June 18, 2019
Recently, I met with Helene Jattan, a home stager, with The Art of Preparation. I asked her what do you tell your clients to do or get ready, when they are thinking of selling. Here is what Helene had to say:
As a professional home stager, one of the key and very important elements to consider when preparing your home for sale, is the process of depersonalizing your house.
Why is this so important?
When people are looking to buy, they want to visualize “their stuff” and when you don’t depersonalize, you risk them not being able to envision this. As well, your personal items become distractions to them.
When I complete a home staging consultation, I always explain to the client what I am doing and why. I will walk through the property and advise on a variety of things such as layout, furniture, repairs and depersonalizing to name a few.
How to Determine What is Personal
Anything that has meaning to you, “brings you back” or clearly shows your identity is considered personal.
Pictures of people you know, your family are all personal. These need to be removed and replaced with generic art, some examples below. These would appeal to a wide variety of tastes.
You can pack these personal items away for your new home. Make sure to store everything offsite. This applies as well to any awards, diplomas, sports team memorabilia, any collections, your personal liquor collection, pack them all away.
Some other items that tell a tale are medications, creams, hair enhancers that you might use. I suggest that you get a basket with lid so you can hide all of those out of sight and store them somewhere handy like a nightstand drawer or under cabinet. You would be amazed how much confidential information are on those bottles. Imagine someone taking a snapshot of your meds, calling in and picking up your prescription.
Safety
As a parent, you might have your kids schedule and their friends contacts on a handy board of some sort. Someone who can tell that you have teenagers might find it an opportunity to get those friends phone numbers. There are a lot of strange people out there. Make sure to put away ANY that leaves a trail on you.
Pictures tell a thousand words
You have one chance to make a first impression and that is in your pictures. Before photography day, take your own pictures with your cell phone and take a real good look to make sure that there are no personal items in view and edit as required.
This is where a 3rd party comes in useful as many folks can’t see what is personal or not. It’s tough to see this sometimes as we become so used to our own stuff.
Furniture Styles
Many of us over the years have inherited hand me downs and our furniture is outdated. No, the buyer is not buying your furniture, however it’s about the FEELING they get when they see your stuff. Does it make them want to be in the space or does it make them feel like they are living in the past? Most buyers want to see something they dream of owning. Renting furniture is a good way to give them that look they love.
It’s All in the Mindset
You need to mentally prepare yourself to be sold. Your home that you have loved for years is now going to be someone else's home. I want you to see it as a house, a product for sale, just like you would sell a car. Repair it, clean it, shine it up to sell.
Remember that your personal decor style is your own and may not be appealing to others and think of the age group that your home will appeal to. Appeal to them, this is no time to be offended, it is a time to act on the actions recommended so you can successfully get sold.
We can help you determine what style that should be and we will work with your realtor to determine who we are staging for.
Planning
Make sure to get ready in plenty of time so you’re not caught skipping this step so you can achieve an amazing uncluttered space!
We specialize in evening and weekend hours so no need to take the day off when booking a consultation. Our appointments are for 5pm and 7pm on weeknights and 10am and 2pm on Saturdays.To find out more about our services, you can view our profile here.
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