I must apologize to you, my readers, but I have been delinquent in my posts this week but for a good reason. I was staging another beautiful condo in my development. This one was a fun project. The seller Victoria worked right along with me. Victoria has a natural flair for decorating and using color. She is remarkable. She painted her entire condo herself when she first moved there.
On my first visit to the condo, I was amazed at how beautiful it was but knew that the sellers would need to take some of their furnishings out to make it look more spacious. One wall in the home office was painted orange. I loved the color but suggested it be painted the same color as the other walls which immediately enlarged the room. The orange wall was no longer advancing forward which is what happens when you have accent walls. Darker walls tend to advance and make the room look smaller. We also moved a lot of furniture out of this room which further enhanced its size. Below are some before and after photos.
Home Office After
Living Room Before
I find that my clients have the most problems with decluttering when selling their homes. They miss the items which are removed.. I tell them that how they live in their homes is not how they will sell them. Once they have made the decision to sell, the home becomes a commodity. Sellers must make a commitment to emotionally detach themselves in order to effectuate a sale. This commitment entails depersonalizing the home as much as possible.
When staging a home, I walk through the property with the sellers and advise them what to remove, what has to be repainted or repaired, and I may move some of the furnishings around in the same room or move them to another room. My goal is to enlarge the space and create a good traffic flow throughout the home. Sometimes, my clients tell me that their realtors don’t have a problem with keeping certain items in the rooms. That’s when I have to remind them that as a professional home stager I have been trained to prepare homes for sale with the buyer in mind and that is what they are paying me to do. I tell my clients that if their property is priced correctly and they follow all of my advice, they should have no problem selling their homes.
Living Room Other Side Before
Victoria’s realtor visited her yesterday so the property should show up very shortly in the Multiple Listing Service. I will keep in touch with her for feedback on the status of the sale. When I left the home yesterday, I had a good feeling. I left a home where the seller had done everything that I requested and as a result the place showed beautifully – just waiting to emotionally capture some buyer’s heart.
