Sunday: Home and Remodeling Show in Chantilly

The Home and Remodeling Show at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly was packed Saturday, with aisles filled with metro-area residents speaking with home improvement experts selling everything from fireplaces to fountains.

The three-day event, which started Friday, continues Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is $10 per person, $3 for children ages 6-12 and free for children 5 and younger.

One of the big draws on Saturday? Josh Flagg, one of the hot-shot real estate agents on Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles," who spoke to a large crowd Saturday about, what else? How to sell your home.

Some of his top tips for Kitchens:

• "The number one thing when you are selling your house is your kitchen. Followed by the bath, followed by everything else," Flagg said. "This is where you want to spend your money," he said. Be sure your kitchen is up to date. Flagg suggested replacing outdated countertops using marble or granite — or saving money using marble tile or Silestone.
• Another way to save, Flagg said, on updating kitchen appliances is by purchasing refurbished and/or returned appliances with warranties or "bundling" appliances and purchasing them all together for a deal, and buy wholesale. 
• Refacing cabinets and painting them is a way to save money on kitchen cabinetry.
• Don't offer cash to buyers to remodel your home if you're trying to sell it, Flagg said. "They're going to negotiate with you anyway. They're going to want more than it will cost you to do it yourself. Might as well do the work yourself, so that way they don't have a bargaining tool."
• Don't use hardwood floors in the kitchen; marble or porcelain tile in the kitchen for flooring or a high-end laminate for a wood.

Updating the Bath

• Be sure the floor is some kind of tile or easily cleaned floor, no carpet or wood flooring. Porcelain tiles that look like a hardwood floor are not too expensive.
• No wallpaper. 
• Heated floors? "Radiant heating is a fortune to do." For resale value, unless you really like it and it's for you, Flagg says don't do it.
• Steam showers: "If you're selling a $100,000 house, don't spend $4,000 on a steam shower; if you're selling a $1 million house, add it. If you want it for yourself, do it."

In general, when preparing your home for sale

• When staging your home: Put away all photos, mail, remote controls, magazines, snow globes. "You don't want to have stuff like your George Foreman grill out; put it away."
• A lighter color on the ceiling than on the walls will make your ceilings look higher.
• Be aware of the smell: Bake fresh cookies
• Pick up laundry
• Mow the lawn
• Plant flowers
• Turn on fountains
• Play light music, classical
• Make sure counters are clean, no dirt anywhere
• Ask Realtor to put cookies out.
• Be sure your real estate agent holds an open house with brokers, "a brokers' caravan."

Flagg summed it up — know your buyer, spend smart, appeal to senses, remove your specific tastes from home, find good contractor.

Flagg is the author of two books: "Million Dollar Agent: Brokering the Dream," and "A Simple Girl: Stories My Grandmother Told Me."

You can talk to remodelers at the show Sunday. Here's the schedule:

Sunday, Jan. 20