Real Life Home Staging - Problem Rooms

Almost every house has a problem room. It could be too small, too large, have too many windows or doors, or like the room in the photo at the left, be cut in half with a sunken floor.

Look really close, and at the far end of the baseboard heater on the right you will see a light floor board running perpendicular to the heater. It extends out to where the rug starts. The light board marks a step down. The right half of the room is raised, and the half with the rug on it, which is only 9'wide, is sunken.

I was hired to stage this home, which was empty. The house had been on the market for over a year and had not sold. It was a problem house. The outside of the home was in tough shape, and the floor plan would only appeal to a small group of buyers. I didn't want to scare away anyone in that small group by having them see this long thin room and then walk away not being able to imagine how they could use it as a family room, fitting the necessary furniture in it.

As you can see, I rented a a room with a love seat and comfy chair in it, and a wide screen TV mounted on the wall. With the chair turned, 3 people could comfortably watch the TV and enjoy the view out the slider at the same time. Staging this room prevented the thought that it could not be used from entering the prospective buyer's mind. They could happily move from this room onto the next with registering a bad thought.

This house sold to a couple who absolutely loved it.

Call a redesigner or staging professional when you have difficult rooms to either live in or sell!

Real Life Home Staging

A few days ago a new client asked me to help her determine what she had to do to her house to get it ready for sale in about 12 months. She and her husband had owned the home for about 10 years, and in general were happy with the way it was furnished and decorated.

One of the first things I noticed was that all the walls and trim were painted the same off-white color. Although this counts as "neutral", it is hard to make it exciting for potential buyers unless the furnishings are very carefully selected and arranged to provide some "punch" and draw the eye to the home's features. It is easy for the novice NOT to accomplish this goal and have the rooms look like boring white boxes with furniture plunked down in them, perhaps with prior evaluation of functional needs (one needs to be able to see the TV from your favorite chair!)

One thing that is difficult for sellers to do is embrace the notion that when selling a property they are selling a product. They have to disassociate themselves from being homeowners and begin to think like marketers. Yes, buyers will bring their own furniture in and paint the walls with colors they love, BUT, first they must fall in love with your product and buy it! Remember, there are other products out there at the same price level of yours and they need want YOUR product.

My new client really did not fully appreciate this and I could tell she really preferred to "save" some money, leave things as is, and assume it would sell in the time frame she and her husband envisioned. Additionally, even if she agreed with everything I suggested, she did not think that changing much more than the kitchen counter and kitchen floor would fly with her husband.

Coincidentally a nearby home that I had recently staged, and which had started out in a similar condition to hers, was having an open house the very next day. I told her she was welcome to come and see it, and I would walk her around and describe what I had done in each room. When she walked in the door I was able to tell her that the home had 3 offers already, and it had been on the market only 5 days!

After viewing the photos above, and hopefully guess which ones are "before" and which ones are "after" pictures, I will let you decide which room would entice you to buy a home with a wonderful ceramic wood stove as a feature. I will also let you decide if you consider both rooms "neutral".