Mar 17 | Posted by Barry

www.debragould.com

How the Finer Details of Home Staging Can Make All the Difference

Home staging (also known as house fluffing, real estate enhancement or real estate styling) is a technique used to heighten the perceived value of a property for prospective buyers by cleaning and rearranging furniture. But for professional home stagers, it is an art, and each home presents a new and unique challenge.

I have brought this to your attention in the past, but with the pre-spring selling season upon us, it is a topic that should be readdressed, albeit with more detail. From my experiences, I’ve found that many buyers trust their ‘hunches’ when it comes to an impending purchase. Therefore, giving the best possible first impression is a must – and this is a one shot deal for a house. Moreover, the seller, and likely resident, is often too attached to their home to make the proper judgment calls when it comes to how the interior should be presented.

An external opinion to maximize that initial feeling could be beneficial. That is why I took the time to sit down with Debra Gould to get some expert advice on the issue.

In addition to staging hundreds of homes over the years, Debra’s home staging advice has been featured on HGTV and in numerous magazine and newspaper articles in the US and Canada. She has also trained over 4,000 home stagers through her Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. So without further adieu, let’s get in to what we discussed.

The foremost thing Debra looks for is Curb Appeal. That is, how well your house presents itself when buyers first step out of their car. She insists that the front façade be as clean and neat as possible. If the tour is scheduled during the summer months, definitely take the time to plant a few extra flowers to add some color. Even if you are only in the preliminary phases of deciding whether to sell or not, you should always have curb appeal on the back of your mind. After all, if you can’t get your customers in the door, then the rest of your efforts will all be a waste.

The next step for Debra is to assess floor plans and take some ‘before’ pictures. Specifically, she is scrutinizing furniture layout and color coordination to visualize her plan of attack. Rooms that have a good flow and adhere to a given theme are much more appealing to viewers and will help increase perceived value. Debra even offers a color consultation as a stand-alone service solely for offering recommendations on paint colors.

The key to constructing a good flow is to ‘edit’ properly and designate focal points for each room. In home staging vernacular, editing is the practice of selecting which items to keep and which to remove. Focal points are accessories or pieces of furniture that dominate a room when someone walks in for the first time. Using the floor plans and photography along with an on-site appraisal, Debra has developed a keen sense for using this approach to tidy up a room and draw the eyes towards a pleasing focal point.

Now when she refers to editing, most of the time she is not talking about removing whole pieces of furniture, but rather, only the accessories. These would include clocks, vases, throws, floral arrangements, candles, table centerpieces. For Debra’s purposes, the old adage of “less is more” applies here. You want the house to be cozy, but not claustrophobic.

For example, fireplaces make for excellent living room focal points. Thus, to improve someone’s impression, Debra might edit certain items off of the mantle or a nearby bookcase in order to make it feel less crowded and more stylish. Nowadays, it is often the case where the plasma television dominates the view. In this case, clutter and loose wiring around the set must be hidden and the screen must certainly be clean. Armoires also provide for a great focal point due to their tall build. Plus, armoires are great for hiding disagreeable items.

De-personalizing is a common procedure by most home stagers/fluffers. I disagree with this point only. They want potential buyers to imagine themselves living in the dwelling, instead of being distracted by who really lives there. This process involves removing such items as diplomas and family photos while leaving heirlooms and other colorful decorations. The trick here is not to ‘de-personalize’ too much. This is a rookie mistake, as she points out. You don’t want to remove so much that it makes the rooms feel deserted, or worse, vandalized. If this happens, buyers will feel the coldness of the house, and this can be quite displeasing. My opposing position is that I think the personal distractions show them the warmth of the home.

In bedrooms, it is a bit harder to edit as there are many more personal items, and those accessories often help make buyers feel comfortable in this setting. Such things as pillows, lamps and books are acceptable, so long as there isn’t any clutter on the shelf space. An important necessity here is a good duvet cover. As the bed is always the focal point, an enjoyable duvet provides a quick and inexpensive way to transform the décor of any bedroom.

Opposite to editing is the use of props, which are temporary complements to augment value. For example, supplying a lavish vase with flowers for the center of the kitchen table will add color and a gentle fragrance to the room. Again, it’s crucial not to go overboard here, as you don’t want to create a fake and distracting atmosphere.

Moving down to the finer details, Debra is sure to measure the sheen, or light reflection, level of the paint on the walls. Paints range from flat to high gloss. Although flat paints tend to come off as, well, flat, they don’t accentuate bumps or imperfections like their shinier counterparts. Just watch to make sure you don’t use higher sheen paints on old plaster, and definitely gauge the quality of paint on any surface under direct light exposure. Furthermore, lower sheen levels are harder to wash, which makes them inappropriate for hallways and kitchens. If you have enough time, you may even want to consider repainting, as the cost will pay for itself in the long run.

As you can probably guess by now, there is a lot you can do to prep your house for sale. And there are many more nuances that a professional home stager such as Debra Gould brings to the table – specific to each residence, of course. By taking the initial steps yourself, it will leave more time for your stager to focus on the real issues that will help sell your house.

And if you are a buyer reading this, you may feel as though staging is a form of cheating. The reality is that it’s quite the opposite. If an owner has taken the time to properly clean up his or her house, then it lets you better assess whether the house is a good fit for you, instead of you being constantly distracted by obstacles and clutter.

In short, everybody wins with staging. Thank you, Debra, for your time.