Professional staggers are paid to bring out the best in your home. Don’t take it personally

You spent a lot of time, money and effort to transform your house into a home.  If you’re one of the few, it’s immaculate, highly upgraded and the envy of your friends and neighbors,  It’s perfect for sale as is, right?  Unless you are one in a thousand however, it’s not staged for sale.

Home staging is not a new concept, it’s one that became a necessity during the challenging real estate market of not long ago.  Staging is different from decorating and it’s important not to confuse the two.  Once you’ve committed to selling your home you need to commit to transforming your home into a place that potential buyers can easily picture as their own. This means that you need to be prepared to emotionally detach.

Let Your Home Speak to Buyers

Your home speaks to you but what does it say to potential buyers?  The goal of staging is to make the home speak to everyone in a compelling and positive way.

You are proud of your “Wines Around the World” collection, each bottle consumed with great appreciation and the memories from where it was acquired.  To buyers, collections can draw attention away from the main selling features of your home.  Buyers and agents tend to label homes (think Property Brothers and their cute names for potential fixer uppers!)  You can either be the home with beautiful gourmet kitchen or the house with a kids playroom where the dining room should be.  Oh, and those wines!  Wonder how those tasted?

Clutter May Suggest Your Home is Too Small or Lacks Storage

Daily life, even for neat freaks like myself, involves a certain amount of clutter,  Today’s mail next to the computer, the junk drawer that seems to defy organization, the teenagers bathroom with enough grooming products to start their own shop!

Clutter, like collections can easily become a distraction.  More importantly, it can signal that your don’t have enough space.  My own kitchen island (a 4.5 foot by 5 foot space) currently has hubby’s computer, a fruit bowl, a plant I don’t know where else to put and recipes I’ll be making this week.  Keep i mind I’m a neat freak and I have cabinets that aren’t full!  When the island is decluttered it’s beautiful and that’s how it needs to be when the home is for sale.

Don’t Shoot The Stagger

The primary goal of staging is not to transform your home into your magazine ideal of home decor it’s to showcase your home in it’s best light to as many potential buyers as possible.  Too often the tendency is to take the process too personally.  Staging is best done by a third party specialist who can bring the neutrality and objectivity needed to accomplish this goal.  Don’t interpret the suggestions as indictments of your personal style, all suggestions should be the staggers attempt to ensure that your decor doesn’t upstage the home.  Buyers are not there to buy your stuff!

Realtors believe that staging makes an impact in several ways. 81% say staging helps the buyer visualize the home as theirs and 46% say it makes a prospective buyer more willing to walk through a home they saw online. Make no mistake — staging is inconvenient. Your daily routine will be turned on its head and it can be unsettling to watch your life rearranged to suit the tastes of others. But if selling your home in the shortest amount of time and for the most money is your goal, it is precisely buyers who should be your focus.