Author: Pickle Lady's Helper

Often the things that make a house a home are the very things that will cost you plenty when it's time to sell.  This is particularly true when it come to color choices.  

In our continuing series on home staging, we offer our tips on paints, finishes, and color choices.  Check it out! 

well good morning friends hello brandon diane bro here your prescott pickle team we are indeed i am the prescott pickle lady um when you come in you’ll see why i’ll bring you some of my cajun pickles they are fabulous yeah the pickle lady often wears uh green but not during our wine downs i can’t can’t wear green i love green i know green is my lucky color i have green eyes they get really green when i wear green i have my lucky green jade earrings i’m all about green all about green well we’re here now let’s talk about color so we’re doing staging tips for our sellers out there uh as i said in a previous wine down uh professional staging isn’t that big of a deal and prescott not a lot that go not a lot of that going on uh yourself we trust you guys yeah no that’s the way it’s good it’s done by the sellers and done by the agents it’s not done by professionals but just because it’s not done by professionals does not mean it’s not important it’s violated and it’s vitally important and it’s very necessary now and one of the important factors in staging your home is color color color color we’re going to talk about some colors some things that you need to keep in mind about colors in a home right uh one of them so if one of the i think we’ve talked about this before if you’ve got weird colors yeah you need to paint yes if you’ve got like yeah uh bright aqua yeah yeah peach peach is so dated yeah peaches love is so dated yeah um seafoam green is so dated and a lot of the painting techniques are dated the faux finishes and stuff like that a lot of that is really kind of passe people really get turned off when they see it it’s kind of like popcorn ceilings you just can’t sell anything with a popcorn ceiling now there are certain colors where that is the case um i would i would i always tell people avoid just white uh it’s too strong it’s too stark people go to white because they think it is uh safe right um but it can be too bright and too jarring yeah particularly if you don’t have a lot of too sterile too sterile particularly if you’re not gonna have a lot of pictures on the wall yeah if you just show a home that’s empty with white walls it really cheapens it quite a bit so be careful like when we say hey these peach walls you really should paint go with a nice neutral gray or a nice neutral soft white or soft cream yeah or like a taupe very soft completely neutral nothing jarring nothing startling nothing um for instance we had a house in baton rouge way back in the day and our daughter’s playroom we we did this whole all four walls were beach scenes and sea creatures and murals and we had a great time we also did it in texas in their house too um but as soon as we went on the market nobody had to tell us we immediately covered it up and painted and did all it was kind of sad yeah we did take some movies of it and some pictures so the kids could look back and realize what amazing talented parents they had yeah because we need to you know constantly put that in front of that like send them the evidence yeah not many parents paint their walls like this for their kids yeah but your parents did yeah you had a blue a killer whale yeah we had a killer yeah yeah and jellyfish and we allowed that to happen but anyway that’s just a shout out to the kids and all you parents out there who did the same thing you know you know what we’re talking about kids rooms are always suspect so if you’re yes if your daughter just loved hot pink and her whole room is hot pink including the trim you’re gonna have to paint that absolutely you know uh little boys like uh you know crazy dark colors sometimes black walls yeah they’ll be terrible get rid of that space scene or whatever and or whatever it is uh crazy purples we’ve seen some crazy purples it’s got to go yellow it’s got to go don’t push the envelope with colors if you have something that’s pushing an envelope you really should paint them and you know it may cost you maybe a thousand dollars to repaint all that yeah it’s worth it you will reap that in in the price of your home you will regain all of that and more and again if you leave it and it remains in place your house will probably sit on the market yeah and the longer it sits on the market you’re going to have to drop the price drop the price so that little bit of investment ahead of time will actually get you more money even if it doesn’t so so i’ve told the horror story before there was a home beautiful home uh the walls were a mint green that’s not that offensive no not about uh but everyone took in it was like this doesn’t match any of my stuff uh in the end long story short i think that color ended up costing them at least fifty thousand dollars they had to keep it was they ended up having it anyway yeah they should have painted it in the beginning and you’d be done and they would have been done right away and they would have gotten more money for the home it’s not just oh i can’t sell my home so i have to lower the price right if you have two people who are interested in your home then they compete with one another on price you get more money if your weird color only makes one go away it’s going to cost you money even if the home sells right away it can still cost you money that’s right and the other thing is people people were like well they can paint it themselves and they can pick whatever they want people just don’t have the imagination the vision and also they think to themselves i want to be move-in ready i don’t i don’t want to come in and have to hire painters have to find a painter i want to be able to move right in and unpack my stuff hang my stuff on the walls if they have to wait for a painter and it might take two or three weeks to get the whole house painted it’s a turn off they may walk away from a perfectly great house just because they’re not interested or they find one that they don’t have to do that and that’s a deciding factor right yeah so i know when we moved in our home i painted it from top to bottom and it was about a three week process because i had a small team yes and um so yeah if you want to live with your painter and get to be really good friends yeah you know and that’s okay um but it’s you’re really better off just doing a a minimal touch-up painting yeah and and adjusting the color it will save you a lot of time and money in the long run time on market and more money absolutely absolutely so another another seller tip if you’re looking for seller tips or just information about real estate or just prescott in general whether you’re a buyer seller or somewhere in between go to pickle411.com correct that is our information center everything there is free and highly highly entertaining and insightful it can be it’s very insightful too and anyway if you’re making uh thank thinking of making a trip to prescott give us a call we’d love to show you around our great town and show you some interesting properties some good places absolutely all right take care and have a good day bye

Real estate has gotten kind of spiritual.  Life coaches and spiritual healers will tell you that the first and most important step in selling your property is to create a canvas that allows your buyers to paint a picture of their new lives inside your home.  

Deep, right?

While all that may make sense to sellers drinking mushroom tea, you may be looking for some more specific steps - a little less spiritual and a little more concrete.  

Well, in this Wine Down, we bring this concept straight down to earth (where most homes are sold anyway).  Come check it out!

hello hello hello hello beats randall and i am bro here your local prescott pickle team that’s us i am the pickle lady uh happy to join you today and uh we want to talk a little bit about something that i think everybody should learn when they’re about to list their home and uh you know just listen to the advice of your agent and one of the main things we’d love to talk about when you are ready to go live and we’re getting ready to take pictures and video of your home you want it to be shown in the best possible light possible mm-hmm i said that this might be possible best possible light as possible forget about that yeah only one possibility just take one of those possibles ignore all that but yeah possible ignore the extra possibility if it’s possible if it’s possible ignore the extra possible that’s right so this is yeah seller tips staging tips so in this town uh professional staging is relatively unusual in some markets it is a matter of course that sellers will pay a professional stager they’ll come in and stage the home for the most part that doesn’t happen in prescott usually yeah there’s some uh you know usually staging you’ll see if the home is empty right and uh they don’t think it shows well empty they may put a few things in absolutely uh but state professional staging is not that big a deal in prescott but that does not mean that staging isn’t important it’s super important but it’s up to you to get it done that you are my agent right so the most important thing is i’m sure most of you have heard this if you’ve sold a home before declutter declutter declutter yep declutter i’m famous for this i have a stack where my mail goes i have a stack for here stack for there yeah i have my books tucked you know irregularly that’s a good word they’re regular books yeah in the in the in my bookcase and things like that and you get little pigeonholes like yes you stuff stuff in the in the space between the book and the top of the bookshelf just as a temporary holding spot and three years later that paper is still there well we’re not here to talk about the issues you have with you no i’m not trying to i i’m i’m assuming that i feel like he’s he’s addressing that to me because that is what i am famous i am uh we see that in homes that we are listing we see that in homes that we were taking our buyers through it’s like you know they really should spend a couple of minutes to stage the home better right and the decluttering is just sort of a base you know you you you get used to seeing that paper in the pigeon hole or whatever it is you don’t even see it anymore and after a while you stop seeing you don’t see it but other people other people will yeah and then they’re like oh that was you know and and they get not fixated but that’s all they see yeah and they don’t see the other good qualities of your home yes and so anyway it’s very important to get rid of the stacks of magazines you may have okay national geographic oh my gosh my parents must have had 150 right i have never had a buyer ask them you think you can get them to uh give me those copies of national do you think that’s not gonna happen just letting go interested in your national geographic that’s right yeah and and you know people need to understand that a home purchase is in large part an emotional decision absolutely investors maybe not so much they’re looking at the numbers and that kind of stuff but typically uh buyers either fall in love with your house or they don’t right and they don’t always know why they fall in love or why they don’t fall in love and honestly you know some clutter on top of the books in the bookshelf might be enough that that little you know brains and synapse or whatever shut it down just doesn’t fire and the home doesn’t really connect they won’t connect with them and they don’t even know why yeah uh they couldn’t even explain it so absolutely it’s not like we’re being irrational oh they can see past the papers like honestly we’re here to tell you but they won’t they most of them can’t they just they just it’s like they don’t have the imagination so it’s very important um when we say declutter we don’t mean to be insulting to you or this that and the other we’re just telling you we’ve been in homes and the ones that are decluttered they’re so they sell quick they sell fast just say bye bye bye yeah you know if you haven’t used it in two years get rid of it and it doesn’t bring you joy is that lady says that japanese lady who yeah i can’t think of her name condo yeah it’s actually she’s she’s she’s on the money which is absolutely if you haven’t used it in two years it’s never going to happen get rid of it and make your house look good just but if you’re a child of the depression you just can’t throw things away that’s fine too get some storage get some storage and get it in storage correct pull it out yeah roll it out it’s got to go go down yeah one of the things you need to be aware of is that in large part people coming to prescott are looking to retire they are typically coming from homes that are much bigger than the homes that they will be buying so if your home feels like it’s not all that spacious uh it’s gonna be a stumbling point for them they’re trying to fit their 3 000 square foot life into 1700 square feet you want to make your 1700 square feet or whatever it is look as big and spacious absolutely and then they can envision wow maybe i could take my china hutch and put this here yeah um that’s that which leads us to our second point if you’ve got a ton of furniture jammed in there pull some pieces up if you’ve got two end tables and a sofa table and a coffee table and huge sofas pull some of that stuff up pull it out it’s too much people think oh gosh i would never fit in here i can’t bring my stuff that is yeah and people don’t think about that they’ll have a small uh a small living area and his and hers big fat lazy boy chairs or something and they just put them side by side in front of their 50 000 square inch tv uh you know and that’s how you want to live that’s fine but those big chairs take up a lot of room and and you come in you say well this room only holds two chairs yeah yeah you know and they can’t they can’t envision for themselves so it’s always good to de-furnish yeah pull out some of the bigger pieces um and just go put them in storage uh just present it as open and as spacious as possible so that people can envision their pieces of furniture in there yes and if it’s too much furniture i’ve seen it time and time again because i take hundreds of buyers out a year if they go in a house that is heavily furnished with big big pieces big king-size bed four dressers it shuts them off they’re like uh yeah i can’t i can’t no this is not for me it’s too small the reality is it’s really not too small you just may have a little bit too much furniture more than once we have been out with buyers looking at homes and we show two homes that have the same floor plan yes and they will talk about how one of them is so much more spacious than the other same square footage you understand those homes are exactly the same they have but they can’t they they can’t that’s not that’s not the impression it was so much darker and it was just because there was too much furniture in the room that’s a really good point a lot of furniture too will also make a house seem much darker than it really is if you’ve got a lot of big pieces especially if it’s dark wood or this that in the other yeah it does tend to darken the home even if you’ve got your curtains open and blinds up so again just take some advice and just say okay i will remove some of these pieces and i’ll go put it in storage it will just save you some time and time on the market yeah because we’re always like let’s wrap it up let’s get this sold for you so you don’t have to have the torture of visits and showings and it can be hard to do that so we want to make it as easy and stress-free as possible so listen to mom and dad when we say please declutter and please remove some of this bigger furniture it’s not meant to be not an insult but it’s not meant to yeah it’s just to allow you to sell your home more easily and for more money you can get an extra buyer uh interested in your home uh that could mean tens of thousand dollars absolutely time on market is time that you might lose some money absolutely the more time you’re on that market the price could you know be affected yeah absolutely all right keep that in mind and uh we hope to see you soon i’d love to take you out and show you some declutter defurnished homes yeah that’s right i’d love to do that if we have somebody out there thinking about listing we’d love to come talk to you in person and help you in those steps to get ready to get on the market if you’re just looking for more information at this point whether you’re a buyer seller somewhere in between check out pickle411.com that is our information center everyone everything there is uh free and it’s also highly entertaining it can be finally i watch it all the time you watch yourself all the time absolutely good for you me and john travolta he takes me up in that plane of bits all over gosh okay well good for you i’m glad you enjoy watching it