So, my daughter and I are diverting ourselves on a winter evening by watching yet another reality TV series. This one is a real-estate flip-cum-interior decoration series; it can be construed as a kind of professional education for my daughter, the ambitious real estate agent, and amusement for myself. The series is focused on houses in various bedroom communities in the Seattle area, so the prices are somewhat elevated, in comparison to urban South Texas. There are other differences as well, but the houses themselves are an agreeable mix of older cottages and ten- to fifteen-year-old new-builds. They have also been on the market without selling for weeks and months – to the despair of sellers. The hosts of Unsellable Houses are twin sisters and successful real estate agents in their own right, so the focus of each episode is diagnosing what is wrong with the house which is sending potential purchasers away determined to look at something else and remedying those failings. (Conventional wisdom is that there are only two reasons for a house on the market   not selling: either the condition of the house or the asking price.) In the case of these featured unsellable houses, it’s condition. The solution which the twin sister agents offer is an investment deal to the house owners. They will invest a certain amount in renovations, put the house on the market again for a fairly realistic bid – and they appear to be experienced enough in the local market to accomplish this. When it sells, they get back their investment and split the profit evenly. More profit, if the house sells above asking price, which has happened quite frequently. I would guess that the sisters pick the properties to offer this deal very carefully; the location must be attractive, the house itself structurally sound, and the necessary fixes cosmetic. No tear-downs or junk houses in a bad part of town need apply.

From watching the first season of this series (from 2020) and noting the various renovations performed for the various houses I can make a handful of deductions about current market trends and what buyers were and continue to favor:

A kitchen and dining area combination – an almost guaranteed part of renovation is demolishing any wall between the two, often in favor of an island with bar seating instead.

New kitchen cabinets go all the way to the ceiling.

White subway tile for a kitchen backsplash seems to be a constant design element these days. I can favor that, as it’s an element that doesn’t date. Sometimes jazzy floor tile in kitchens.

If not already-existing hardwood floors (and some of the homes are old enough to have them)  – then high-grade vinyl flooring is installed in areas elsewhere than bathrooms and sometimes kitchens. I rather like the best-grade vinyl flooring, myself.

Tile in bathrooms, sometimes rather nicely pattered. Carpet in bathroom areas is an abomination and was the first thing to be ripped out in my own house. For some reason in the 1980s, builders did this, for which they ought to be sentenced to an eternal afterlife of cleaning commodes. With their tongues.

The same for popcorn ceiling texture: an abomination, which I consider to be the Devil’s solidified sperm.

The on-trend for master bathroom vanities is to put in double sinks, where one had been sufficient before, if the bathroom is large enough.

The one aspect of putting the renovated houses on the  market which the sisters employ for good effect is staging – that is, filling them up with furniture, rugs, and decorative elements, even down to elaborate place settings on the dining tables. I had always preferred that a place that I looked at with the intention of renting or purchase be empty, as I could better visualize it with my own possessions in it. I had read that this was what most house-hunters also preferred, or that staging be minimal, more of a hint at possibilities rather than the full-on set dressing. But perhaps this kind of staging is now the preferred strategy and expected fashion, especially for top-dollar properties.