Most homeowners in Maplewood, South Orange, and the surrounding areas of New Jersey who plan to sell in the spring think of it as a March or April project. Mark Slade of
Mark Slade Homes says the decisions that shape the final sale price are made months earlier, and the time to make them comfortably is shorter than it looks.
Slade and his business partner, MaryCeu Nunes, provide the key advice to best prepare homes in as an essential part of their SMART
RE-SULTS™ Listing System. Here is what they tell sellers to do now, where to spend, how to price, and what to ask before hiring an agent.
Start Before the Holidays Take Over
Slade’s first piece of advice is to meet with the agents you are considering as soon as possible. Once Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas and New Year’s are on the calendar, only a few usable weeks remain in 2026, predicated on listing at the optimal time to get the most money for the sale of their property.
“You need a minimum of six weeks to really go through, declutter, and get the painting done,” Slade says. “When you add all those holidays between now and January 1, you don’t even have six weeks’ worth of time.”
The team suggests spreading the work out:
- November and December: Walk through the home with your agent, talk about what buyers in your price range want, and start sorting what to keep, donate, sell or remove.
- January: List the repairs and improvements, get estimates, and decide which projects are worth doing and start the work as contractor availability can sometimes be a challenge.
- February: Complete the painting, minor repairs and other agreed updates.
- March: Deep clean, finish organizing, and get ready for staging and photography while the team reviews recent sales and competing listings.
- Listing month: Finalize the price and marketing plan, then launch.
Slade knows how heavy the decluttering can feel. When he sold his own Maplewood home in 2020, he reached a point where he could not face it. Nunes got him through it with 15-minute sessions, deciding item by item what stays, what goes, what gets thrown out and what gets sold. “You sometimes need that other person,” he says.
Spend Where Buyers Look First
On the first visit, the team takes 60 to 120 photos of the home and comes back with a written list. Some items are simple, like clearing magnets off the refrigerator, removing personal and/or family pictures, and sometimes some of the artwork off the walls. Others are specific, like which rooms need paint and which light fixtures should be replaced. Unless a home is already well decorated, they also bring in a stager. Leah Gomberg of Sweet Life by Design provides a room-by-room report with links to the exact fixtures and furnishings she recommends. Sometimes, Slade and Nunes will advise; the advice can differ a bit, but it helps to provide a great opportunity for conversations so that the final outcome is in the Sellers’ best interest.
Slade ranks projects by return, and removing old carpet is usually at the top. The floors underneath are often in good shape and may need only a cleaning with an inexpensive floor restorer rather than a full refinish. “Buyers today don’t want someone’s carpeting,” he says. “They want to see hardwood floors.” Plus, the consistency of having hardwood floors throughout a floor makes a house feel that much bigger.
Painting is next. Slade estimates a room costs about $1,000 to $1,200 to paint and adds roughly $5,000 in value/room. In an 8-room house, which doesn’t include bathrooms, therefore adding at least 2 more rooms, this can lead to a $50,000 difference in final sale price. Kitchen cabinets can return even more. Painting dated oak or dark cherry cabinet frames and doors white, off-white or light gray, and adding new hardware, typically costs $2,200 to $3,600. Slade puts the difference in perceived value at $50,000 to $85,000, with the kitchen most often setting the tone for interest in the home. (Slade Team Tip: If you choose replace the handles yourself, measure the hole spacing first so the new ones line up.)
What the team generally advises against is a full kitchen or bathroom renovation right before selling. Buyers may have different taste, and the seller may not achieve as high a multiple return on their investment; aA smaller refresh often makes more sense and maximized the return.
Price Leaner and Meaner, Especially Against Competing Listings
“Leaner and meaner” is the team’s pricing motto. A buyer who needs four bedrooms and two and a half baths will look at every home that fits, and Slade says the first thing they focus on is which one they can buy for the least money.
Nunes saw this early in her career, before the two worked together. Her listing was coming on the market on the same street as a similar home that had been listed two days earlier. She priced hers about 5 percent lower. It sold right away for over asking and more than made up the difference, while the other home took three and a half weeks to sell and sold for less than her listing. Jeffrey Otteau of Otteau Group, New Jersey’s most prolific appraisal company, dovetails with a related approach called “Right Pricing.”
Slade is just as direct about exclusive, off-market listings. In his experience, nearly all of them sell at or within about 3 percent of the asking price, because there is little competition. A listing on the MLS and on sites like Zillow,
Realtor.com, and
Homes.com reaches far more agents and buyers (there are over 18,000 agents in the area of NY City and Northern NJ alone, and then you can include the exposure of all the potential buyers in the New York/New Jersey area, who are thinking about making New Jersey and have not hired an agent yet. In Slade’s view, there is rarely a good reason for a seller to give up that exposure. Slade cites “Economics 101,” as he calls it, where Supply intersects with Demand; why limit the exposure that defines the full scope of Demand!
Three Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Listing Agent
The team suggests every seller ask:
- Are you a full-time agent? Selling a home takes steady attention and availability. Find out who will handle your sale day to day.
- How much experience do you have in my town and price range? Listen for specific local examples, not just years in the business.
- What is your plan to prepare, price and market my home, and how will you communicate with me? The answer should be specific to your property.
- Are you the “agent,” or “agents” that will be listing my home? Or will someone else on your team be taking over after being hired? This is a most often bait and switch that many teams rely on for leverage. The Slade Team—Mark and Mary–are committed to being your start to finish Listing-to-Closed contacts.
Sellers getting ready for spring can find more guidance on the team’s
seller resources page.
About the Mark Slade Homes
Mark Slade Homes is a Keller Williams team led by Mark Slade and MaryCeu Nunes, serving buyers and sellers in Maplewood, South Orange, and communities across Essex, Union, and Morris counties.
The team has closed $ One-Half Billion dollars in lifetime sales volume and over 850 transactions across 53 New Jersey municipalities and markets its listings through its trademarked SMART RE-SULTS™ Listing System. For a quick read, Sellers can enjoy Slade’s authored book for Sellers:
www.SladeTeamSellersBook.com
Disclaimer: This article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. The views and opinions expressed herein reflect those of the individuals quoted and do not represent an endorsement of any company, product, or service mentioned. Readers should conduct their own due diligence and consult qualified professionals before making any investment decisions.
