Getting the house ready

It starts with a walk-through

Before anything else, your agent walks the house with you, inside and out, with a notebook. Nadia trained as an architect and still does it the way she was taught: from the curb inward, the way a buyer arrives. What do you see from the street? What does the front door feel like to open? Where does the eye go when you step inside? Which room smells like the dog?

You get a written list within a couple of days, sorted into three groups:

Do before photos

Things buyers will see in pictures or notice in the first minute: clutter, dark rooms, a peeling front door, an overgrown path, stained ceiling tiles, a dated light fixture over the dining table.

Do before listing

Things an inspector will find and a buyer's attorney will ask for: a dripping tap, a missing GFCI outlet, a broken window sash, gutters full of leaves, a loose railing.

Think about

Larger items where we'll give you an honest view of whether you'll get the money back: refinishing floors, painting the whole interior, a new roof, replacing an oil tank.

What tends to pay for itself

In our experience selling around 100 listings a year, these are the improvements that most often come back at the sale, roughly in order:

1. Cleaning and decluttering

   Free, or nearly. Take out a third of what's in each room, including the closets; buyers open them.

2. Paint

   A light, warm neutral on walls that need it, and the front door. In old houses, fresh white trim goes a long way.

3. Light

   Bright bulbs of the same color temperature in every fixture; clean windows; curtains open.

4. Small repairs

   Everything on the "before listing" list. A buyer who sees ten small problems assumes there are a hundred.

5. Floors

   Refinishing old wood floors or replacing worn carpet with a simple floor often returns more than it costs.

6. The approach

   Cut back shrubs, edge the path, put a pot by the door, fix the mailbox. In fall, rake. In winter, shovel wider than you need to.

What rarely pays: a full kitchen or bath renovation right before listing. Buyers have their own ideas, and you'll be living in a construction site while you try to sell.

Staging

Staging isn't decorating. It's arranging a house so buyers can see the rooms rather than your things, and so the photographs read clearly. We work with a small network of independent stagers in Dutchess, Ulster and Columbia counties. They range from a consult-only visit, where a stager rearranges what you have and tells you what to remove, to full staging of an empty house with rented furniture.

A vacant old house almost always benefits from staging: empty rooms look smaller, and the odd corners of a farmhouse or Victorian are hard to understand without furniture. Staging can be paid through Fieldstone Prep.

Photography, floor plans and video

Every listing gets a professional photographer, booked for the right light. River-view houses are often shot in late afternoon; north-facing Victorians in the middle of the day. We hold the shoot if it's raining unless the house looks good in rain (some do). A typical listing has 30 to 45 photographs, a measured floor plan and, where it helps, aerial shots of the land and short video.

Our rules for photos are simple. Wide-angle lenses, but not so wide that rooms look like a hotel lobby. No virtual furniture unless clearly labeled. No sky replacement that makes October look like June. If the barn is falling down, there's a photo of the barn falling down, with a caption. Buyers who feel misled by photos arrive annoyed and leave quickly.

A three-week prep plan

1. Week 1

   Walk-through and list. Book trades through Fieldstone Prep if you're using it. Start clearing closets, attic and basement. Order a pre-listing septic pump-out if you're on septic.

2. Week 2

   Repairs and paint. Floors last. Stager's consultation. Landscaping and gutters.

3. Week 3

   Deep clean, staging installed, windows washed. Photography at the end of the week. Disclosure form finished with your agent and reviewed by your attorney.