your smoke detector? What draws me crazy? Oh, and into a house. Yeah. You hear the beep like every, you know, by the way, this is not an atmosphere, but that does kill the atmosphere. It's like, yeah, it's a reminder that your alarm can go off at any minute. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, but number 16, atmosphere, a clean smelling home helps create a positive image in the buyer's mind. Be aware of any odors, cooking, cigarettes, pets, et cetera. I mean, gosh, this is a whole podcast in itself. Yeah. I'm constantly surprised how people live. Wow. Yeah. You know, shocking. Shocking. A dozen dogs in the house. Okay. And they all sssss. Yes, bathed your dogs.
Bathed your dogs. Bathed dogs. Rip off the carpet. At least once a week. I mean, to the point, I think my dog was having skin issues because we were bathing. You know, again, it's almost as if you were throwing a cocktail party right before the ascension. You're not going to be there to enjoy it, but this is how you set up your house. Okay. Oh, pets. This is one, etched glass on the back door. You know the ones that they jump up against and those claws scrape them? Just go ahead and replace the door. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's all I got to say out that one. Okay.
Number 17, deodorizers, air fresheners, sleep, remove the source of the smell rather than cover it up. I mean, yes. So let's talk about, let's talk about pet and specifically cat odor. I mean, my eyes immediately start watering and my throat closes up. Right. I'm the best. You know, if you need somebody to let you know, yeah, there's cat urine or dog problems. You, send me to the house. Okay. I’m an inspector. Cats are sort of a three-step process.
You rip out anything of upolstry. You KILTZ it. If you're not familiar with KILTZ, it's a paint. It's a primer. It's a really strong primer that really just encapsulates everything and then you paint and cover everything back up with your carpet, your rug, or whatever. So again, there's your three-part collection. Oh, client. I mean, uh, “BEEP”, um, quick tip. Have you heard of the hotel collection? Go to 360, go to aroma360.com and this company sells all the smells from all the different hotels around the world. Oh, love it. Okay. Next one. Number 18. I mean, this is sort of redundant from 17 about how to get rid of cat urine. Uh, let's move on. 19. If smoking and cooking odors permeate your home, have the carpet's furniture and your drapes clean. I mean, yes. This is a little redundant as well. Obviously, yes. Everything that everything fabric, get it cleaned or get rid of it. Um, okay.
21. Staging? Staging. Oh, wait. Did we get 21? No. This is, I don't, okay. This is what I'm pushing. I'm pushing 21 here because this is totally of its era. Uh, cinnamon, fresh flower, baking bread and the oven, making cookies. I mean, it sort of reminds me of a Annette Bening in American beauty rushing around in her. I think it was a camisole because you took off her blouse, to get ready for that open house? Have you seen the infamous state, theme in that movie? If we can get the rights, I'm going to show a picture. I'm going to show the, the little snippet right in this section of this podcast here. Okay. Let's go on to staging.
Professional staging. That's what we, you know, suggest, right? I mean, you're dealing with two professional stagers, we’re very opinionated, right? But we'll hire outdoor help, I mean, outside help too. Very important, right? You want to make the house in the rooms look as attractive as possible. A little bit of color, flowers, you know, maybe a throw pillow too. But again, you'll get a professional stager. You'll, you'll, you'll be covered with those. It's amazing how a stager can and it's happened to me a couple times and my parents where you get the home stager in, they declutter, they change up a couple colors, they organize the furniture or change the use of the rooms and all of a sudden the owners are like, why are we moving? This homework's just fine for us. So I'm glad they're happy, but I just walked myself out of a deal. How about non-descript photos throughout the house, right? Like family photos and personal photos. Hide those, all the ones that are personal, maybe the wedding photos and all that stuff. Get that out. I'm going to make it a little bit more that wedding photo wall or the one that says eat, love, cook. I like to wine. I mean, you name it, right? Let's, let's stay out of the home good section there. Or if you do, I love them, I love them, but this is maybe we'll pull them down when it comes time to sell. That and political science. We won't go there because we want people to see your house, not what's going on in your head. Right. And or what your family's think, which is great. I mean, we love family photos. It's just I also, you want to be able to not remind them that someone lives in this home. You want to tell you want to help them imagine themselves in this home. No. So, yes. In number 23 here, just harkening back to our 1994 log of how to get your home ready for the market. Brightly colored pillows, a wing, in a wing back chair, and a throw blanket on a sofa can add attention or a dimension to a sterile room. Yeah. Okay. So with this, I thought I would add some fun colors that I've heard of lately. Have you looked at some of the dumb colors? Out on the market.
I have another. Okay. I have a couple really funny ones for you. Elephant's breath. Can you imagine what color that is? It's gray. It's gray. Yeah. It's a light gray. Simmer down. What colors that? Brown. It's like sort of like a it's a it's a it's a gray. It's like a brown. It's like a warm. It's a warm gray. Okay. Oh, moles breath. Yeah, moles breath. Dark gray. It's sort of like elephant's breath. I think they were just running out of creativity that day. Clearly they ran out. Oh, this was a good one. Search party. It's in the same family as as Simmer Down. It's sort of a warmer gray. But anyway, check this colors out. I think you might like one or two of them for your own home. Okay.
Moving on to 24. Soft and potentially offensive views. Always let light to the room. And sheer white panels. I think that's still appropriate for for for today's for the current day. Just present your home in the best way possible with complete honesty. Let's talk about honesty when preparing a home. Because we can easily cover stuff up. Right. But they're going to discover it. Right. That's that's our that's our mantra here is I mean, this is I sort of lead my life to ask for forgiveness rather than permission, except for this. Okay. Next! Exterior. Let's talk about the exterior of the house. Okay. Perfect number 27. No, like a fresh coat of paint would be really appropriate. This is this is time funny. Did you read the plant? They suggest yes. Yes. Geraniums. A pot of geraniums. A pot of petunias or a basket of impatience. This is screaming 1993 right here in our list of 100 of 90 ways to help sell your house faster and for money. Right. What's your thoughts on that? That they still work. You know, they're still in the market. They're still there. I like ferns cast iron plant and boxwoods, fatsea. These are plants that are hard to kill. If you water them like a week, I think the plants that they mentioned here just leading back in my horticulture days. Cast iron plant, they call it cast iron plant for a reason. It's impossible to kill. So again, add some color and green greenery in your home, outside your home. This one's on the exterior. Yes. So you should stage your porch and your back patio. Yes. Number 28. Staging your patio. I think this is the easiest.
This is one of the best investments because you can take all this stuff with you. I mean, your pots, your containers. We can help you figure out these plants that are not going to die. And then you can take these these planters with you when you move. That's my favorite thing. Right. You know, a good power washing is always great for the house. You know, so that's how you want my anniversary present was for my parents this year. Power washer. A power washer. That's a great gift. Mike and I just used it last week. Let's a gift that keeps on getting. Oh, yeah. Apparently mom is telling us my house is dirty. Paint the front door. You know, yes. At least get that right. First impressions. First impressions are key. I think along with the front door, you want to make sure that latch works in that key works. I mean, I also tell people just replace the whole knob and door, situation.
You want it to be bright working function functioning and make sure that door opens. Make sure that weather stripping is not going to keep that sucker from opening up easily. Right. Yeah. But you need to wash your windows inside it out. Yes. I've removed screens on the front of the house. The house shows so much better if the screen's not there. It just makes the whole it makes the window pop. I agree. It also at least from the front, I love a screen. I mean, who hasn't had their closet eaten with some mods before. But, you know, we need those screens, but not when you're selling your house. The other trick to selling your house is you're living a lie. This is the part you can lie about. You're living a lie that you live like this all the time. And you're really not. Like, um, shingles. Is there any loose shingles that should be in the crust? Yeah. Home maintenance guys. We like to talk to our clients at least once a year, if not quarterly. And so we're happy to just come and catch you up on these things. So when it does come time to move, you don't have this laundry list of, well, we're on number 30 right now. So hopefully you won't have that many on yours. And a nice welcome, mat, you know, out front. I was so, uh, uh, welcome out that, well, it's unwelcome, Mat. It said, uh, did you call her text first? You know, we should have one to say. He says, did you make an appointment?
Call, call my agent. That should be called call my agent. Yeah. That's a good one. All right. Let's move on. Okay. That's our next million-dollar idea. We're going to do doormats. Find at the next HJome Depot. All right. How about the yard, yard? Yes. This is this is my wheelhouse here. Okay. Talk to me. Yeah. You need to mow it, right? Mowed every week at least. It's just, yeah. I mean, once you start on the market, it all depends upon the season too, right? Okay. So understanding, because it's not like you could just make your yard look great unless you're willing to really spend thousands of dollars to do it, like the rugs that you're going to send to Sharian to get those, um, cleans, you need to talk to us. Probably I would hope six months in advance. So pruning happens in the winter, grass planting happens in the fall. And of course, you're spring bulbs and things would happen in the fall as well. So depending on what time to see, time of year you're planting, planting to plant or sell, would determine when we need to start working on the yard to make it look the best. And how about add some pine straw? Okay. I'm about a strong opinion about pine straw. I have a strong opinion about pine straw. Pine straw is the Botox and filler for your yard. You can have a lot of things with pine straw. I mean, if you didn't have any ground cover, if something's eroding wrong, if there's a dead plant, just put a much pine straw there. Um, if there's a dead part in your yard, just make a new bed. Um, if, if the dog was running loops around the yard, put pine straw on it. It's great. And it's cheap. And you could do it yourself. It hides the snakes too. You have snakes? Yeah, it will cover them up real. Yep. Dog poop. Covers up dog poop. Yep. Because the great thing about new pine straw is the dog poop just sort of falls down inside of it. Wow. Yep. Thanks for that. You're welcome. All right. Next up is the driveway. You want to get the driveway looking good. This is number 40 in your list of 90 ways to make your house sell faster and for more money. Number 40, pressure wash the driveway. Okay. I mean, I like the chalk marks of kids that are playing hot scots you're drawing on the yard, but unless your kid is a, as a true artist, I would say it's probably not the time to do it. I love children by the way. All right. Pick up on the sarcasm. I'm kidding. We can edit that out. Okay.
Number 41. The surface of your driveway should be beyond reproach after all. It's one of the first things the buyer sees when they approach the driveway. I think it's the driveway, the front door, and the smell of your house. Those are probably the three first things, right? Okay. Moving on.
A sweep wash and wash your driveway and remove any weeds and of course children's toys. I mean, again, this list is from 1993-ish. I think this still rains true for today. Yeah. All right. Yes. Okay. And when you walk at the front door, you know, that needs to be a strong impression too, right? I agree. Back to our Aroma 360, our hotel collection. I love to hear what your favorites of collections are. I mean, maybe the St. Regis and Maui, that's, I would imagine that one would smell really good. I would imagine so. Okay. Next.
Number 42. I have to go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Room by room analysis. Let's move inside the front entry. Number 42. That's right. You were just talking about that. Front entry. Okay. Number 43. Gosh, that really, okay. It's, it says here by virtually, virtually any entry hall will benefit from a well-placed mirror and enlarge, and will enlarge the area.
Yes, it will. Just don't have this mirror facing you right when you walk in the door. Bad Feng Shui. Yeah. We'll just leave it there. Bad Feng Shui. So I think this still rains true with today's, today's market. 90 ways to sell your house faster and for more money. We're on number 45, the entry hall. I mean, where do we start here? I think that's, we're also talking, we're also evaluating a list from 1993. This, this is from my parents business in North Carolina. And if these points still rain true today, and this one here is starting out by saying, put cedar chips in the foyer and a, what's a Pomander ball? A Pomander ball? That must be, that must be 90s. Yeah, okay. With a pleasant us, us, sent and remove any off-season clothing. Hold on a second. Why is off-season clothing in your entry hall? Oh, add a few extra hangers. Oh, they must be talking about the closet. Okay, yes. I think this still rains true. Remove all those winter jackets if it's spring. No one needs to see the ski jackets and all those, those lift tags on there, right? Let's get those out of there. Okay, I'll add something to that. How about wooden hangers? Like a, like a nice collection of wooden hangers. Sure. To make that look good. Okay. No wire. Yeah. No wire hangers.
Okay, number 46. Let's move on to the living areas. Great. Sweep and clean fireplace. Place logs in, to give, in the fireplace, to give an attractive appearance. And so it gives the impression of a warm, fiery glow in winter months. Creates atmosphere. And I put, I sort of put, in addition to this, I like to put like a big fern if it's summertime. Just sort of fill that up. Okay. Any thoughts on that? No, just keep the ashes out of the fireplace. Yeah, sure. Yeah, that's a bad smell. I mean, else anyway. The smell smells good in the winter time, but not in the spring. Yeah. Okay.
47. Go ahead. I'll play something colorful on the mantle. Don't make it look too crafty or country. I like that. Hello, mother. So was there anything really tacky when you were growing up that always made its way to the, to the family mantle? Or plenty of things tacky, I think, you know?
We had, we had all of my school pictures like in a row that may have set off to the side. I just wouldn't be looking at those things. So you could see the variation of the different haircuts, my mullet, my, I don't think my rat tail ever got in there, I had a rat tail for a couple months. What's your mother into cat tails ever once? Speaking of tails. Mom hated cats. Yeah. Oh, no. It's a plant, you know. Oh, cat tails. Oh, cat tails. No. My mom grew up on a farm, but she didn't, I don't, she thinks of it finally, but she was not a farm girl. Okay. 90 ways to fill your house faster and form them and for more money. And we're looking back at some notes that I have from 1993 from my parent’s business and we're on number 48. Yes. Okay. Traffic. Hey, you know, if you can't afford the stage or if someone's not helping with it, at least help the flow when you walk into a room, right? With, again, remove excess furniture and make it, you know, like a way you can walk through and you don't trip over something. I agree. We're really opinionated on this one. We can walk into room and rip it to shreds, I'm kidding. We can walk into your room and really help you with this. I really enjoy that part of the job, too.
I mean, I enjoy most aspects of it, but, you know, that's one of my favorites. It's helping massage making your good of showcasing. Absolutely. You're really good. Okay. Number 49. Draw attention to exposed beams, cathedral ceilings and special lighting. Be sure to remove cobwebs and dust. Man, come on. I mean, that is sort of funny, though, but, again, that's an obvious one. I think that still rains true for today's market. You sold a house a couple months ago and walked in an entire ceiling, really with, with spider webs. Like there had to be hundreds in the house. You sort of wondered, because if you're hanging out watching TV, like at what point is one not going to just drop down the roof? I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Let's move on to number 50. Remove oversized television sets. Yeah. Definitely. If they dominate the room, especially our substitute a smaller one until you move. What, you could take your 75 inch flat-screen down?
Right. Yeah. Well, I think nowadays, too. I love the picture, the portrait ones that hang flush. You can even have the framing on the round the outside. I mean, that's funny, but I still think it reigns true. Yeah. It is funny. I walked into a house once. I counted 15 televisions in this home. There were two in the master bedroom, one in the, in the, uh, I shouldn't say master bedroom, the owner's suite, as well as one in the bathroom. Wow. And I just start to wonder about the relationship of this, this couple, but anyway, the cable bill, all that's right. You're paying per box, right? Yeah. Right. Yeah. Okay. Let's move on to the dining room. 90 ways to sell your house for faster and more money.
Number 51 in the dining room. What's some, a nice flower arrangement or fresh flowers? Yeah. Just set the table up for, like going back to this dinner party that you can't attend, minus the food, get it ready for a party in a way. Sure. My trick is Trader Joe's. 14 dollars for orchids. That you stop by pike with some of that sheet moss, stick it in a container of some sort. I mean, obviously, even seen them in my cast iron skillets with enough moss around it and some orchids. I mean, it's a great little piece, but you know, Jon and I love to go to pike and do that kind of thing. Absolutely.
Okay. 52. Visually in large, a small dining space by removing some of the leaves of the table. So just because your table can fit 14, doesn't necessarily mean your room can, and it makes your room feel bigger. That one, I think that reigns through for today. Yeah, pull some chairs out. Yeah, pull some chairs out. Okay. So the next one.
Number 53, let's talk about the kitchen. Sure. Again, clutter. Let's remove some clutter. Do we clean off the smaller appliances? You don't like all the appliances out. You know, you were, I agree. My thought is if you don't use that small appliance every day, get rid of it. Pack it up, move it in that pod. It's out there in the driveway.
Number 54. Check the countertop for and the sinks for any detergent, cleansers. Move them off because those seem a little bit cluttered too. I'll give you a little part of my OCD personality is to I like to dry out the stainless steel sink. So it doesn't leave water marks. Sure. That's a great idea. Yeah, thank you. You're full of it. Yeah. Full of it. You want to take 55? Yeah, but again, we're just talking about sinks cabinets and countertops. You know, a work and eyes. Get them cleaned off. Fresh. Sure. They're clean. And when people do open up your cabinets, they're going to look through just part of it. So they shouldn’t be a disaster. I agree. I mean, we've probably all made up for our limited social interactions through COVID by buying stuff online. So this is a great time to evaluate your spending habits and maybe stop in at the Container Store, pick up some things to dump this stuff in and maybe move it to the garage of the basement.
Number 56. Lean up that refrigerator or any other appliances that are out. Make a pile of that refrigerator. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The part that gets me to is that little mildewy edge around the refrigerator or the door. Oh, yeah. Hit that up. Oh, oh, oh, and the one around the wash, the dishwasher.
That can get sort of disgusting too. Sure. Yeah. And inside the refrigerators, you should be cleaned up. Right? Yeah. My mom has some glass shelves now. They should be clean. Yes. The glass shelves should be cleaned. My mother has this thing when she would, I don't think she ever told her friends this, but the way she could tell if a kitchen was really clean, my mom's going to get upset with me for this. She would, you could look underneath the faucet in the kitchen and you can see how clean they are. That was her measure of how clean the kitchen was. Speaking of which, 57 is clean the top of the refrigerator. Yes. That's a good one. Lots of dust up there. Yeah. Actually, yes. That's a bad one. And remove magnets from the refrigerator. And it's ironic now that these stainless steel refrigerators makes our job easier. The stainless steel refrigerators don't take to magnets. So, that's an easy one. Okay. Next up, set the thing in the kitchen, right? Maybe an open cookbook.
If you can cook. I can't. Do you own any cookbooks? No, I don't own one. Do you know, do you cook, Jon? No. What was the last meal you made? I wouldn't remember it. Seriously? Yeah, years ago. Like, do you not do breakfast or sandwiches? No, I eat out every meal. Really? Yeah. Huh. That's cool. So, what is your favorite meal if you were to make a meal? Breakfast, Always breakfast. What was your ideal breakfast? Oh, you know, eggs, bacon, biscuits, if possible. You can make bisquits. I cannot. Oh, it comes out of a can. Sure. Oh, okay. Yeah. Cool. Is your mother know you can't cook? She knows I can cook. She knows I don't like to cook. Okay. Well, the question is, can you, what can you cook? Not much? Oh, come on. Okay. We're moving on. It's a lot of the lot of effort. Yeah. Yeah. If you're by yourself, it's just not worth it. It's not worth the time. Okay. I mean, if you're cooking for someone else, maybe. Yeah. Okay. What are we on now?
Yeah. Number 59. 90 ways to sell your house faster and more money. We're on item 59. Create the aroma of happy with a happy home. Um, uh, baked cookies from from pre from pre mix. They yeah, this is from a list from the 90s, by the way. Uh, refrigerator cookie dough. Start baking a loaf of this refrigerator cookie dough or refrigerator bread dough. Oh, pop a frozen apple pie in the oven. Boy, people are going to hate us when they're waiting, gaining all this weight when their homes are in the market. If you were taking an apple pie to open house and popped it in before they got there, I mean, it's not a bad idea. I think cookies are easier. Yeah. Cookies. But then you need like, but then you need like a cookie sheet and cut them. Well, then they've got the ones that you can break now that are already like, I guess, perforated. Okay. We bet. Number 60. And the hot heat of summer place a bowl lemons or lines on the counter. All to make a, I thought in the heat of summer. That has nothing to do with the lemons or lines, but yes, place them on the islands. I guess that's supposed to bring across the sense of summer. Okay. All right. 61, I clean up and organize the storage space. So your pantry. Yes. Gotta go. I gotta look good, right? You know, I think this reigns, this is also in line with that idea we had with the LED lights in closets or laundry rooms. If you put that LED light above the door, it just adds a little bit more light to that room. Okay. I think really shows it off well. The other OCD thing we like to do is turn all the labels facing one direction in the pantry. And even in your, your, your, your storage wherever that is, it for some reason that that makes it feel like it's more right. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Number what's next? Next up, this is a large cheerful kitchen. When does take advantage? You know, take it be highlights of the special feature of your home. Clean those drapes. I mean, that's the first thing to get like tomato splatter and bacon grease. Okay. Oh my god. Yeah. Clean out the grease, right? Okay. That was a dud one. I don't like that one. Then I moved to the laundry room.
Let's go. Okay. 90 ways to sell your house faster and more money. We're talking about the laundry room next. Number 65. Yeah. Add a fresh coat of paint. Fresh coat of paint. I mean, it's one of the cheapest things you can do. I think we talked about this earlier. On average, the amount, the amount of money they cost to paint an average sized room is about $400. $400 well spent or Saturday afternoon. Of course, you want to organize and you know, make the space look tidy. Exactly. A lot of people forget. I mean, the laundry room is kind of a lot of people are not important. To me, it's probably one of my favorite rooms in the house. I agree. I love the laundry. I had a client. He staged it. He had, he put like, he put his favorite swim trunks hanging in there and even had this like vintage one-piece men sort of romper thing. And he then had like a beach ball. It was really cute. I mean, it, that laundry room got the most comments of all the showings we had when that home was on the market. So, you know, and it was just a closet. It was a laundry closet. Anyway, next up, removed dirty laundry. Come on.
I know. Not to be rude to say this. Remove dirty laundry, keeping the laundry's, the smell in a closed container. And in parenthesis here, it says maybe even hermetically sealed or welded shut. Welded shut. I wrote this. I think we should invent a diaper genie for adults. You know what a diaper genie is? You put the diapers in there. It keeps the smell from permeating the house. Okay. So, we need that diaper genie for adults. For smelly clothes? We're, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, just wash. Okay. Again, again, this list being from 1993, I think it still ran to true for today. Next. Polish or, this is Polish. The washer and dryer. I agree. It stays still. It gets dusty. Yep. Mildew around that edge, that little seal. Get that mildew out of there. It doesn't help. It wouldn't hurt to also put like that baking soda little piece. And never mind. Moving on. All right. 90 ways to sell your house faster and for more money.
We are reading from a list to my parents had from their business from the early 90s and we're having some fun with this. We're on number 70. Get those stairways we're organized and ready for company. It should be clean and safe. Right. I mean, it says here to keep it clean and safe. All right. Stair lighting is make sure it's adequate as well as check conditions of walls, paint, and re-wall paper if necessary. I mean, this is so out of date it's in date. Yeah. It's all the wallpaper going up. Stair rails should be, you know, firm. They should be wobbly. Yeah. Things that, you know, right. Stair. Yeah. That hand railing. We actually were walking. We were walking up of the staircase just last week. And this enormous piece of stone just flipped right off of it. I mean, they didn't have this list of 90 things to get their house ready. Okay. Don’t that mistake. Number 71. If the stairs are the focal point of the living space, make sure that it has visual appeal. If you have wide, gracious staircase, emphasize this, emphasizes by hanging a few photos on the stairwell. Maybe even a chandelier and it says here to polish that brass time check. I mean, the air check here.
Dusty each small light bulb and crystal prism. So true. Do you notice those dusty light bulbs? Yes. Okay. I noticed that too. I thought I might be the only one. No. Okay. Dust your light bulbs people. Do it with the light bulb off. Speaking from experience. Okay. Moving on to bedrooms. Okay. Okay. 90 ways to sell your house faster for more money. And we're talking about bedrooms.
Number 72. This one says, imagine your home as a bed and breakfast. All right. Yeah. A nice hotel room? Yes. I mean, I agree with that. Yeah. That's the range true today. Sure. Paint it a light color. Remove bureaus that might make the room feel crowded. Minimize clutter. Name for a restful scheduled. Oh, a subdue look, scheduled look. Yes. Everything. So red would not be a good color for bed. No. However, I mean, so I love Kohls for these kind of things. I mean, home goods and those other stores are pretty good too. But I love Kohls for two reasons. They have the Kohls card, which you get a discount on. Plus if you have Kohls card, they continue to send you dates throughout the year. So hold on to those coupons.
They're really good for your towels, your blankets, your bedding. Can I go on? Yeah. My other thing, I love about Kohls. Vera Wang's linen line is really good. It holds up really well. And she has a really good collection of of it's just a nice simple contemporary collection of linens. Wow. Nice. Pro tip for you. Nice plug for Kohls. Okay.
Number 73. The type of the private bathroom. I'll get to that. The private bathroom alternative master bedroom is a real sales plus. I mean, of course. Yes. I mean, that's, I think the two main rooms in the home people go for first ones. The kitchen and the second is the primary suite bathroom. And again, you want to make this feel sort of spa-like. I mean, yes. Number 73, that is still reigns true for today.
And then moving on to 74. Moving into the closet. Yeah, the closet space again, just like we said early. Get it clean. Get it clean. Make it look larger. You know, if it's not cluttered, it will look larger. Pull those non-seasoned clothes out. I also love that LED light that you can pop to the inside just above the door and leave that on as you leave, along with all the other lights in your house. That with removing what, probably 30 to 50 percent of the clothes in the room will and re-stack, fold. And a lot of bedrooms. I mean, about a lot of the closet smell. So it's very important to get that odor out. I mean, some neutralizers are good. Charcoal. Charcoal bags. You can buy those on Amazon and throw them in the corner and they'll still help neutralize the sound. I think that idea. And I wonder if you could get them cheaper if you use those organic charcoal ones, versus the ones that are made for the rooms. Anyway, just a little money saving tip. Okay. Oh yeah, this is 76. We sort of touched on this one a little bit, which is lighting. Lighting. Lighting's key makes it feel bigger and better.
I mean, IKEA also has a really inexpensive series of LED lights that tack up onto the bottom of shelves, which really gives it a nice glow too. And you can manage the light level there. This also mentions the importance of marketing to your, explaining marketing of the house to your children. Yes. Like you can get them involved. You've done cool things with kids to like, You get the kids involved. When I work with families with children, we have this club. It's called the, The Clean Kids Club. And if we have some unruly kids, I will just bribe them flat out with tickets to maybe like Six Flags or, or maybe even the Fern Bank, something maybe a Fern Bank more educational. Six Flags probably more fun. So The Clean Kids Club, so they can have something to look forward to at the end. That's something fun. That's right. And you get them involved. You know, right. Sure. And when you get the kids involved too, they understand it.
It might be time to help clean up. And for number 78, donate some of these toys. So find a donation. I think find an organization that your kids would also love to support. Also get them involved with this process.