To help generate positive news coverage for you or your real estate company, contact reporters to share your personal experience on issues and topics related to the buying or selling of property. Your observations (along with the name of your company) could be included in local or national news stories.

A case in point is Cheri Kuhn, a real estate agent in Minnesota, who was quoted in The Wall Street Journal in an article about the wisdom of making repairs or improvements to houses before placing them on the market. Excerpts from the story. including some of the advice she shared with the reporter,follow below:

Some Home Fix-Ups Tasks Are Worth Skipping
The Wall Street Journal
by Amy Hoak
Jan. 2, 2008

If you're planning to sell a home in 2008, it's time to start thinking about how to make that home stand out from the rest.

But beware: Homeowners aren't able to recoup as many improvement costs as they did in recent years, according to a recent study by Remodeling magazine. In selling a home, "it's more important that it's neat, it's clean and it looks spacious, rather than making sure it's the top of the line," says Cheri Kuhn, owner of Waters Realty in Minnetonka, Minn.

"The thing I find with sellers -- if they do a lot of remodeling -- they will take the cost of the remodeling and add it to the cost of the home and ask the buyer to pay for it," she says. But often they're not going to get that higher price.

To keep costs down and remodel wisely, consider the following tips:

Ask for advice. When Ms. Kuhn first meets with clients -- sometimes six months before listing the home -- she'll make a list of improvements that will make a difference. Cleaning the carpets, painting the walls and removing wallpaper are common fixes -- if they're needed.

Keep it small in the kitchen: Remodeling magazine found that homeowners could recover 83% of the cost of a minor kitchen remodel at resale compared with 78% of a major kitchen remodeling. Ms. Kuhn cautions her clients not to replace refrigerators, stoves or dishwashers. Buyers considering remodeling the kitchen will likely have their own preferences.

Along those same lines, replace a countertop if it's crumbling but not if its only fault is that it's outdated, Ms. Kuhn says. Even then, seriously consider material costs -- there's no need to update to granite unless the competition has granite countertops as well.