Can you add the pictures on it's own page? Very hard to use trying to look at the pics and scrolling to use the arrow or see anything in them since they are bigger than the picture space

OK, I put in a link to open the pictures in a new window.

The split screen scroll is not a good idea.

Your colors are very vibrant which may be distracting and unappealing to many. May people say "It's only paint" and this is true - except you'd be surprised how many people want move-in-ready or at least colors they can "live with". Paint a neutral color.

Your dining room pictures are terrible (#11 & #12 especially). A picture of half your dining set does not show of the architectural features of the room.

You may want to pack away the family photos on the wall. People are curious and you'd rather have them look at the room then your family.

Your bedroom pictures should probably be dropped, except for the master. Pictures of doorframes and loud colors would not entice many to see your home.

In the kitchen, you have a storage unit at the end of the counter - this closes your kitchen and basically says you don't have enough counter or cupboard space.

Large shed 12 x 16 ft with electric and storage loft (roof repaired since pictures taken)

Get rid of the shed picture and this line. If you feel the need to highlight the sheds, just note there are two sheds and their dimensions.

While pictures are generally a good thing 40 are way too many (unless these were there just for critiquing your home?) Definitely par down the number of pictures. You want to make people see more through a viewing, not see your entire house through pictures on-line.

Wow -- colorful house. Take this constructively, but the house's colors are too overpowering. People will notice the shocking blue paint in the living room and not the fireplace. The colors need to be really toned down. I know it's only paint, and paint is cheap, wall colors wouldn't ordinarily bother me. These are so overpowering though as to take away the attention from any features the home may have.

I don't see the contact info/address and price on the web.. It will be a good idea to include that info.

I am not a big fan of the some of the colors but that is a cosmetic thing and can be changed at minimal expense...I like your house...lot of living space and big yard all around...and a very HUGE finished basement!

Good luck

Yep, this site is just to get some feedback on the house. I intend to use a real estate agent and I'm not even sure this website will be up after listing. I expected the feedback on the paint, but you make a good point on the kitchen unit (it's supposed to be an island)--we plan to take it with us anyway so maybe we should take it out...

Your home, I think ,would show better empty. It needs to be repainted inside to something less distracting. Right now it looks like the kids run the place and were the ones that picked the wall colors.
In your wording you need to be clear if the swing set and sandbox are staying or going.
I'd ditch the window covering in the kitchen over the sink. You need the light to shine thru.
Verticals are rather dated, I'd remove them and just let the light shine in.
The unit at the end of the kitchen counter should go as should the rug in the kitchen...rugs over hard places in homes up for sale makes a buyer wonder what they are hiding underneath.
I'd frame out the mirrors in the bathrooms with some moulding to make them look more like a high end detail than just a piece of glass on a wall.
The small decorative stuff on the walls like the cat over the door, all needs to go. It distracts from seeing the house.
If you decide to show it with furniture you're going to have problems, some spots look too crowded and others too sparse. All the kid stuff distracts from seeing the house.
I know it's hard when you have kids but you've got to tone down the day care center look.
I also would remove the pics from the dining area. Again too distracting.

Im afraid I have to disagree about the colors. I did the whole neutral thing and everyone likes it EXCEPT ME! I love the look of the house just as is. Only thing I would possibly change is the entry fixture (and remove mobile). It needs to be something dramatic! Even a hundred dollar home depot chandelier would work ok. The 5.99 contractor light is not doing it. Otherwise I think this is a show home.

As I have learned, quick sale has very little to do with condition (in slow market) than accurate price does.

jeff147, I like the colors also, but I do know that at least 50% of the people who walk into the op's house will have a problem with them. So it really depends upon the op's market if repainting is really needed. Even in a seller's market, I knew I was going to have to give a painting allowance because I didn't want to redo the colors of our house. I was willing to wait on the right buyer and the op will need to decide if that possible additional time and cash allowance is worth it.

Gloria

I'm with everyone else who thinks the colours are too overpowering. There is lavender, banana yellow, bright teal, two shades of blue, and pink. Way too many mishmashes of colour. That fact alone would be the reason I wouldn't put an offer on it.

Photos are much easier in the new window, thanks.

Overall, nice house. The basement is awesome, has a lot of potential. I don't have one and miss it very much.

The lavender dining room may turn off some of the husbands. The manly man, that can't live in a "girls house". You should think about making this more towards the kitchen / living room color, if you have enough paint left, do the same over the teal. I can get past the other colors, even though they are shades I don't use, so I would have to paint. The paint looks clean and bright. As was mentioned, the island should go.

Love the house. If I was ready to move out of state, I'd consider looking at it, because it's what I'm looking for.

Thanks again for all the feedback.

Do you think I can get by with just painting over the teal, lavender, and yellow (so that the whole main area is the same neutral color) and leaving the bedrooms as-is?

The house is definitely kid-dominated and that's after I made an effort to concentrate the toys in one area. I want to make sure I don't turn off older buyers. Our neighborhood is a fair mix of "yuppies" and retirees or near-retirees.

The pictures and cat decor will come down. Do you recommend leaving the walls bare or putting up something else?

jeff147 wrote: As I have learned, quick sale has very little to do with condition (in slow market) than accurate price does.

I disagree. It really depends on your price range. Anything over 500K needs to be almost turn key (unless it's a tear down, of course). It's condition AND price in that range.

I really liked your home; just like others I also think the paint are to overwhelming, this said i wouldn't have a problem making an offer, because it's just paint-and that you can change. I think you can take down the picts. and DECLUTTER-it makes the rooms more spacious.

Good luck

Monzamess -- yes I think if you just paint the main areas you can get by without painting the bedrooms. You want people to be concentrating on all the nice features in the main rooms instead of being side tracked with the colors.

To give you an example, my son was looking for his first home and he found one he liked and asked myself and my husband to look at it for him. the majority of the house was nice and neutral in color. We walked into the master bath and it was in your face ORANGE !! I'm talking Sunkist Orange Orange. The color was so shocking to me that when we walked out my son asked if the tub was jetted , did the bathroom have one sink or two? And I seriously couldn't remember, the orange took all of my attention and I didn't really notice the features in the room.

For us, changing paint is a big job because of my husband's hours and my inability to do it myself due to a bad back. We just had our entire house painted, tiled and carpet in the bedrooms. It was very stressful and disruptive to have our house in such disarray for a couple months.

The painting started before Christmas, then the tile after, so everything had been out of place since prior to the painting.

I won't go through that again. Next house for us will be turnkey as it's too much disruption in our lives to have to do something that some views as easy to change. It wasn't easy for us, hence why we won't offer on a house with a mishmash of colours.

Having said that, if the living areas weren't so colourful, and only the bedrooms needed to be painted, that would be something we might consider.

Did you take the site down? I'd sent hubby the link, and just checked it again, it isn't working. He wasn't able to see the house. He delivers Mazdas in your area and is looking to move out of state eventually.

As I said, the yellow didn't bother me even though I'm not a yellow person. It seemed like a pretty big area to have to paint.

Site's back up. My host apparently had some downtime today.

I like the house, has a clean feel to it.

Can you paint the paneling in the basement or is it some special kind of wood?

I would remove the kitchen rug and island as others have said. I would remove the dining room photos. What is the yellow room supposed to be? Is it a really a living room or a play room? Definitely remove the easel. As a playroom I like the yellow (but then I like yellow). I think the bedroom colors are fine. The green room has too many toys and clutter. Can you move the crib out of your room? Also I am not in love with the shower curtain in the blue bathroom. The one you see right after the master bedroom. I like the one that is blue and white that you see later

Other than the dining room, the only other room I would paint is the teal blue wall in the family room, and I would get rid of some of those lounge chairs

I have Twins and 3 other kids so I understand and have considered buying, moving and then selling but I tend to clutter even without the kids+

As for how turnkey it has to be and at what price range, depends on your market. Where I am looking people are asking 1.2 m for houses that need to be gutted

I really like your house. Love the floors and wonder how you keep them so nice with the little ones. I agree with taking the island out. It's really handy but you'll only be without it until your next house and, hopefully, that won't be long. I think you need something either on or above the fireplace, though. Oh--my fav is the penguin bathroom. Keep that! I'd sure love to have that basement.

Saphire wrote: As for how turnkey it has to be and at what price range, depends on your market. Where I am looking people are asking 1.2 m for houses that need to be gutted

Saphire, if you read my post about price range and turnkey condition, you saw that I noted, "unless it's a tear down." The value of a property selling for 1.2 mil that is going to be gutted is in the LAND.

In my market (NoVA) and range ($800-850K) homes that are going to be occupied as is have to be in top notch condition AND priced right. One or the other is not going to cut it today.

Great feedback!

Addressing some points...

We do in fact have a big family picture over the fireplace, but I removed it for the pictures. I don't know if it's worth it to put a generic picture/painting up there or not.

I was waiting for someone to meantion the basement paneling. It's just cheap paneling. It was put up by the previous owner and we didn't hate it enough to get rid of it. It's 1/4" paneling over drywall, so someone could relatively easily replace it with 1/4" drywall and make it much nicer. Unfortunately that task is beyond me right now.

Ok, here's a fact I didn't disclose earlier.

We have EIGHT cats.

For that reason I'd want to show the house empty but I just don't see how that will work out.

Their food and litter boxes are normally in the room in picture 31. There is one closet in the basement we could potentially clean out and use for the food and litter, or maybe the basement bathroom since it's big and has an exhaust fan.

We keep the house clean, the cats have never urinated in the wrong place and don't barf much (they're not perfect), and of course having solid floors helps a lot. The basement stairs have the only carpet in the house and it's very new. We've had a few guests who claim they're allergic to cats spend the night without problems.

So if you came to see the house, with some of the fixes mentioned above, what would you think of walking into a room and seeing a bunch of cats in their carriers?

8 cats? Ouch -- even though you've never had problems with the cats urinating in the home, your buyers are going to see 8 cats and wonder. And even though you say you've had guests with allergies in the home with no problems, again your buyers are going to see a lot of cats and wonder about the allergies as well. I don't have a solution for you, but in all honesty that would be a difficult sale to me. I'm sure cat owners would think differently.

I think the eight cats will be more of an issue then the colors in your home.

Good luck :-)

Sorry to say, I'd probably walk right out if I saw 8 cats in a for sale home. I'd figure there was cat urine someplace and cat dander galore being circulated by the hvac system. Paint colors that I don't like are not difficult to change---but getting pet smells out is another story. BTW, I am a pet lover with two dogs and getting ready to sell. Before showing, I will replace the carpet in the family room where they spend their time (after I temporarly relocate them). I know that even though I don't notice a smell, non pet owners will. Ask each realtor you interview what they think.

Laura,

It really depends on the area. I used gutted because that was the worst I could think of. Actually almost ever house I have looked at in my target area needs a new kitchen and has an 80s bath or worse. The paint needs to be redone and the carpet is dirty or dingy or outdated. Those are houses that just need cosmetics and people plan to live in them and not expand! The house I almost bid on had an offer on it sort of (long story) and another family interested and I assume by today an accepted offer. It needed at least 30k of updates and new appliances, and the upstairs floors sloped

Meanwhile, where I live now (15 minutes away) every house I walk into for comparison seems to have a new kitchen (which I do not but my house could be bought for the land or lived in, will depend on the buyer) GRRR

I like your house then I'm not one to be put off by the sellers choice of paint colors. But I do have a question just out of interest.
Why is it that you don't have any trees in your backyard? I've often wondered why people on small acreages cut them all if not most of them down leaving those huge expanses of lawn.

pkguy, it was farm land before the neighborhood was built. I guess that carries its own moral dilemna, but no trees were cut. I actually would like trees near the house, but hey, at least the gutters stay clean.

I'm sorry to say that the eight cats would probably be too much for me. Where I live there is a wonderful vet who runs a really nice pet boarding facility. There is underfloor heating in the dog run, and the place is spotless. Is there any such place near you where you could work out some kind of arrangement for the peak selling season - say weekends during March/April? If the cats are old or in delicate health this would be out of the question, but if they could withstand the disruption it might make it easier to sell your house.

I think people might expect a pet or two or a couple of cats, but the 8 cats might be a problem. I know from just my two that picking them and moving them everytime the house shows is a lot of stress for them I can't imagine what you would do with 8 to lessen the cat impact.

I'm an allergic to cats person so if I saw your menagerie, I'd gracefully let the person showing me the house know that this would not work for us. We'd have to leave and we'd keep looking. We've bought and moved into one "cat house" before and it was absolute misery for me until we removed the carpets, washed everything down, had the vents cleaned, and repainted. Won't be doing that ever again.

Since the only part of the house that has carpet is the stairs, buyers can see there shouldn't be any cat damage. My parents old house, which I cleaned had damage so bad, we had to replace part of the dining room floor. They had carpet and once pulled, you could see where she kept the cat dishes.

I might have a problem seeing the 8 cats, I wouldn't have a problem seeing 2 or 3. Since you plan to crate the cats, do you have a friend that will allow you to bring them (5 to 6 cats) there during showings? You could rotate the cats, 2 or 3 stay each time. You'd have to track which cats stayed when for repeat showings.

The way I would figure it, you'd disclose you have cats. People with allergies can pass or see the house. They will know you have 2 or 3 cats. They can see there is no damage. From what I see of the pics, the house looks great. I wouldn't have a problem buying it, but might ask for a "professional cleaning" allowance.

You're in a hard place. Lots of cats and small children. I feel for you. I do think someone will scoop the house up. My husband loved it btw. I'd had it open still in another browser and didn't realize it. I still can't get the site to come back up for me.

Have you figured a price yet? Would you happen to have a layout of the house? Curious if the master is close to the other bedrooms or if it is in another section of the house like my dad's ranch.

Sorry for bringing up an old thread but I implemented a couple of the suggestions people provided. I left the bedrooms alone, but I painted over the blue, yellow, and lavender in the main part of the house. I removed a lot of the toys and moved the kitchen "island" out.

I updated the web site: http://house.h-body.org and if you care you can see the original site at http://house.h-body.org/old

The pictures that changed are 08 through 18.

We are going to work with an agent, and she will pick out SOME (not all!) of these pictures for the listing.

Thanks for your suggestions. Hope to have it on the market in a couple of weeks.

I don't know what it is, I'm not having luck with your site loading again.

Anyone else having problems?

roselvr, use the "Click here to open pictures in a new window" at the bottom and it'd open the thumbnails in a new window...

but yeah i agree the website design is not the best, i was just clicking around and find out there is a better way to see the pictures, but it's not obvious.

I've dumped cookies and still get:

The connection has timed out
The server at house.h-body.org is taking too long to respond.

Nice improvement. You have made wonderful progress!

One question--do you really use all the stuff near the stove on a daily/weekly basis? Is there any of it you could live without for a short time? One side of the counter is so clear; the other is not as visible.

I know it's hard to put stuff away, especially with young children in your home. When we sold our first house (to the first looker and within a week--early 90's so a different time) I went through my cabinets and packed up anything I did not absolutely need on a daily basis--ie the roasting pan I use a few times a year, the extra gadgets I bought and don't use, pie plates, even extra coffee mugs. Somehow I made room for all the things we did use daily to remain in the cabinets.

I did the same thing with my then young children's toys. When we finally moved into our new home a few months later it was like Christmas in June. They spent all day going through their boxes while I started unpacking.

If you have a few decorative pieces for the fireplace mantel I would suggest putting them back. It looks lonely and bare.

Again--great job!

Got your email, look for my responce.

Love what you did with the paint. It looks great!

Nice house!

One more suggestion... it looks like you've got room for seating on one side of the kitchen peninsula (countertop overhangs). Can you put some barstools there, to make that desirable feature stand out more?

Followup to an old post...

March: First, we got a HELOC on the house so we could get into another house.

Then we put our house on the market. Southern Maryland, reasonable commute to DC, great neighborhood, decent schools.

Started out at $475K + 10K closing help based on comps.

April: Went househunting in the new state, closed on new house. Luckily we could get a first mortgage for the new house instead of worrying about a bridge loan; using the HELOC to put down a big downpayment is what made it possible. No movement on the house for sale... getting nervous.

May: Ok, two mortgages start (actually three counting the HELOC which is now maxed out), and the mortgage on the first house was already tough to pay, especially after the twins came and my wife stopped working. Tangent: we had two kids, both changed jobs, and moved, all within 6 months. Whew.

What kind of mess did I get myself and my family into???

Back to the first house for sale... Lowered to $450K after we moved out. House was totally clean and empty, no evidence of cats. I tried as much as possible to make it look like a new home, except I didn't have time to paint a couple of bedrooms or replace some ugly faucets. Paint was new and clean, just not neutral. Paid $85 a pop to get the lawn cut.

After the listing was updated to say the house was empty, showings really picked up--about 5-8 per week--but still no offers that month. Lots of nice comments I guess.

June: Got first offer in early June, $430K and 1.5% closing help. We countered $435K + 1.5% closing help and it was accepted (we were about to lower the price again anyway thus the unambitious counter). I was reluctant to counter at all but agent assured me buyer would probably go the extra 5K and he was right. Closing was set for June 29. Buyer had no home sale contingency. YAY!

Inspection went well. No real faults found, and buyer asked for NO repairs. Appraisal was still good even though the market appeared to be dropping like a rock. Just needed buyer to get financing...

Buyer's loan guy (who also did our HELOC and mortgage on the new house, FWIW) kept saying no problem, no problem, everything is great.

I make travel arrangements to be at the closing.

June 27... problem. We push closing to July 10.

July 10... we get forms to sign and FedEx back (I've given up idea of being at closing in person), and then...
problem.

We push again to July 19. Agent says July is a dead month in our area so stick with this buyer instead of putting the house back on the market. We even drop the price a bit so that the buyer will "slam dunk for sure" qualify, thinking we'd be out money on additional mortgage payments anyway even if we got another offer right away, which was unlikely.

July 19... problem. We are assured it's a minor problem but that doesn't help me sleep. Communication sucks rocks. No clue what's going on with a deal 800 miles away from me.

July 20... 11am. We're supposed to settle. Buyer doesn't show up! No one can contact him! WTF!!!!!!

July 20... 12pm. Still nothin'.

July 20... 1pm. Buyer is found. He overslept. He works nights and has been using his days to sort out his financing mess. Kind of feel sorry for him, I guess. I just want to settle. He has to go to the bank and then to closing. He winds up having to bring a few thousand more to closing than he was told only two days before... back to the whole communication problem.

July 20... 2pm. Buyer shows up. We close. YAY!

July 20... 11pm. I finally get a good night's sleep...?

Also, forgot to say, what I think eventually sold the house was the price (of course) and still, even with a low low price, we had to find the right buyer who appreciated the main features of the house: quiet and roomy, but still a common (some would say boring) rambler.

It was hard to compete against the proverbial "4 bedroom 3 bath colonial" that everyone seems to demand in that area, especially with the price drops and buyer incentives on other houses (one competitor even offered buyers a cruise... what a gimmick).

All in all, it didn't go like I thought it would, but it finally did go...

YEAAAAAA for you!!! Somehow, in the end, everything works out! After reading thru all the posts, from the bone-of-contention-painting until the actual closing, what was the DOM? ;o)

It was hard to compete against the proverbial "4 bedroom 3 bath colonial" that everyone seems to demand in that area, especially with the price drops and buyer incentives on other houses (one competitor even offered buyers a cruise... what a gimmick).

All in all, it didn't go like I thought it would, but it finally did go...

I was thinking of you this week, wondering if the house sold. Thanks for bumping the original post back up for those of us following it.

Congrats on finally getting it closed! You had a great house, never thought you would have problems.

Hopefully, after this mess, he will get to keep the house. I hope he can afford it. Would be a shame to have someone lose it.

Actual DOM was 133 (give or take); actual DOS (days of stress) would be 150 or so. :)