Financial thoughts

Qantas Airways was expected to resume flying Monday after an Australian court intervened in a labor dispute that led the airline to ground its entire fleet over the weekend.

By the time the labor-relations court acted, several hundred flights had been canceled and tens of thousands of passengers stranded around the world.

Some airline industry experts say Qantas’ surprise grounding of its entire fleet Saturday could cause many travelers to book future trips on other airlines.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said he had no choice but to order the lockout of union workers and end months of rolling strikes that led to canceled flights, $70 million in losses and a collapse in future bookings.

Joyce told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he expected some flights to resume by mid-afternoon Monday. It was unclear how long it would take for the airline to resume a full schedule. The airline had estimated that it would lose $20 million a day during the lockout.

The Australian labor-relations court issued its ruling ending the standoff early Monday morning _ midday Sunday in the United States _ after holding an emergency hearing that included testimony from company, labor union and government officials.

The president of the labor-arbitration panel, Geoffrey Giudice, said the group acted to protect Australia’s tourism and aviation industry.

The airline said 447 flights had been canceled in the first 24 hours of the lockout. Qantas did not immediately update that figure.

Qantas is the largest of Australia’s four national domestic airlines, carrying about 70,000 passengers a day on a fleet of 108 planes that operate in 22 countries. In 2010, it was the 16th largest airline in the world by passenger miles flown, according to the trade publication Air Transport World.

Its major international destinations include Singapore, Hong Kong and London. In the United States, Qantas flies to Los Angeles, Dallas, New York and Honolulu.

Travelers reported being ordered to leave planes that were already on the tarmac when the lockout began Saturday. More than 60 planes in mid-flight flew to their destinations, then were parked.

Qantas said it paid to rebook passengers on other airlines, including compensating those who had to pay higher last-minute fares to get home.

For several weeks, workers have carried out rolling strikes and refused to work overtime to demand higher pay and protest the airline’s plans to cut about 1,000 jobs. Qantas, which has about 32,500 employees, wants to reduce costs by creating new Asia-based airlines for international flying. International flights were a roughly $200 million drain on the company last year.

The company reported in August that annual profit had doubled. But it said the business climate was too turbulent _ partly because of labor turmoil _ to forecast future earnings.

Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst in San Francisco, predicts the shutdown will do long-term damage to the Qantas name by hurting its reputation for reliability.

“A lot of travelers won’t take a chance and will book away to Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand and other airlines,” Harteveldt said. “Brand loyalty in the airline business is very low, and there is so much competition.”

Before the court ruling, Virgin Australia said it was scheduling extra flights and offering 20 percent fare discounts to help stranded Qantas passengers through Thursday.

If Qantas loses customers, that could also hurt partners in its alliance of global airlines, including American Airlines. A rival alliance that includes Air New Zealand and is led by United Continental Holdings Inc. could benefit. So could a third group of airlines that includes several major Asian carriers and is led by Delta Air Lines Inc. and Air France-KLM.

Other industry veterans said the lockout was a daring move that will pay off for Qantas, which wants to expand the low-cost, low-fare model that it uses at its Jetstar Airways subsidiary.

Jetstar has extensive routes to Southeast Asia and Japan, and lower costs than Qantas. But Qantas unions fear that expansion of low-cost airlines will result in Australian jobs being sent overseas. CEO Joyce hopes to bend the unions closer to the company’s vision for growth by tapping into Asian markets.

“It was a very shrewd move by their CEO to force the issue and stop the potential deterioration of the brand,” said Mo Garfinkle, an airline consultant who has worked for Qantas rival Virgin Australia. “In the end, it will benefit Qantas financially.”

Garfinkle said the short duration of the fleet grounding will help Qantas get back up to full speed quickly, cutting its losses.

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Chevron Corp.’s quarterly profit more than doubled as a jump in petroleum prices made up for declining production.

Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company after Exxon Mobil, said Friday that oil prices soared 41 percent in the U.S. and 47 percent internationally. Natural gas prices also rose.

The third-quarter results mirror other oil giants that reported earlier this week. Despite lower oil production, Exxon Mobil’s net income rose 41 percent while profits doubled for BP and Royal Dutch Shell.

Chevron, based in San Ramon, Calif., reported net income of $7.83 billion, or $3.92 per share, for the quarter. That compared with $3.77 billion, or $1.87 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 26 percent to $61.3 billion instant credit reports.

Results beat expectations of $3.47 per share but fell short of revenue estimates of $70.4 billion, according to FactSet.

Shares slipped 75 cents to $108.51 in premarket trading.

Increased prices lifted Chevron exploration and production profits 74 percent, even though oil and natural gas production declined 5 percent.

Similarly, higher prices for gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products boosted profits at the company’s refineries. Chevron’s downstream business, which includes refineries, posted a more than threefold jump in profit.

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Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc. said Thursday that it will cut the number of salaried workers at its cigarette business and related service subsidiaries by 15 percent as cigarette sales continue to decline industrywide.

The owner of the nation’s largest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, announced plans to trim $400 million in annualized costs by the end of 2013 as it reported quarterly earnings Thursday, which would include about $300 million in employee separation costs and additional reductions in spending.

Altria, based in Richmond, Va., would not say how many people would be impacted by the layoffs. The company said employees that will lose their jobs will be informed by mid-December and most will leave the company by late February. The reductions announced Thursday do not include hourly manufacturing workers.

Altria has 10,000 employees across the U.S., including about 4,600 in Virginia. Cigarettes make up the bulk of its business.

Cigarette volumes have declined annually by about 3 percent in recent years and have fallen significantly since a 62-cents-per-pack federal tax increase in 2009. Additional state tax hikes, smoking bans, health concerns and social stigma have made the cigarette business tougher. Consumers also face economic challenges, and unemployment remains high.

“One of the things that you’re going to have to do in this business is as volume declines … you have to take out cigarette-related infrastructure cost, in order to manage the business properly,” CEO Michael E. Szymanczyk said in a conference call with investors regarding the company’s third-quarter financial results. “You can’t carry infrastructure for a business that was originally designed for a bigger business. You have to continue to shrink it as the overall business shrinks.”

The number of cigarettes that Altria sold declined 9 percent in the third quarter to 33.3 billion cigarettes compared with a year ago, and the segment’s revenue during the quarter fell 6 percent to $3.64 billion, excluding excise taxes.

Tobacco companies like Altria have tried to offset declines in cigarette sales by reining in expenses and raising prices.

During the third quarter, Altria said it completed a multiyear cost savings program, exceeding its goal of reducing costs by $1.5 billion between 2007 and 2011. That program included the closure of its Cabarrus manufacturing facility in North Carolina in 2009.

Others in the industry also have made cost-cutting moves, including closing or consolidating factories and sales forces, and offering buyouts to some workers.

Efforts to reduce costs are commonplace for consumer goods companies in recent times, Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo said.

“Especially in developed markets such as the U.S. and Europe, it’s been very hard to grow for these consumer companies,” Russo said. “And when you can’t grow the top line, you’ve still got to grow profits in line with what Wall Street’s expecting, there’s only one way to do it, you’ve got to cut costs and headcount is part of that.”

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Today’s record-low mortgage rates are out of reach for millions of U.S. homeowners who would benefit from them most.

One in four homeowners with a mortgage _ 11 million people _ owe more than their home is worth. These “underwater” borrowers have virtually no shot at refinancing.

Their plight is a drag on the housing market and the broader economy.

The Obama administration is hoping at least 1 million of these borrowers will take advantage of its refinancing program under more lenient rules unveiled Monday. Homeowners who are current on their payments will be eligible to refinance no matter how much their home’s value has dropped.

Still, it’s unclear how many borrowers will benefit. Lenders will remain under no obligation to refinance a mortgage they hold.

A growing number of these people are missing mortgage payments and falling into foreclosure. And the higher rates they’re locked into limit how much they can contribute to a weak economy. If they were able to refinance at today’s rates, it could boost consumer spending by tens of billions of dollars, economists say.

Underwater homeowners are paying an average 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 5.7 percent, according to an analysis of mortgage data by CoreLogic and The Associated Press. That compares with today’s average rate of 4.11 percent on a 30-year fixed mortgage. For a homeowner with a $250,000 mortgage, the lower rate would save more than $200 a month.

For many Americans, a few hundred dollars each month would mean the difference between paying their mortgage on time and in full and losing, or walking away from, their home guaranteed online payday loans.

Underwater borrowers are the “most desperate population in the country today,” says Barry Bosworth, an economist at the Brookings Institution.

Dan and Maggie Micoff bought a two-bedroom home in the Detroit suburb of Marine City in 2003. They paid $119,000. Eight years later, they’re underwater with a 6 percent loan.

If they could refinance, the Micoffs, both 58, could shave at least $120 from their monthly bill.

“The banks won’t work with us,” Maggie Micoff said. “We helped bail them out, and now we can’t even get a personal loan to get by. We could rent something for a few hundred dollars cheaper.”

Even among homeowners who do have equity in their homes, few are refinancing. Many have already refinanced within the past year. Others can’t meet tighter lending standards. That’s why underwater borrowers represent the best chance for refinancing to unleash spending that’s otherwise going toward mortgage bills.

With millions locked into artificially high rates, foreclosures are rising. Mortgage default notices surged nationally last month.

Whether the administration’s revamped mortgage refinancing program will reach more Americans this time is unclear, said Mark Vitner, senior U.S. economist at Wells Fargo.

“No one knows if it will spur a lot more people to refinance, but it’s a start,” Vitner said.

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Former Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton is due to give evidence to British lawmakers investigating the tabloid phone-hacking scandal.

Hinton, who also was CEO of Dow Jones & Co., resigned in July after revelations of illegal eavesdropping by Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid.

He will testify to the House of Commons media committee Monday by video link.

Hinton was Murdoch’s right-hand man until the scandal, which has convulsed Britain’s media landscape business cards.

The tabloid stands accused of illegally hacking into the voice mails of celebrities, politicians and crime victims in search of scoops.

Hinton headed Murdoch’s British newspaper division during some of the years phone hacking took place, but has said he was unaware of the wrongdoing.

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NATO said Friday it plans to end its seven-month bombing campaign in Libya at the end of the month, leaving the battled-scarred country’s new authorities on their own to ensure security after the death of Moammar Gadhafi and the ouster of his regime.

The alliance made a preliminary decision to end the campaign on Oct. 31 and will make the formal decision next week, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after a meeting of the alliance’s governing body, the North Atlantic Council.

Diplomats said NATO air patrols are set to continue over Libya in the next 10 days as a precautionary measure to ensure the stability of the new regime. They will gradually be reduced in coming days if there are no further outbreaks of violence.

The council took into account the wishes of Libya’s new government and of the United Nations, under whose mandate NATO carried out its operations.

Victory in the war represents a major boost for the Cold War alliance, which is bogged down in the 10-year war in Afghanistan, the 12-year mission in Kosovo, and the seemingly never-ending anti-piracy operation off the Somali coastline.

It polished the reputation of France and Britain, the two countries that drove it forward, coming at a time when the alliance’s relevance is increasingly in doubt as countries make deep defense cuts and other austerity measures caused by the international economic crisis.

Rasmussen hailed the success of the operation which started on March 19 with a series of U.S.-led attacks designed to suppress Gadhafi’s formidable air defenses, including missile and radar networks. Libya’s former rebels killed Gadhafi on Thursday, and officials had said they expected the aerial operation to end very soon.

“It shows that freedom is the biggest force in the world,” Fogh Rasmussen said.

Fogh Rasmussen said NATO had no intention of leaving any residual force in or near Libya.

“We expect to close down the operation.”

He said it was up to the new government to decide whether to launch an investigation into the hazy circumstances of Gadhafi’s death.

“With regards to Gadhafi, I would expect the new authorities in Libya to live up fully to the basic principles of rule of law and human rights, including full transparency.”

NATO earlier said its commanders were not aware that Gadhafi was in a convoy that NATO bombed as it fled Sirte short term personal loans. In a statement Friday, the alliance said an initial Thursday morning strike was aimed at a convoy of approximately 75 armed vehicles leaving Sirte, the Libyan city defended by Gadhafi loyalists. One vehicle was destroyed, which resulted in the convoy’s dispersal.

Another jet then engaged approximately 20 vehicles that were driving at great speed toward the south, destroying or damaging about 10 of them.

“We later learned from open sources and allied intelligence that Gadhafi was in the convoy and that the strike likely contributed to his capture,” the statement said.

Intelligence gleaned during surveillance flights around Sirte on Thursday indicated that a “command and control group, including senior military leaders” were attempting to flee from the town, British Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman Steve Field said.

“There was a strike, there was damage to the convoy, the Free Libya Fighters then moved in _ as to what happened next that is not entirely clear,” he said.

NATO warplanes have flown about 26,000 sorties, including over 9,600 strike missions. They destroyed about 5,900 military targets, including Libya’s air defenses and over 1,000 tanks, vehicles and guns, as well as Gadhafi’s command and control networks.

The daily airstrikes finally broke the stalemate that developed after Gadhafi’s initial attempts failed to crush the rebellion that broke out in February. In August, the rebels began advancing on Tripoli, with the NATO warplanes providing close air support and destroying any attempts by the defenders to block them.

NATO was sharply criticized by Russia, China, South Africa and other nations for overstepping the limited U.N. Security Council resolution that allowed it to protect civilians, and using it as a pretext to pursue regime change in Libya.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said earlier Friday that “the operation has reached its end.”

But in London, Britain had suggested that NATO may not immediately complete its mission in Libya, wary over the potential reprisal attacks by remaining Gadhafi loyalists.

___

Associated Press writers Elaine Ganley in Paris and David Stringer in London contributed to this report.

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The city that put Love Canal and Superfund in the environmental lexicon may get back into the business of dealing with toxic waste _ this time willingly. It is considering whether to truck in and treat wastewater left over from natural gas drilling.

The economically struggling city in western New York could use the revenue, and the Niagara Falls Water Board says its specialized wastewater treatment plant can handle more business since the decline of the chemical industry it was designed for.

With New York considering allowing natural gas production in its part of the lucrative Marcellus Shale, the water board is examining whether it would make economic sense to become a destination for the byproduct wastewater of the drilling process, called hydraulic fracturing, said Richard Roll, the public benefit corporation’s director of technical and regulatory services.

“Since we do have a unique kind of wastewater treatment plant that’s very much under-loaded, we’re looking into the possibility that, with the addition of other treatment processes, maybe our plant would be much more amenable to accepting this waste than your typical municipal biological plant,” he said.

Many have criticized the idea, including former Love Canal resident Lois Gibbs, who became a national voice for environmental health. She said she wondered if city officials would ever learn.

“They’re moving away from the chemical industry because the chemical industry is moving away from them, and it’s time to start a new economy,” Gibbs said by phone Thursday from Falls Church, Va., where she’s executive director of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice. “And the new economy is certainly not taking chemical waste.”

Fracking forces millions of gallons of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, deep into shale formations beneath Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Texas and other states. Its use has increased dramatically in recent years, raising concerns about the potential impact on water quality. Critics say fracking could poison water supplies, while the natural gas industry says it’s been used safely for decades.

Liquid that comes out of the drilling wells is highly salty and contaminated with substances such as barium, strontium and radium and other things that can be damaging to the environment. Millions of barrels of wastewater must be treated, and municipal sewage treatment plants can’t remove contaminants as efficiently as some of the treatment facilities that specialize in oil and gas industry waste.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will draft standards for wastewater that drillers would have to meet before sending it to treatment plants.

In Niagara Falls, environmental groups and others say importing chemical-laden waste should be the last thing Niagara Falls should consider, given its experience with the Love Canal environmental disaster. An entire neighborhood was emptied in the 1970s after toxins dumped by Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corp. into an abandoned canal in the 1940s and ’50s were found to have seeped into basements and backyards, creating panic over birth defects and cancer no teletrack payday loans. President Jimmy Carter declared a federal emergency in 1978, and in 1980 the Superfund cleanup act was born.

Once treated, the fracking wastewater, to be brought in by truck or rail, would either be discharged into the Niagara River upstream of Niagara Falls or be reused in drilling, Roll said. The Niagara River flows between lakes Erie and Ontario, forming a border between western New York and Ontario, Canada.

A coalition of local opponents submitted 25 questions to the water board, and about 15 members attended a board meeting Thursday night hoping for answers about the potential environmental impacts to the river and adjoining lakes, costs, safety, possible impacts on human health and the handling of radiation brought to the surface from deep shale wells.

“We should be learning from past mistakes instead of risking our water so we can accept New York state’s hydrofracking waste,” said Rita Yelda, an organizer for Food & Water Watch, an environmental advocacy group.

“Niagara Falls is known for its tourism, its beautiful scenery,” Yelda said. “A large part of their revenue is tourism, people coming in to see Niagara Falls. How will that be impacted by the increased truck traffic and what they’re releasing into Niagara Falls?”

The Council on Canadians, a social justice advocacy group, also is among those pushing Niagara Falls to scrap the idea.

“Last year the (United Nations) passed two resolutions recognizing water as a human right, and this proposal to treat fracking fluids threatens people’s human right to safe and clean drinking water,” the Ottawa-based group said in a Sept. 22 letter to the water board.

The board took no action Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Roll stressed the board is only just beginning to research feasibility testing, regulatory requirements and potential revenue “to make sure it’s not just workable but it makes sense for everyone to participate.”

The Niagara Falls treatment plant was designed to handle waste from the city’s once booming industrial base of electrochemical, organic chemical, ceramics and electrometallurgical plants, Roll said. It already processes imported landfill leachate from three customers that bring the waste by truck, he said.

“We’ve been developing that trade for the past 15 years or so, and that has had the same effect,” he said. “It’s unused capacity that is sitting there waiting to be taken advantage of, and we have a duty to try to make our utility as economically viable as possible for everyone.”

New York environmental regulators last month formally issued proposed regulations for hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale and scheduled four public hearings. The state hasn’t allowed fracking since it began drafting new permitting rules three years ago.

In neighboring Pennsylvania, nearly 4,000 wells have been drilled in the past few years and tens of thousands more are planned.

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Orders are now being taken for the Kobo Vox, a full-colour seven-inch tablet the same size as the BlackBerry PlayBook.

TORONTO — The Canadian ebook company Kobo is getting into the crowded tablet market and beating a major competitor to the punch.

Orders are now being taken for the Kobo Vox, a full-colour seven-inch tablet the same size as the BlackBerry PlayBook.

It’s selling for about $200 and shipping starts on Oct. 28.

It’s a Wi-Fi only device, runs on the Google Android operating system and has eight gigabytes of memory. Kobo says it has up to seven hours of battery life.

The Vox will compete against a long list of tablets on the market, including Apple’s bestselling iPads, the PlayBook, Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs, Motorola’s Xoom and a host of smaller rivals online payday loans. But the Vox is about 40 per cent cheaper than the most-inexpensive iPad.

Kobo’s largest ebook competitor, Amazon, also announced its own tablet recently with similar specifications.

Called the Fire, it’s not due for release until Nov. 15 and is also selling for $199 in the U.S. There’s no release date set for Canada.

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Norwegian oil company Statoil ASA said Monday it has agreed to buy Texas-based Brigham Exploration Co. for $4.4 billion in cash, giving it control of fields in North Dakota.

The offer represents $36.5 per share and is a 36 percent premium over the average trading price of Brigham stock for the last 30 days, Statoil said.

The Brigham board of directors has recommended shareholders to accept the offer and the executives of the company have agreed to sell their shares, representing 2.5 percent of the total, Statoil said.

It said the deal will give it more than 375,000 net acres in the Williston Basin, which holds potential for oil production from the Bakken and Three Forks formations in North Dakota. Brigham also holds interests in 40,000 net acres in other areas.

The current production is approximately 21,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day, and could potentially ramp up to 60,000-100,000 over five years, Statoil said.

“The U.S. unconventional plays hold a substantial resource base and represent an increasingly important part of future energy supplies,” Statoil CEO Helge Lund said in a statement.

“Entering the Bakken and Three Forks tight oil plays and taking on operatorship represents a new significant step for Statoil. We are positioning ourselves as a leading player in the fast growing U.S. onshore oil and gas industry, in line with the strategic direction we have set out,” he said.

Brigham is based in Austin, Texas and has over 100 employees in Austin and North Dakota. Statoil said it will maintain the Austin location and retain the current employees.

“We are impressed by the performance and technological prowess demonstrated by the employees of Brigham and look forward to further responsible development of these world class assets. We will build on Brigham’s good neighbor program and continue to engage with local authorities and communities in the Williston Basin area,” said Bill Maloney, executive vice president for Statoil in North America.

The Norwegian company said it expects to close the transaction at the end of the first quarter 2012.

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When realtor Desmond Brown walks into a house that’s just too stunning to be someone’s home, he heads to the fridge.

An empty fridge is his second clue that the home has been super staged to appeal to a new generation of buyers who are looking for more of a showcase than a sound house to call their home.

“Gone are the days that you walk into a house and think, ‘Wow, they really lived in this place,” says Brown.

Brown has seen first-time buyers walk out of well-priced condos because the appliances aren’t stainless steel. Even classic old homes graced with original wood trim and hardwood floors are taking longer to sell, he finds, than those that have “the look.”

Call it the HGTV effect.

“This generation’s expectations of what’s reasonable and livable in a house is significantly different than previous generations,” says John Pasalis, a Leslieville realtor whose office deals with a lot of first-time buyers.

“People have this vision based on what they see on TV. Generally, if a house doesn’t have stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, new bathrooms and pot lights, there’s a sense that you’re slumming it.”

Snazz sells, says realtor Irene Kaushansky who has seen young buyers so blinded by the glint of a Wolf gas stove and Sub-Zero fridge, they’ll drive themselves into heavy debt in bidding wars that skew the market by driving prices wildly out of whack.

“I watch some of those shows and I know that’s not reality,” says Kaushansky. “I warn buyers that after they’ve bought the house and all that stuff is gone, it’s not going to look like the same place.”

Staging used to be largely about refreshing a tired-looking home by removing clutter, painting walls and replacing worn carpeting, says Diane Black, who stages more than 200 homes a year in Peel and Halton regions, as well as Toronto’s west-end.

Now it’s all about evoking a lifestyle and making the home appear move-in ready with the “right” modern furniture, art and accessories.

She’s finding a new generation of buyers — on average 15 years younger than sellers — don’t want to do the work, or don’t have the imagination or the money after scrapping together down payments on pricey homes.

“They want that status,” says Black. “They want labels and instant gratification and they want it all yesterday.”

The stakes have been raised since MLS house listings went online and buyers have been able to do more looking on their own, says Black.

“If I can only do one thing for a seller, I want to give that wow HGTV factor online,” which is why art, accessories, materials have become more critical to setting homes apart.

It’s routine now for agents — even in newer suburban neighbourhoods — to recommend that owners spend at least a few thousand dollars on new counters, flooring and fixtures before staking a for sale sign on the front lawn.

But not everything can be “refreshed.”

“The 1980s (suburban) homes are dying because nobody wants eight-ceilings anymore,” says veteran Oakville agent Dan Cooper. “If a house doesn’t have at least nine-foot ceilings, it’s very tough to sell.”

Super staging is so critical in real estate now, Cooper has hired stager Kathy Wood of Divine Design and is now looking to rent space, buy furniture and hire movers to help sellers turn around their homes quickly for what he calls “the want-now generation.”

“The low interest rates don’t help,” because younger buyers tend to take the view they’ll buy the best now and pay for it later, says Cooper. “That’s a recipe for disaster if rates go up.”

Of course, there is obviously payback for putting in a little work before pricing a home for sale, as Janice Hornick discovered when her parents went into long-term care and needed to get rid of the Burlington home where they’d lived for 25 years.

“I thought let’s just get rid of it as is,” says Hornick. “I didn’t want the bother.”

One agent suggested a list price of $360,000. A second agent suggested Hornick call in Diane Black.

Within a month, Black had pink and blue walls repainted in neutral taupes, old carpeting upstairs was replaced with lush berber and the kitchen got a dramatic stainless and granite makeover. Black even removed window mullions to open up the view into the backyard ravine.

Hornick’s jaw dropped when she saw the $35,000 transformation.

The place sold quickly — for $479,000.

What stagers say is in or out, at least as of today

In

“Depersonalized” décor (get rid of all those family photos)

Neutral taupe colours

Natural stone—granite, travertine, slate

Wide-plank flooring

Stainless steel appliances (a must)

Crown moulding

High ceilings

Spa-like bathrooms

Apothocary jars and Pottery Barn-type accessories

Bedrooms retreats with a chaise lounge or comfy seating area

Berber carpeting

Brushed nickel fixtures

OUT

Black or white appliances

Laminate countertops—even in the bathroom

Ceramic tile

Wallpaper

Pinky-beige, yellow and bold wall colours

Panelling/wainscotting

Plastic venetian blinds

Carpeting (except berber)

Brass fixtures

Original thin-strip hardwood/parquet

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