Free guide · North Shore sellers
The work that sets your price happens before the sign goes up.
Eight pages on what to fix, what to skip, and how to make your home show its best. The goal is not a perfect house — it is the handful of changes that actually move a buyer.
- A practical, room-by-room guide to preparing your home for photos, showings and sale.
- Room by room. Curb appeal and entry, living spaces, kitchen and baths, bedrooms, closets and storage — then the small details that change how the whole house reads.
- Including where sellers overspend. The projects that rarely pay back, and the cheap fixes people skip while planning them.
- No sales pitch inside. It is a working checklist, with a photo-day and showing-day list at the end. Use it with us or without us.
Send me the guide
It opens on this site the moment you submit.
What national staging research shows
of buyers' agents said staging made it easier for their buyer to picture the property as their own.
of sellers' agents saw staging cut the time a home spent on the market.
In NAR's 2025 survey, 29% of agents reported offers 1%–10% higher after staging.
median time a seller had owned the home before selling — an all-time high. Most of this is unfamiliar ground.
Sources: National Association of REALTORS®, 2025 Profile of Home Staging and 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. Figures describe agents' reported observations nationally, not a guaranteed result for any individual property.
What's inside
Not theory. A list you can work through this weekend.
It is specific on purpose. "Declutter" is not advice; "clear the counters except for a few attractive essentials" is. And it is as clear about what to leave alone — a full remodel three weeks before listing is the most common way sellers lose money on the way out.
"Clean, updated, and well-maintained usually beats newly renovated but mismatched."
From the guide, on kitchens and baths
Start smart
- Deferred maintenance before cosmetics
- First impressions, light, room function
- Edit and clean before spending big
Curb appeal & entry
- The quick walk-up test
- Exterior wear buyers read as neglect
- What to clear from the foyer
Living spaces
- Making a room's purpose obvious
- Giving a spare room a job
- Space, light, function
Kitchen & baths
- Why these rarely need a renovation
- The five things worth doing in each
- Where sellers overspend
Bedrooms & storage
- Removing what makes a room feel tight
- Editing closets so storage reads generous
- Linen closet, pantry, mudroom
Details & the last day
- Paint, lighting, windows, hardware
- The test to apply before you spend
- Photo-day and showing-day checklists
Eight pages, properly made. Page five is kitchens and baths — five things worth doing in each, and the three places sellers most often waste money. Page eight is two tick-box lists for photo day and showing day.
Who wrote it
Three agents who sell on the North Shore, not a content studio.
Lisa Finks, Lourdes Arencibia and Carolyn Duris are independently licensed Compass agents who collaborate. Each represents her own clients. This list is what we hand our own sellers at the first meeting.
Lisa Finks
Compass · Winnetka
"Lisa has access to many tools which assist a buyer or seller in comparison shopping as well as those renovations which do and do NOT pay back when selling."
Beth L., her client
Lourdes Arencibia
Compass · Winnetka
"…read both the buyers and the current sales environment to get me more than I anticipated… I've bought and sold homes in 4 different states, so my expectations were high. She exceeded them in every aspect…"
Thomas B., her client
Carolyn Duris
Compass · Winnetka
"…so helpful with ideas to stage the house so it sold quickly."
Susan B., her client
Reviews as published on our Compass profiles, trimmed for length. Nothing inside the quotation marks has been reworded.
When you are ready
The version of this list that is about your house.
The guide is general because it has to be. A walk-through is not. We come out, go room by room, and leave you with a short list in priority order — what is worth doing, what is not, and why. It takes about an hour and there is no obligation attached to it.
"She helped us sell 2 houses… She is a lawyer by training which is a big plus. She has gravitas and will never be 'outgunned' by the opposing side. That said, she can be firm in an elegant way, ensuring that the negotiation process does not get off the rails."
Bill M., on working with Lisa Finks
Do I have to list with you to get the guide?
No. It is free, there is nothing to schedule, and there is no pitch inside it. If it is useful and you sell with someone else, that is a fine outcome.
Will I be called repeatedly?
No. You will get the guide, and occasional notes about the North Shore market. One click unsubscribes. If you would like a conversation, you are welcome to ask for one.
I am not selling for another year.
That is the best time to read it. Several items — paint, cabinets, counters — are worth doing well in advance and are far more expensive as a rush job three weeks before photographs.
Where do you work?
Across the North Shore and Chicago's north suburbs, and regularly outside both — we have sold from Barrington to the city. The guide applies to any house anywhere. If yours is further afield, ask; the answer is usually yes.