Freshen Your Home’s Look

Does your home need its look updated?  Many do!  We get so used to our home surroundings, and sometimes we need to take a good look around and change a few things!  You don’t have to spend a fortune on decorating to accomplish this, however!  A few subtle, low-cost changes can make a huge difference in the look of a room.  RISMEDIA.com’s article, Easy Ways to Transform a Room, has some great suggestions for freshening up your decor!  And, don’t forget what a fresh coat of an updated paint color can do for a room!

To a little reasonably-priced decorating updating~                                         Rosemary, Atkinson-Thompson Group

Basements: Some Good Advice on Finished and Unfinished Versions

 

Sellers, home buyers love finished basements, especially in this very competitive market!  So, if you have one, spruce it up; make it a selling feature.  If you don’t have a finished basement, brighten it up.  If it is dim in your unfinished basement, add lighting or expand windows, so that it becomes an inviting, large storage area (and make it look nice and tidy!).  REALTOR Magazine’s  Kristine Hansen’s article, Architecture Coach: Bring Out the Best in Basements, contains lots of great suggestions (a few that I am going to take!). 

To bright, cheery basements, finished or unfinished~  Rosemary 

Interior Design/Decorating Suggestions for Small Spaces

As the trend toward smaller, more affordable homes grows, buyers are looking for ways to best utilize and decorate smaller spaces.  In her article for RISMedia, Homeowners: Big Ideas for Small Spaces, Jean Patteson sets forth some great suggestions.  I know as I look forward to scaling down my living space, I’m going to need some good ideas, and I am saving this article for me!

To great decorating ideas~  Rosemary

Lift Your Spirits with Color

Color can make such a difference in your home, and surrounding yourself with the right colors for you can be amazingly uplifting.  My house needs a paint update, so I have been thinking a lot about paint colors lately.  Being realtors, Betsy and I see what appeals to our home buyers every day, what “wows” them when they walk into a home.  It often isn’t neutral that wows them!  I found a great article to help me along in my paint decision-making process, so I thought I’d share it with you.  Brooke Pearl’s Color Your World for Kansas City Homes and Gardens magazine is a good place to get started for advice on 2010 paint trends and the “whys” behind those trends.

To a happy-home paint palette~  Rosemary

Keeping It Simple Home Decorating

Home decorating is taking on much more of a less-is-more trend these days, a trend including a more eclectic (mixing the old and the new) and more  uncluttered finished product.  The economy is largely responsible for this trend, but it has great benefits…a cleaner, sleeker look in your homes that does not distract from the architecture of your home and leaves one with an open, airy impression.  Put simply…less stuff!  It also saves you money!  Check out  Jean Patteson’s Less-is-More Decor Becoming More Popular article for RISMedia, a good guide towards simplifying your home decorating.  Okay, get out some storage bins for some things and get ready to permanently let go of others!  Simplify. 

Less really can be more~  Rosemary

More Staging Tips!

Staging is such an important part of marketing your home, or just updating it!  Click here for a great article from Rismedia.com, Home Staging Tips That Focus on Largest Customer Segments.  It’s a good one; I loved reading it…well-thought-out, fun tips.  Enjoy!

Best~ Rosemary

Spring Spruce-Up

If you’re contemplating putting your home on the market come spring, now is the time to start getting your home ready.  Yes, I know there is still snow on the ground, but in the world of real estate, spring is upon us!  The experts are saying this could be a banner year (considering the last three!) for home sales.  Betsy and I have three listing appointments scheduled for just the next week!  Click here to read a very helpful article by Luke Mullins of USNews.com on 10 projects that you can undertake relatively cheaply to increase the appeal of your home, inside and out. 

Curb appeal, folks, is sooooooo important, and this article addresses that aspect in suggestions No. 1 and No. 2.  You want buyers to drive up to the front of your home and say, “Oh, I love it; I want to live here!”  You want to draw them inside!  The front of your home is a buyer’s first indication of how the home has been cared for; don’t let them just drive on by!  So, time to get a jump-start; don’t make yourself  crazy by trying to accomplish everything in a two-week time span! 

Best~  Rosemary 

Some Not-Too-Expensive Suggestions for Getting Your Home Ready for Market

These are also great tips  for those just wanting to update their home’s look (like me!).  Select ”now” paint colors, gender-neutralize rooms, modernize that kitchen and those baths, etc!  Click here to see not only 10 great redo/camouflage tips, but links to related articles.  Lots of fun, practical ideas here, whether getting ready to market your home or just give it a facelift!

Rosemary