Staging Your Home for a Quicker Sale....

Staging a house for sale means going beyond just making it look tidy. Typical buyers make up their minds about your home 10 seconds after they step through your front door. Just as stagehands set the stage for a production, you can do the same for your home. It can be made to look cozy, colorful and inviting to make it stand out from the rest of the other houses on the market using things such as accessories, colorful chintz fabric on the tables, fresh bouquet of flowers in a vase, scented candles on the fireplace mantel, and the way that the furniture is set around an area rug. Potential buyers want instant coziness and comfort in the home they'll choose.

Here are some tips from professional home stagers (that you may find useful):

Pack away most of your family photos. Buyers need to imagine their possessions in the home.

Pack up the bulk of large, personal collections, so that buyers don't get so interested in looking at them that they forget to look at the house.

Remove excess furniture to make rooms more spacious. Clean and organize the closets. Store boxes in an out of the way location or rent a temporary storage unit so you can de-clutter every part of the house.

Remove area rugs if they expose nice hardwood floors.

Buy or borrow living houseplants. They look better than artificial ones.
Create a mood. Bake bread or cookies during showings, or place a fresh loaf of bread and/or fresh colorful fruit in a basket on the counter.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. Remember -- LESS IS BETTER.

The Fruits of our Labor are FINALLY, Paying Off!!

Ok, I admit it - I'm addicted to HGTV. I started watching it 8 years ago while we were still living in Florida -- the land where NOTHING grows -- other than pricker bushes, palm trees, St. Augstine Grass, and other stuff that never DIES! Maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit -- but I couldn't grow anything in Florida.

Well it's been three years now since we put our first sets of plants in the ground here in North Carolina. And, if you watch HGTV you know what they say:

"The First Year They SLEEP...."

"The Second Year They CREEP...."

"The Third Year They LEAP..."

As is evidenced by the growth occurring in and around our yard -- that addage is so TRUE! The lavendar bushes and roses I put in exactly three years ago are huge and proliferating with blooms. They are really taking off -- and smell sooooo good. There is a special hybrid lavendar that grows particularly well in this area of the country (zones 7-8) and is pretty much ever green and blooms all but 2 months of the year. Sabrina loves to make Lavendar sachets from the dried lavendar buds.

The purple salvia in the front of the house I just planted last summer - and they were tiny. For our clients who are currently living in North Carolina -- Salvia plants from Home Depot are the way to go. You can't kill them, they're drought resistant and they make wonderful visual impact with planted "en masse." We have an exceptionally long driveway, so I had to put something in that would get pretty dense and be able to be seen from the street. These did the trick -- they are gorgeous -- and again --flower right up to the first heft freeze and begin flowering again before the last frost.

Horticulturally speaking - the only downside of living in an area where things grow so prolifically -- is the TRIMMING. And, as Blaise will tell you -- that is a never ending job. As soon as he finally makes his way around the house -- the bushes in the spot where he began are almost ready to be trimmed again. It's a never ending job. Thank goodness we both enjoy working in the yard.

Finally - I send a question out to YOU, What is LEAPING in your garden? Click on comments (below) and tell us all about it. Even if you're not living in North Carolina (yet!) we'd love to hear from you! Gardeners LOVE to share stories and we'd sure enjoy hearing yours.

What We Love About North Carolina....

People ask us all the time, "What is it about North Carolina that makes living there so special?"
That's a hard question to answer. On any given day, Blaise or I could give you a list a mile long of why we love living in North Carolina.


But, if you're really interested -- here are just a few of the things we LOVE about living in Raleigh, North Carolina........


The View from Our Front Porch right around martini time. On a clear night, right before the sun totally sets, the sky gets an amazing shade of blue, and if you're lucky, you can see the moonrise. We have a front row seat from our front porch for this spectacular view. Sometimes we have a martini, sometimes a cup of coffee -- and we just sit there and take it all in.
I took this picture just last week:


The View from the Harley as we ride through the Fields. This is one of my favorite things to do early on a Sunday morning. We get up before the kids, I grab my camera and we ride the Harley way out into the corn and tobacco fields where the air smells sweet and the vision is a sea of kelly green....





And, then, of course, there's my personal View of Sabrina, on outdoor chore day, when she stares at me from inside the downstairs window taunting me, whilest I toil and struggle. This is Sabrina's (I don't want to work outside) View:


Finally, a Recca Family Favorite -- is the View from the Outer Banks just before Sunset....
when the air is warm and salty, yet there are no crowds, no traffic -- just the quiet sound of the ocean....

I could go on, and on, and on. Isn't it time you came to pay us a visit -- so you can come up with your own list of reasons why you LOVE living in North Carolina???? You may think you're just coming for a visit -- but I'll just bet -- you'll NEVER want to leave!!!


Have a great week everybody. Spring is finally HERE!!

Facts I'll Be You DON'T KNOW About North Carolina!!!

I'm a bit of a history buff. Like my dad, I love reading historical accounts as well as historical fiction. Right now I'm reading Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbric which, if you haven't read it -- should be required reading for all Americans.

Anyway -- like most North Carolinians (even the non-natives!), I am fascinated by the early American historical aspect of our coastline. But, aside from being the birthplace of the first true American (Virginia Dare) there are many more interesting people, places, events and products that we proudly call our own.

For the next few weeks I will be featuring some of those people, places, events and products on our blog. So read on, and find out just a few reasons why North Carolina is so special....

Did you know.....

1. That the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill is the oldest State University in the United States;

2. That in 1903 the Wright Brothers made the first successful powered flight by man at Kill Devil Hill near Kitty Hawk. The Wright Memorial at Kitty Hawks now commemorates their achievement. (Kill Devil Hill is a great place to visit - we went there last summer!);

3. And for all you shopaholics out there - did you know that High Point is known as the Furniture Capital of the World. (Any trip down a highway here in NC reveals dozens of semis hauling freshly cut hardwoods to the manufacturers -- to be made into fine furniture);

4. Know as "Fish Town" in the early 1700's when Blackbeard frequented the coast, "Beaufort Town" was established as a seaport with the right to collect customs, in 1722; and finally

5. This isn't news -- but it IS official -- The Outer Banks of NC hosts some of the most beautiful beaches in the country. (Just click on some of the links over on the right side of the blog to see pictures as we frequent the coast!)

Take some time to explore some of our links. You too will see why North Carolina is such a wonderful place to live, work and play!!!

A Great Day in DC....

Turns out the week before Christmas was the perfect time to visit DC -- no crowds, no traffic and no lines. Awesome! Less than a four hour drive from Raleigh, we got up to DC by 11:00 a.m. We immediately found a place to park (!) and were on our way to the Smithsonian. We parked close to the National Mall so we first took a walk down that to see the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. It was a beautiful blue, crisp day in Washington and we couldn't have asked for better weather.

Having never been to Washington before, Sabrina and I were both very excited. The city really is very beautiful and immaculately clean -- at least where we were. We only drove up for the day so we were limited in what we could experience. At Blaise's urging we first visited the Air and Space Museum, then the National Gallery and finally the Natural History Musuem. What a wonderful job they did laying these museums out. The buildings are beautiful and the exhibits are meticulously put together and very spacious -- which made the experience all the more pleasant. Did you know that it is absolutely FREE to get in to all of the museums in DC? I guess living in South Florida for so long - I had gotten used to PAYING through the nose for everything -- so I was totally shocked to find out that there is no charge for entrance to all of these spectacular. After the museums closed (5:30p.m.) we made our way over to the White House to take some pictures and then to our ultimate destination -- which was the National Christmas Tree. The White House looked lovely all lit up under the winter sky -- it gave me chills. The National Christmas Tree which was directly across the street from the White House was fun to see as not only was the tree itself pretty impressive, but what we enjoyed even more was seeing all of the U.S. Territory and States' Christmas Trees -- each one decorated by hand made ornaments from the region.


Blaise was amused by me because I was really moved by the experience. It was all very exciting to me and I really felt a sense of pride as I gazed upon the nucleus of our Great Nation (sigh!)

It was a wonderful trip and we are already talking about going back in a few weeks to see more as we barely scratched the surface. Even Sabrina is looking forward to making a return trip as she really wanted to see the contemporary art exhibits and we just didn't have the time.

I'll tell you what -- I think both Blaise and I would take a visit to the Smithsonian over a trip to Disney World any day!

HELLO - And Welcome to the Carolina Pines Realty Blog!

We are so glad you are here!
We have created this blog especially for people like YOU. Why should you move to North Carolina???? That's easy - just click on a few of the links over on the right, or explore the information below. Here you will find a plethera of information that will touch on and hopefully answer many of the questions that folks may have who are considering the possibility of relocating to our beautiful State. For example, on the right you will find links to some of our favorite day and weekend trips -- all destinations of which are little more than a 2 - 5 hour drive. Also, down below you will find information and articles on employment, education and housing -- as well as radom informational and fun facts and pictures -- just to help you get acquainted with the area. In no time at all you will see just why the Raleigh area of North Caorlina is the perfect place to live, work and play! And, once your finished here -- visit our http://carolinapinesrealty.com/ website. There you will find all kinds of practical information such as pictures, prices and details of all of the homes listed in our Multiple Listing Service as well as information on school districts, subdivisions, communities and more. So sit back, relax and explore all of the wonderful opportunities that await you in the Raleigh, Wake Forest, Cary, Research Triangle Park, Rollesville, Wake, Johnston and Franklin County areas area of beautiful North Carolina!!