Heron Home Staging blog

Simple, inexpensive, and effective: the first impression

2009-03-01T05:30:00.001-08:00

The first impression of your home comes from the outside.

Often, potential buyers are driving through the neighborhood, looking at homes that they have seen on the internet or in the newspaper, taking a first look to see if your home is one that they would like to visit. Or they may have decided on a neighborhood, and are looking for "For Sale" signs. Or your property might just catch the eye of someone who had no intention of moving, until they saw that your home was available! Driving around the tri-hamlet area at the end of winter, I see many on-sale homes that are sadly missing any appeal from the street.

So how do you maximise this "curb appeal" during the colder months? How can you make sure your home is appealing to anyone who passes buy, who might be looking to buy?

(And if you are a landlord looking for a tenant, this applies to you too!)

Here are some simple things that can be done at little or no cost, to make your home more appealing--and to stop people just driving straight by. If they don't like the look from outside, they will rarely step through the front door.

1) Remove all litter and rubbish from the yard and street around the home. During winter, the wind, racoons and crows all do their share in spreading garbage around our community. Take an honest look at the home that is for sale, and the street outside... then find a garbage bag or two, and clean up. If there are undeveloped plots surrounding the home, see what you can do there, too. One house I saw yesterday has a "For Sale" sign, plus a Town of Brookhaven posting telling the owner to clean up the litter.... now that is not a good way of advertising what the house might be like inside!

2) Think about power washing the siding and fencing. Remember what it looked like once-upon-a-time? A coat of moss does nothing but add the impression of neglect. There are many local companies who will do the power wash for you, or you can do it yourself. Our local home improvement stores have inexpensive homeowner washers, or they can be rented by the day--and if you're doing the siding, why not do the deck and/or any cement or concrete hard surface, too? Check out craigslist.com and search for "powerwashing" or "power wash", and you'll find local people who can help. Your home may soon look twenty years younger!

3) Tidy up overgrown and straggly areas of the yard. Trim back the pampas grass, tidy the edges of the flower borders. Now is a good time to minimize the effect of invasive vines and briars, as you can easily see what is dead wood. Even though spring has not yet sprung, the yard can still look tidy, and show prospective buyers that they do not immediately need to completely redo the landscape. Tidy away any childrens' toys when they are not being played with--have the children help you to keep the home ready for buyers. And make sure there is nothing visible from the street that should not be. Stand across the street and look with a critical eye. Is there anything ugly on view? Would you be intrigued and want to step through the front door, or would you drive away as fast as possible?

4) Check the front door and windows for any damaged paintwork, and repaint if necessary. As we live in a coastal area, wind and water can quickly hurt exterior woodwork, and small problems can easily become major. Get out the paintbrush! Home improvement stores can now very easily match any paint color--just take in a chip of paint, and they will mix it for you on the spot. Small repairs only need a small can of paint.

5) Keep the windows shiny and clean! Windows are like a home's eyes, looking out into the world.

6) If your home has large shrubs right in front of the house, which are covering the windows, think about trimming them back or even removing them. Don't hide the home's beauty from the street! This will also let more light into the home, something that will appeal to more buyers once you have brought them through the door.

7) Add a few pots of flowering bulbs on the porch, or by the front door, or along the path. A splash of color makes everyone smile! (If you are in a neighborhood where the deer roam, choose daffodils and not tulips, as the tulips will be gone as soon as they flower, while the daffodils are left for us to enjoy.)

8) Most of all: enjoy the process of making your home the best it can be! In this slow market, everything you can do to make the home more appealing, to bring in more prospective buyers, is going to help. Homes are still selling, and people are still renting--they are just a little more choosy. So help them to choose yours!

(And if you have a little money to spend on curb appeal, consider replacing your metal/wire fence with a wood or white vinyl fence. They are not much more expensive, they are just as effective, and they give charm no matter what time of the year.)

What the weather does

2009-02-27T13:33:00.001-08:00

If you take a look at the house below (I edited the earlier posting to show the price that is listed now--a drop of 100K$ in a few months), today you'll see more paint has peeled from the siding over the winter.

It just needs someone to love it like home...

Featured sleeping-beauty property: No. 1 Marina

2008-08-13T06:21:00.000-07:00

I'm going to blog properties in Mastic Beach which are for sale, and where I see a lot of potential. Not everyone can see through to the diamond underneath.

This home is on Riviera Drive, immediately across the street from Marina Number One. This is the eastern-most marina in Mastic Beach, close to the William Floyd Estate and the nature preserve and wetlands.

It is raised on pillars, contemporary style, with a second-floor deck and several balconies. It faces west, over the marina, towards the spectacular sunsets, and is a few hundred yards from Number One Beach. As a member of the Mastic Beach Property Owner's Association (http://http://www.mbpoa1928.org/), the homeowner is able to rent a boat slip in the marina for a very reasonable fee. According to http://www.realtor.com/, the home has three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms, was built in 1995, has around 2500 sq. feet of living space, and sits on approximately 0.22 acres of property. There are indoor pictures on http://http://mlsli.com.

The house needs work, at least cosmetically. The siding paint has faded, is peeling, and there are spots where it needs to be repaired. This may be enough to stop many people from looking at the house, but if that is all that needs fixing structurally, it's quite simple. From the photographs of the inside of the house, the kitchen and bathrooms look clean but nothing special.

I would paint the home a light grey, with bright white accents, and hang hardy, brightly-colored plants in baskets from the deck and the balconies. I would work on the kitchen and bathrooms and bring them up-to-date with stainless-steel appliances and contemporary countertops to match the style of the house. I would probably replace at least some of the carpet with wood, bamboo, linoleum or tile. I would make this a real home.

Today's listed price is $339,900 and the MLS ID is 2076588. The sale is being brokered by Green Acre Investment Corporation. (UPDATE: now listed on MLS as #2138895 at, can you believe this, $229,900!!!)

If you're looking for a waterview/waterfront property, this has to be worth considering. If you need help seeing how the house might be, I can lend you my imagination.

Mastic Beach, cute cottage opportunities

2008-08-04T15:28:00.000-07:00

A search on http://www.realtor.com/ reveals that, this week, there are 54 homes for sale in Mastic Beach for 175,000$ or less. While it is incredibly sad that so many people are losing their homes in foreclosure, this is also a big opportunity for anyone with a little money, a good imagination, and a dream of an affordable home by the water.

Wherever you are in Mastic Beach, you are walking or cycling distance from the water. A few minutes drive or cycle to the ocean at Smith Point. We are surrounded by wetlands and all the wildlife and beauty that comes with it. Egrets are a daily sight. Ospreys fishing.

Many of these low-cost homes are in need of at least a little repair and love. Being by the ocean, and with the extremes of New York weather, they need more care and maintenance than say a condo in San Diego. Maybe you'll need to repair the roof, or replace a window or two. The yards may need a lot of work: if the house has been standing empty for a few months, the local vines and wild roses may have already made it look like Sleeping Beauty's house, and hidden it from view. Don't be scared by this: there are many competent roofers, remodellers, handymen (and handywomen) and yard services ready and willing to help. For competitive rates, too.

I drive and cycle around these streets and see all these homes just waiting for someone to discover their beauty, and bring it out.

If you tour the streets south of Neighborhood Road, you'll see houses that are beautifully maintained, bright and clean, surrounded by flowers and trees and beauty. You'll see the potential in the houses that are for sale. And you'll maybe see your own dream home.

If you have a little trouble visualizing how these homes could look, and how they might work for you, call the Heron (http://www.heronhomestaging.com/). A trained home stager can see the best in any home, and may be able to help you picture yourself living there.

Whoever said a home by the water was only for millionaires?