After her successful treatment for breast cancer, a photographer in her 50s was in a celebratory mood. An ardent cook, she embarked on a major renovation of the small kitchen in her modest town house. Ultimately the work -- which involved high-end black appliances and custom cabinets -- cost more than $80,000. But when it came time to sell the town house the next year, she recouped only a fraction of the funds spent.

Mark Nash, a longtime real estate broker, doesn’t know the photographer in this true story. Still, he says it’s not uncommon for homeowners to overspend on presale upgrades.

“In desirable areas, available homes are now in painfully short supply. But that doesn’t mean the sky is the limit on what buyers will pay for your overdone improvements. Most buyers are pinched on affordability. They’re in no mood to shell out needless cash,” says Nash, the author of “1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home.”

Many would-be buyers hoped that after the pandemic, home prices would fall enough to put more properties within reach -- despite higher mortgage rates. But that hasn’t happened, says Andrea Chopp, an agent for Redfin, the national real estate brokerage.

As Chopp notes, “a lack of homes for sale is keeping prices afloat.” As of the end of June, new listings had fallen 27% from a year earlier. That resulted in a mere 1% drop in average home prices to $383,000. Meanwhile, bidding wars are still happening in some popular areas.

“Buyers should keep in mind that desirable homes are getting multiple offers and selling above asking price,” she says.

Despite strong demand from buyers, Chopp cautions sellers against hubris about the condition of their property, because “making small repairs and staging are important again.”

What’s not needed is the level of spending the photographer did to upgrade the kitchen in her modest town house with custom cabinetry and appliances.

“When it comes to presale improvements, classic cases of overkill include projects that involve tearing out walls or building on additions. These days, there’s no need to spend a fortune to get your house sold,” Nash says.

Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, the home listing service, reminds sellers about the continuing housing crisis affecting many young adults.

“We expect prices to continue to soften, but not by that much,” she says.

Here are a few pointers for sellers:

-- Seek advice from local real estate pros.

Even if you have no intention of selling immediately, Nash recommends against signing any home improvement contract until you’ve asked for the advice of someone who’s sold real estate in your neighborhood for at least five years. That person should tell you how much of a project’s cost you can expect to recoup.

Those who are unsure how long they’ll stay in a home are often hesitant to ask a real estate agent for advice until their selling plans are solid. But Nash says a reputable agent should be happy to help, even if you have no idea when you’ll sell.

“Another plus is that good agents from your local market should be in touch with contractors. They know folks who can handle any work you decide to do smoothly and expeditiously,” Nash says.

-- Review neighborhood standards.

Tom Early, a real estate broker who was twice president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (naeba.org), says current home purchasers are especially resistant about paying for renovation work that raises a property above local norms.

“After the Great Recession way back in 2008, recovery came to most real estate markets. But buyers are still totally resistant to overpaying. That means they won’t bail you out if you outstrip your market,” he says.

What sort of upgrades constitute “over-improvement”? For example, Early says you wouldn’t be justified to install expensive antique light fixtures in a neighborhood of starter homes. Likewise, you couldn’t recoup the full cost of building a three-car garage in a community where most homes have no garage at all.

-- Move slowly when seeking to renovate.

As many homeowners realize too late, a thoughtlessly done presale renovation can hit the wallet hard.

“It’s super easy to overspend on renovations. And you’re most at risk of overspending when you rush the process,” says Sid Davis, author of “A Survival Guide for Selling a Home.”

-- Reduce your losses on projects that prove too extensive.

It didn’t dawn on the photographer that she was spending too much on kitchen upgrades until her $80,000 kitchen project was underway. But Davis says she should have paused the project once she realized she was overspending.

When it occurs to you that you’re spending excessively, Davis recommends you contact all your contractors to negotiate your way out of expensive upgrades. For example, you might decide to cancel top-brand bathroom and kitchen fixtures in favor of something more generic.

“Average buyers don’t care if they get super fixtures or appliances in any given room. It’s the overall house that they’re looking for -- not perfection in every room,” Davis says.

Real estate agents often recommend less-expensive products than those suggested by contractors. For example, you might not need high-end Berber carpeting for your family room when a midgrade carpet would do just as well.

“Even if you’re compelled to pay penalties to back out of some work, you could ultimately save money by dropping the most costly elements of your renovation plan,” Davis says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

This year was supposed to be the one with a sizzling recovery for real estate -- starting this spring. But spring turned to summer, and the widely anticipated resurgence in home sales never happened.

“Elevated mortgage rates are responsible for the drops on both the demand and supply sides,” says Taylor Marr, deputy chief economist at Redfin, a national real estate brokerage based in Seattle.

As Marr and other economists point out, home sales have been greatly inhibited because potential sellers with low-rate mortgages are extremely reluctant to move, given that would mean much higher monthly costs to finance their next place. Consequently, there’s been a big drop in listings.

“The decline of new listings indicates that sellers are exercising caution in their selling decisions, likely due to being locked into mortgage rates that are significantly lower than the current rates,” says Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, the property listing company.

The severe shortage in available listings is a source of great frustration for would-be owners seeking a place in a popular neighborhood, according to Rich Harty, who owns a Chicago area realty firm that advocates for buyers.

As always, some homeowners must move with relative haste. These include those who have taken an out-of-state job and those who need the proceeds from their property for urgent financial reasons. Even so, there are numerous other owners, including those who want a larger place but plan to wait for lower rates to list their home.

Take the case of an IT specialist and his homemaker wife. With two preschool-age sons, they’ve outgrown the tiny bungalow they bought three years ago with a 3% fixed-rate mortgage. They’d love to transition to a much larger property in the same neighborhood. But they won’t sell the bungalow until mortgage rates drop enough to make that financially feasible.

“We’re very disappointed our plans have been thwarted. But right now, we simply can’t afford to trade up until those rates come back to earth,” the IT specialist says.

Unfortunately, there’s no consensus among economists that mortgage rates will fall significantly by the end of 2023. Much depends on the Federal Reserve, which is adopting higher rates to try to slow inflation.

In reality, many potential home sellers need extra time to prep their houses for the best possible sale. These include countless seniors who have accumulated decades of possessions that must be reduced in scope to make their property more marketable. This decluttering process can be long and arduous.

“It’s reasonable for many longtime owners to calculate that they’ll need the rest of 2023 to prepare their place for the ideal sale next year,” Harty says.

Here are a few pointers for owners who plan a 2024 sale:

-- Start with a preliminary inventory of your possessions.

Some downsizers try to address the decluttering process without a plan. But those who do a preliminary inventory of their problem before seeking to solve it are more efficient, says Dorcas Helfant, a former president of the National Association of Realtors (nar.realtor).

“Sellers who have a room-by-room picture of all their possessions can make faster decisions about how to streamline it all,” she says.

The listing agent you’ve chosen to sell your home can assist in assessing which items should be removed from your place before it’s shown. These will likely include some bulky furnishings.

“A house filled with furniture can look a lot smaller than it truly is,” Helfant says.

Ask the agent to come over and list the items that should be removed before the property is shown for sale, or do the cataloging on your own.

-- Look into the cost of shipping belongings to your next place.

Kristin Bertilson, a professional organizer based in Oregon who counts many would-be sellers among her clients, says shipping costs come as a shock to many who obtain estimates.

“When people get an estimate of $1,200 to move furniture, they find it easier to let go of all the excess pieces,” she says.

Mark Nash, a longtime real estate broker and author of “1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home,” urges home sellers to undertake the purging process as soon as they know they’ll be moving.

“You’ll have to pack up anyway when you move. So why not do your purging and packing before you list your property rather than right before you move?” Nash says.

-- Formulate an action plan.

Nash says those who are most efficient at decluttering follow a step-by-step action plan.

As a beginning step, he recommends you plot the space in your new property before deciding on the volume of items you can take with you. This assumes, obviously, that you’ve already selected your next home.

Years ago, Nash left a 3,200-square-foot bungalow for a 760-square-foot condo, requiring him to drastically reduce his total belongings. To gain a more precise estimate, he bought graph paper and plotted the layout and storage space available at his condo.

“That made it clear which things would be impossible to keep in my new condo,” he says.

-- Call on your “support staff.”

Even well-organized downsizers find the purging process arduous. Because of that, Nash says it’s ideal to seek the assistance of friends or relatives.

If you don’t know anyone you’re comfortable recruiting, Nash says you can find reasonably priced help through classified ads. Or you might consider going online to find a professional organizer in your area. One group that offers referrals is The National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (napo.net).

“Whatever it takes to motivate and organize you is what you’ve got to do,” Nash says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

Two years ago, a couple in their mid-30s -- a museum administrator and a sales manager -- began weighing the pros and cons of buying a home of their own. But only recently did they get serious about their search for a townhouse in a leafy suburb near their workplaces. No longer are they waiting for home prices to slip in the desirable neighborhood of their choice.

“What triggered them to leave the sidelines was their landlord’s notice of a major rent increase. They’re also afraid that a year from now, home prices will be even higher. In addition, they’re having a big wedding in December, and want to settle down,” says Stacy Berman, the real estate agent assisting the pair.

Berman says that despite relatively high mortgage rates, many would-be buyers are unwilling to delay longer. At this point in the cycle, they fear that postponing will only mean paying more for a property, given the severe shortage of available homes.

Danielle Hale, the chief economist for Realtor.com, the online listing service, says the number of available homes has dropped 25% from a year ago.

“Sellers are exercising caution in their selling decisions, likely due to being locked into mortgage rates that are significantly lower than the current rate,” Hale says.

Nearly one-quarter of homeowners now have a mortgage rate below 3%, which is roughly half the prevailing rate.

Jasmine Harris, a Redfin real estate agent in Atlanta, says, “The only people selling right now are the ones who need to.” They include those getting divorced or moving abroad. They also include retirees who wish to move out of state to be closer to their grown children and grandchildren.

Are you a homeowner now contemplating a sale without delay? If so, these few pointers could prove helpful:

-- Downscale your expectations for major price jumps.

Sid Davis, a real estate broker and author of “A Survival Guide to Selling a Home,” says that even in some exceptionally strong markets, demand is not as great as it was during the pandemic when multiple offers were the norm rather than the exception.

It’s not that would-be purchasers are no longer crafting competitive offers. Many are still making above-list-price bids. Some are even including “escalator clauses” to top the highest rival purchaser.

But sellers who are arrogant about their pricing and terms of sale are more likely to be financially hurt in the end.

“This isn’t the right time to be a greedy seller -- if it ever was,” Davis says.

He says a listing agent who’s skilled in calculating the right price for a property is a valuable ally for sellers who want to hit the target when their home first goes up for sale.

“Remember that a house that sits unsold for long eventually gets stigmatized,” Davis says.

-- Look for a listing agent in your immediate area.

When it comes time to sell a home, many owners think it’s wise to hire a trusted family member as their listing agent. But Davis cautions against choosing someone from your inner circle.

Even if your family member has a proven track record in real estate, choosing that individual as your agent could be a mistake.

“Your relatives probably won’t tell you if your place is a dump that needs to be decluttered or that it’s worth a lot less than you think,” Davis says.

He recommends you interview three agents who work in your area to determine the right one to sell your house. Ask each to give you a candid evaluation of both the condition and current worth of your place. Also question all three on how they came up with their pricing recommendations.

“You want to see the actual comparable sales used to support their recommendations. In a changing market, it’s especially important that these sales be very recent --preferably for houses sold within the last month,” Davis says.

-- Consider a listing agent’s track record on pricing.

Are you planning to sell a home in an area where property values are now flat or slipping slightly? There are still such communities, especially in areas where unemployment is increasing, perhaps due to the closure of a local factory or military base. In that case, it’s unlikely you’ll receive your full asking price at the closing table. But if your property was marked correctly from the outset, you should still come quite close.

How can you judge whether the agents you’re interviewing have a good track record on pricing? One way is to review a few key numbers on their past listings, such as “list-to-sale” statistics. Then compare the original asking price versus the sum ultimately received by the sellers.

If the agent is routinely making realistic recommendations, there should be little difference between the original list price and the final sale price.

“Don’t listen to any agent trying to flatter you into a ‘feel-good price’ that’s much higher than other pros are suggesting -- with the unspoken expectation of seeking a price cut later. That could lead to a very subpar sale,” Davis says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)