Depersonalizing your home.

​There are a few tasks that any good realtor will suggest that the homeowners accomplish when they are getting ready to list their home; give it a good cleaning, finish minor repairs, and declutter. These three are no-brainers! All potential home buyers want to walk into a place that looks and smells clean, looks reasonably maintained, and isn’t packed to the ceiling with stuff. No one wants to walk into a listed property and see every nook and cranny jammed with stuff, it actually makes them wonder if the house is going to be too small for them.

One thing that often gets forgotten is to depersonalize. I don’t mean the homeowner needs to gets rid of all their knick knacks and tchotchkes but it’s a good idea to evaluate the decor and look at it from a buyers perspective. Will buyers see your child’s room, with walls completely covered in posters, collections of hats or bears, or whatever is there, in the same light you do? What will buyers think about the enormous gallery of family portraits taking up valuable wall space? Then there’s that beautiful stainless steel fridge, completely obscured by kids drawings, takeout menus and that silly magnet from your last vacation. Don’t forget that spoon or plate collection that's been passed down from your Grandma, you might like it but is that what you want a potential buyer to remember? The time to deal with some of this decor is before the house is listed. After all, if you are moving anyway, why not pack away a bunch of non-essential items?

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While it’s true that most homeowners think buyers should only be looking at the “bones” of the home - location, layout and general style - buyers often have gut reactions to decor that can taint an otherwise great house. A staging professional can help a seller look at their own home with “buyers eyes”. We make recommendations that the homeowner can implement in the weeks before listing the home and then we stage the home to highlight its best features. Selling your home is a LOT of work and it can be overwhelming. Professional stagers tell the homeowner what changes are worth their time and effort, give them a plan, and then stage the home to get it sold faster, so that the homeowner can relax and move on to the next stage of their life.

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