1. Replace weatherstripping back door.

2. Clean gutters

3. Trim trees

4. Re-carpet upstairs after in-laws leave post holidays (schedule now!)

5. Re-upholster family room sofa after kids leave post holidays (buy fabric, schedule now!)

6. Clean chimney

7. Paint eaves

8. Figure out how to graciously get more of kids’ belongings out of the house

9. Quit reminding spouse to shut garage door — maybe it will all get stolen!

While perusing through D Home, I found this story —  might be helpful to any of us about to let a workman take one step into our homes. Get those surgical booties ready, have them waiting by the front door!

Have a staging question for Karen? Send it my way along with photos, we’ll post and she’ll offer tips and suggestions. And now, heeeeere’s Karen:

Take a picture, it lasts longer. Remember that phrase? Who knew it would take on such a powerful meaning when it comes to selling your home? If your house is about to go on the market, it had better be picture perfect.

Stroll through any major real estate website. Look at the photos. Would you really want to buy those houses? The last time a couple called wondering why their fabulous home was not selling, I looked it up online. Guess what I found? Photographs that included a dining room converted into an office with paper work covering the desk, an overflowing trash can, cords strung halfway across the room, glaring lights, bare windows and empty walls. The kitchen photo featured a blue mop bucket sitting on the counter, packing boxes on the floor and a sink full of dishes. Yes, this sure says, “move in ready”! (More like Tobacco Road!) The real tragedy is that the agent took the photo with his iPhone. Never, ever let an agent take your photographs. They are professional agents. They sell houses. They are not professional photographers and you should not expect them to be. You should also not expect them to pay for your photographer.

The old thought process has always been that three things sell a house: location, price and condition. Reality check, there’s one more crucial element involved in getting a home sold, photography.  The photos you put out there had better look just like Architectural Digest.

According to the National Association of Realtors, 93% of homes are first viewed online. What does that mean to a seller?  Buyers are shopping in the comfort of their own home. To get them out of the chair, into the car, and over to your “for sale” house is going to take some motivation. Think about it. You buy things online all the time. What gets you to the store? You really need to feel that cashmere sweater and try on those Manolos! The photograph has to be so inviting that it makes you race over to the mall and get some instant gratification. What makes you think selling a house is any different?

Wait, there’s more. Your house had better be professionally staged before the photographer steps inside. If you want to move it, you need every advantage. A stager will know exactly what to remove, what to hide and how to angle every piece of furniture to your best advantage. Staging provides the second best return on investment of anything you can do to sell your home.  Don’t worry, its not like HGTV. Stagers don’t come to your house and kick your furniture to the curb. They really work hard to make the most of what you’ve got.

Rates have never been lower. Qualified buyers are few and far between. Your home is generally the largest asset you have. Isn’t a smarter to hire a stager and put great photographs online? Do the math. It will generally cost well under a grand and often only a few hundred dollars to hire a stager and a professional photographer for an occupied property. Contrast that to the typical first price reduction of a home. It’s ten grand. Can we say “no brainer”?

Above: Before     Below: After  Which would you buy?

In reading your piece on Oriental Rugs, I feel that I must respond to some of the points.

As you know, I am fortunate to be a part of an oriental rug family in Dallas since 1934. My grandfather and father built a business on honesty and trust.

I can see by the project that you write about that a very good thing is going on in Afghanistan. There have been various projects over the years that have tried to do this. In fact, the Oriental Rug Retailers of America, which my father founded, attempted to address some of these issues, with respect to child labor back in the 70′s.

My questions though, are these. If 92% of the proceeds from the sale of the rugs in the project is going to be returned to the weavers, how does the wool get purchased, spun, and dyed? And how do the rugs get shipped and marketed. There are a number of costs associated with producing a rug that go far beyond just weaving cost. Don’t misunderstand me, I think what these people are doing is very worthwhile, but I guess that I may be misunderstanding the math here.

Additionally, the statement about only buying a rug with a mission disturbs me a little. Are people to assume that those of us in this business that are not here simply for what we can take FROM our community, but rather to live by the idea that one needs to put back into the community that we take from….should we be excluded from the rug buying public?

My grandfather and father thought it extremely important to do those things. And they were not concerned about whether people should know. A lot of people in Dallas do a great deal for the underprviledged here, and without any fanfare.

As the people you have written about are doing, my family has done for the last 75 years. No “Going out of Business” sales, no “80% Off” sales….just honest dealing with the people of this community, with the idea that you put into the community what you get out of it.

I believe that the project in Afghanistan is wonderful…..but let’s not lose sight of great things being done by the local community as well. I count my self as one of those.

David

Rejebian and Son Oriental Rugs
6604 Snider Plaza
Dallas, TX 75205

At it’s Metropolitan Home sponsored debut party Thursday night, the new Cantoni house cradled these puppies as eye candy. There was the newest Bugatti and a few Bentleys ranging in price from $135,000 (the cheapest) to $1.1 million, I think, my head was swimming once I saw a car priced for more than a million dollars.  Good thing I toured the contemporary masterpiece the previous day; the 7500 square foot home was bursting at the seams and loaded with every design/architectural Who’s Who in Dallas, from the 22 foot long counter connecting the bar with the kitchen to the exterior pool-side linear fire pit. I could see why they wanted the cars there — the Cantoni homes’ garage is like a piece of art, with clean lines, porcelain tile floor, and sliding glass doors. Perfect showplace for designer cars. The idea, which is so smart, is that you arrive home every night in your garage, you see this room every day, sometimes more than you’d like. Why not make it attractive? Or enjoy the same foyer your guests enjoy — the house is designed so that you enter the front foyer from the garage and walk into the most beautiful formal rooms first thing. The view from the garage is spectacular.

The home, which was conceived, drawn and designed right at Cantoni on Alpha Road, utilized all the Cantoni Design Studio resources, taking into consideration a total design plan for the interiors. This approach is unique in the Dallas area, and Cantoni, now in the building biz, aims to change the way contemporary homes are built and purchased in this market.

The Cantoni house has a name –Axis.  It is derived from the whole experience of walking through the house around an “axis”. Enter through the large steel pivot front door and your view is first a dazzling outdoor sculpture. The architects wanted every axis in the home to end with a dramatic focal point — at times a sculpture, another time a fabulous tree, pool or the lush gardens.

You will be hearing a lot about this home over the next few months, as it marries Cantoni’s 25 years of great design with superb, sleek construction. How gutsy, I thought when I first stepped in, is it of a furniture and decor store to take on new construction (like now), but how smart are they to capitalize on their brand from not just furniture but to cabinets and drawers. Oh — go up and see the media room, most beautiful I have seen in ages. A second Cantoni home in the Uptown area is already underway — I can hardly wait!

“Help,” says she. “I have no time to even begin with the inside, so I figured I’d spend the only 5 minutes I have where it counts — at the front door.”

Good move, say my experts, Jane Mills and Cliff Ellman of Spiffi Decor. That’s exactly where you want to begin. The front door is where the love affair with a home begins, it’s the bride on the threshold. The buyer absorbs all senses around him as he (she) stands there and really decides: am I going to marry this house? Let the pheromones begin!

It goes without saying the front porch should be spotlessly clean, ditto the door molding and door itself.

“Everything must look fresh and new, ” says Jane.

But don’t stop with a bottle of 409 and fingerprints. Check out the weather stripping, squeaking hinges, peeled paint (big no-no) and door knocker. Do you have door numbers so buyers can even find the house? (Don’t laugh — a house in Preston Hollow that I saw yesterday which appears to be empty has no numbers on the house or curb. How can I look this house up?)  What does the mailbox look like? The doormat: new, we hope, and coordinating with the house. As for those numbers, make sure they mimic the home’s style — you wouldn’t want traditional brass on a sleek contemporary home,  or rice-stick thin steel numbers on a traditional Georgian.

“And think about what your home’s entrance will look like at night, ” says Jane.

Night? Most showings are in the day.

If someone is interested in a home, says Mills, don’t you know they are going to drive by the place ten times a day even at night. Make that front porch sparkle – like an engagement ring.

Flowers — yes, the bouquet. Fresh, fragrant and coordinating with the home style and color. Not your style? Add a lovely sculpture or an urn filled with a fresh succulent.

Take five, ten minutes to really get that front door and entrance perfect, grand, inviting your buyer in to take your home right down the aisle.

Here? On DallasDirt? Just read some of the posts, you’ll see that Thorazine must not be getting covered by a lot of HMO’s these days.

(See? I’m being mean! Bad blogger!)

“Everything inside is nothing but beige and barf”: what one commenter wrote about a home on the Real Estalker — I won’t even repeat what the Real Estalker wrote about Phil Romano’s home.

(Hate to be picky, but barf is not always beige.)

Why do we have to be so mean and put down other people’s homes? Are we just envious? Maybe some people like their homes all huge and purple, like a bruise. (Slap me!) We cannot all afford the Taj Mahal one of the Ten Most Beautiful Homes In Dallas, nor can we all afford to hire the likes of Trisha Wilson, Emily Summers, Neal Stewart or Michele Nussbaumer to create exquisite, tasteful home environments. (Maybe some of us would rather be altruistic with funds and buy back a foreclosed home for a sobbing woman.) We are all to do this tasteful decorating on our own? (Hello, why do you think Pottery Barn was created.)Well, what if we cannot? Is that why we offer up snarky opinions on photos of homes that are not to our liking, or remind us of (give me sunglasses) pre-school?

But who would be stupid enough to leave an exercise bike smack in the middle of the room he was trying to showcase for sale? 

I guess we have all become critics.

This article blames the housing crisis, but I disagree. The nasties were sky-high last year right here when Dallas was buying up props like a drunken sailor. I have friends who admonish me  and say I should be doing something much more productive with a Columbia degree. (Mail-order, of course.) I wish I could trail a president, find Sarah Palin’s sordid past. But I truly love real estate, so I trail homes, agents, and all that it entails in Dallas. I feel there is so much to be gained from these blogs — a chance for greater transparency in the marketplace in a non-disclosure state. This is a chance for buyers to dig past the canned PR pitches. Years ago, it was said that Dallas Realtors ruined the Dallas public schools because whenever a family moved to Dallas, they would steer them towards Highland Park, University Park, or a suburb to get the better school district. Have no idea if that is true. (But we can discuss.) A blog is a place where the public can say no, that’s not the truth, here’s what our experience was. Like the woman who emailed me the other day detailing a awful experience with a home builder. A blog is a place where we can share ideas and experiences within the realm of journalism: a town-hall meeting, a group discussion. 

As for the comments, when they get out of control, they will be deleted.  Out of control means defaming someone, making accusations, hurting people. If we do have to spill public-record facts, I want to give people a chance to voice their side of the story. We can all be critics, but we don’t have to be mean. I like the example of the woman who fought back negative comments about her “obsolecent” kitchen. Few months back, I posted a friend’s home to see the reaction it would get, and it was awful. Very hurtful. The truth was, however, her Realtor had taken shoddy photos. It showed. If you want to sell a home (or anything), you showcase it — what single woman goes out looking for love without makeup? I felt so badly about the nasty comments, I offered to help stage her home for another round of photos. But… her home sold despite the bad photography! See, somebody loved it after all!