Older people aren't so enthusiastic about hard ceramic floors, so save your money on that and get a good quality vinyl. Wood floors are not as expensive as you think. Price it in place of carpet. New gravel for the driveway makes an impression that the property has been well cared for and is low maintenance (which of course we know a gravel driveway is not..)

Keep it light and bright and clean enough to eat off of - power washing outside walks, porches and drives can help here. Kitchens and baths will make or break a sale, so put your money there. Stage with rented furniture, making sure each room has a "vignette" of some kind that defines the typical use of the room and says to the prospect, "You're home!"

Hi Bella, i have a handyman that can do it, my question was how to find a qualified interior decorator that wont break the bank.

Bella, I'm new to this, can you fill me in as to what Houzz referral is? I'd like to do whatever I can for you.

I will change hardward on cabinetry. Any ideas as to which style, design etc? and applicances will also be changed, should it be white, black or stainless steel?

Stagers i'm afraid may be out of my budget. Any specific furnishings I should be renting?

Kitasei: Great point! What color vinyl would you recommend? regarding driveway, it is now in very nice condition, I'll just have it powerwahsed, i think

decoenthusiaste: You'll have to excuse my ingnorance, what's "vignette" ? Also, without redoing the whole bath or kitchen, what are small things you'd say i should do to make it look as new as possible?

Home Depot sells really nice peel-and-stick vinyl tiles that look like nice tile. I redid a laundry room in a rental house I recently renovated for sale and it really looked nice and was economical. Or, they also sell vinyl tile that can be grouted to look like ceramic tile, but would be resiliant. Where are you located, Quick?

I sold my condo with six offers in the first 24 hours. Here's what I can tell you: people like light, bright, airy, and very clean.

Bathrooms: they should be white, if you have brown or pink toilets there are companies that will reglaze and can change tile color without having to do a whole demolition.

Kitchen: I'd go for stainless steel appliances or possibly black. Put some knobs on the kitchen cabinets, curtains on the window, and again change the kitchen floor or give the allowance.

Lighting: I kind of like your funky light fixtures, but I'm a creative type. You can go to Home Depot, lamps plus, IKEA, And get some cheap but more upscale lighting fixtures.

If the house is not have great architecture, ie high ceilings, striking entryway, then possibly staging it would be beneficial. One of the easiest ways to stage yourself is to collect things off of craigslist. If you have no sense of interior decorating, ask friends, family for suggestions then do a search on craigslist. People move frequently and often sell almost new items or cool pieces that you can get quite reasonably that will make your place stand out. My condo was all white furniture, most of which I got inexpensively but it looked grand.

You can give a flooring allowance, but you also in a senior community would probably do alright with a nice neutral carpet. If the carpets are trashed, and you don't have the house staged, it may be worth changing the flooring. I just bought a house that had horrible stains on the carpet, was incredibly messy with two kids three dogs two cats and an incredible amount of junk. What it did have was great views, open light, bright, space, grounds that had they been cared for would've been spectacular. I'm a visual person so I could see past the owners dogs And bad taste to the potential of the place. Not everyone can do that, so you want to have as little detracting visuals as possible.

Definitely paint the house interiors, white is always a safe bet. The house I bought was universally brown paint everywhere, which I knew I was going to change, and I knew would be a pain in the butt. At least with white people want to put on color it's easy.

Hard to give advice without seeing more, but again get a cleaning crew and their top to bottom windows inside and out garage, attic, get carpets cleaned or replaced, Curb appeal, and make sure everything works. Inspections are pretty tight these days so you want all your systems to be in perfect working order.

Good luck!

I would also recommend having an inspection done before you put it on the market and then you can find out what problems you could possibly have which would cause people to ask for a reduction of the price after you have a contract and get those items taken care of before you list the house. I know selling FSBO saves on the commission, but I highly recommend using a realtor--you can avoid a lot of problems that way. At the very least, use a lawyer for all contracts.

For staging, you can rent furniture to set up each room...so living area, dining area, bedroom. A stager can really help you get the house sold quickly. It may seem like an expense at first, but in the long run they save you money, because your house isn't sitting on the market with you having to carry a mortgage. A few hundred dollars could save you a few thousand in the long run, and they are trained to work quickly, helping you take all the guess work of getting your house ready for sale.

Try hardware like this for kitchen cabinets:
Kitchen Cabinets by South Burlington Kitchen and Bath Simpson Cabinetry

You can give me a review by clicking on my name...go to "review me". Thanks!

For some reason the image didn't show??

Something like this...just updated.

If you have any friends who seem to have a sense of style, perhaps they would be willing to help you out. It is always best to work with an experienced professional. There is a difference between staging and interior decorating. Staging is neutral design, where interior decorating is personal. Professional decorators know the difference. That being said, if all else fails and you are unable to find someone, there are plenty of resources online that can help guide you. Get a couple of decorating magazines and try to put together a room yourself...but I would advise getting someone, there may be a few people who are just starting out in this business who would offer a discount to help build their portfolio.

I agree with Bella in that it is best to hire a professional, even if you just take notes & do all the footwork yourself. Don't think of it as an expense...it is an investment to improve your property & get a higher selling price.

Nancy: I"m in Toms River, NJ

photogirlla: THanks for your input.

Colour: As per your request, see attached exterior photo. Your suggestions?

If you're changing the hardware on cabinets you'll be better to use something like the two upper photos above rather than the 2 lower. Knobs are harder to grasp for people who may have arthritis in their hands.

Also, I agree with photogirlla re: carpet. I'd much rather see a $$ allowance in the price with the buyer being able to pick the color of their choice - or apply the allowance to hardwood if they desire. I can't tell you how many brand new carpets I've seen ripped out by new buyers. It was truly money down the drain for the carpet - to say nothing of the ecological issue.

might be worth a trip to floor n decor. check on line for specials on hardwoods, laminates, tile and granite. they offer an hour of free design help with their on staff designers. it's by appt. they can help with flooring and countertops. even paint suggestions. some people prefer carpet but many dislike it. look online for details on area homes in your price point.

onthefence: I"ll definitely, use your suggestion of the upper 2 handles as opposed to konbs. Regarding flooring, although ecologically and economically it makes more sense to offer an allowance, practically it does not.
When selling the home, i believe it should looks as appealing as possible. Many home buyers can not see past their nose and if no flooring or dirty flooring is there, it will turn them off. Better invest the money for new flooring. the questions is then do we do carpet or hardwood? I'm leaning towards carpet in bedrooms and hardwood in dining and living room.

quick123, I think the carpet issue may be one of those areas where we'll agree to disagree ;-) I DO understand about the staging with furnishings. I think there are a lot of people (I'm IN that group) who often have a hard time envisioning where furniture will fit in an empty room.

Re: floor coverings though, i think that's a long perpetuated myth. I do believe if you have people the choice of their own floor covering vs knowing they were paying for a new floor covering that they didn't particularly care for, you'd get far more takers for people who want to make their own choice. We'll be selling a condo in the next month or so and that's the approach we'll be taking. The folks I know who have ripped out brand new carpets say the same.

Onthefence: You make a good case...but... lets see what happens...

Suggestions for cabinet handles; the tighter the curve the harder for arthritic hands. Go for something with a square profile and at least 1.5" from the face.

In front of house, I would tear out the short roundish shaped evergreen and put in a big pot or barrel of colorful flowers, maybe a bunch of red geraniums. Fresh mulch and make sure the other evergreens are trimmed and lawn mowed.
In the kitchen, the fridge seems oversized and dominates, making the kitchen look smaller and crowded at least in that picture. I would replace with a smaller fridge if possible. The floor didn't look that bad but hard to tell in the pic.
Re: staging, I would go on zillow website and look at pics of other houses for sale in your area. Notice which pictures appeal to you and analyze the picture for what furniture and accessories they have used (and not used) and how they've placed them and that will give you some ideas. Then rent the pieces you need to replicate that sort of look and pick up similar accessories at Goodwill. You'll probably notice that less stuff is more appealing when you're looking.

Oh, a pretty new welcome mat on porch too.
On the kitchen handles, pick something that matches the existing holes from the existing handles or you'll have a lot of work to do.
A vignette is just an arrangement of items that go together. For example, a side table with a lamp, some books stacked on each other and maybe a framed mirror leaned on the wall behind them. Look at close up pics on Houzz and you'll see how things have been arranged to relate to each other. Usually one just looks and thinks, that looks nice. But when you stop to analyze you notice how it is put together.

My Houzz: Traditional Touches With Cottage Flair in Canada
Go to this house tour to see a nicely staged house.

You asked a few times above if the fact that this house is in a 55+ community for "seniors" has a bearing on what you should do and not do. I for one would say the only important difference in dealing with this age demographic is that usually by this point in life people more often than not know what they want and know what they like and won't hesitate if and when they see it. I can say also that as my own mother aged she became more and more open to the use of color. De-cluttering and optimal cleaning are important as is always true and a special effort should be made to make the rooms appear as large and roomy as is possible. I would think the usual grab bars etc. were taken care of by the original builders of the community. And I don't believe experienced home buyers will be so caught up in what looks or is many times referred to on this forum as "dated." You know as in granite is dated, and some people are so over it, etc. Good luck! (I will be going through this process very soon (at least I hope so!) I know it will involve a lot of decision making about seemingly unimportant details. I'm looking forward to it. Anything to get out of Florida and back to California. (We relocated for family reasons for a period of two or three years back in 1999! Unfortunately my husband has had a series of surgeries, the result of a Mayo Clinic misdiagnosis, that has kept him from his int'l consulting work (no income!) since 2004. A lot of medical problems to deal with and on top of that, a dated honey oak kitchen! lol

about your exterior front... Looks pretty good. Would it be possible to trim back the tree that is partially covering your garage front? It's a conservative front landscaping that might benefit from a bit of colour in flowers. What time of year are you planning on selling?

the large bush to the right of the front door is overpowering. replacing it with a large pot of colorful annuals would be more welcoming. possibly add a windowbox. the front door looks like a dark hole in this photo. if it's like that in person, i'd consider a brighter color, maybe turquoise or yellow.

I agree the outside needs some color, maybe even some hanging plants....Love the idea of a bright colored door!

Hi Jennie: I'm unsure where the photos of those staged home that you are referring to are located. Kindly advise.

Madeline: thanks for your input

Colur: Were selling in the next few weeks. will add some color

Please consider doing one colour (such as all yellow flowers or all red ...or purple, which is very popular just now here in Toronto

Click on idea books and then Houzz tours and then traditional and it will bi one of those. Could also search for that title. It is in the Houzz site.

will do Colour!

Colour: here are some more, recently taken photos of the exterior. your thoughts?

I would take out the three trees/bushes and use flowers. I can't see the front door and I think the one closest to the driveway prevents you from walking in comfortably in the front door. I would paint the shutters too. Cute house.

Tennis: We will paint the shutters Brown, and remove the largest bush blocking walkwy. regarding the other two bushes, i felt that a trim would be suffice. your thoughts?

You can even do green or brown shutters. I guess you can always trim the bush. if you didn't want to take it out because of expenses. but it makes the entrance so much smaller. If I were buying the house, I would remove the other big bush too and probably do a window box with plants.

humm... food for thought. removal of bush should be too expensive. i'm just not sure if home would look to bare

From the photos, the front appears completely blocked by the three bushes/trees. If you aren't comfortable removing all three, then try taking the two large ones flanking the front entry. Landscaping properly with color will give you a huge bang for your buck. Right now, although the house is cute it is not very welcoming. As to the colors, have you considered painting the shutters and the front door black? Then add a touch of red in the flower bed in front of the door and you will see a real transformation. The combination of white with the black accent door and shutters and red flowers is a powerful combination that works well.

If leaving the bushes (other than one you are removing) have them trimmed so they are not Christmas tree shaped. Just an idea. A rounded or nice square/oblong shape would look more modern.

Clean, clean, and re-clean!

Denita, you are making it very tempting...

IMDB: oh, ok.

It's a little difficult to tell from the photos but it almost looks like the two trees flanking the entry are dwarf spruces. If that's the case it may be a good idea to transplant them elsewhere on the lot if you can. Or at the very least, offer them to a neighbor for their yard.

OK. so i bought all the lite fix and outlets...that'll be phase I of the redo. then flooring.