Many of us have heard the familiar phrase - staging is not the same as decorating.  Simply put, decorating is personalizing a space to suit a particular taste.  Home Staging is de-personalizing a space and making it appealing to the widest range of potential buyers. 

As Home Stagers with our own personal sense of design, we strongly encourage everyone to live in spaces they personalize and decorate the way they want to live.  However, when selling a home, the exact opposite is true.  If owners put their homes on the market in the exact condition they like to live in, 99% of the time it will not give them the best edge in marketing their home.

Remember this when selling your home:

Never let a buyer looking at your home ever think about you!  What are you like? Why are you selling? Aren't your kids cute? You go to that type of church?  What a beautiful antique - my grandmother had that!  You get the point. 

When you are selling your home you want potential buyers to see the space and imagine themselves living in it.  Once you distract a buyer with personal items that take them away from thinking about your house, you made an easily avoidable and potentially costly mistake.

Here is a bedroom in a home that was decked out in Victorian style with wallpaper in every room.  By simply removing the wallpaper, painting a neutral color, and removing some personal item (lace on the chest, bed throws, period art, birdhouse, window coverings) the room is instantly more inviting and easy for a buyer to envision the space.  And now there is even a view!

It's great to have a workout room, expecially if we use it!  But not at the expense of a bedroom when selling your home.  This is a downstairs master suite with a bathroom attached and a gorgeous view out the window of downtown Portland.  Staging this room as it is intended allows a buyer to get a feel for the size and potential of this bedroom.

This space was used as an office, but can you imagine that the owner opted to face the corner with a wall instead of the amazing view of Mt. Hood out the windows?  By simply rearranging the owners furnishings, the space becomes more intimate and features one of the major selling points of the home.

Talk about personal items!  This before photo was taken *after* the owners thought they had de-cluttered and de-personalized the space.  Artifacts from their trips around the world are a wonderful display when living in the home, but not when selling.  A buyer would begin thinking about the stories of each of these unique and valuable items instead of the beautiful living room behind them.  Simply staged, this wall now keeps buyers focused on the home, and not on the owner's international adventures.

Remember - a professional home stager sees your property through the eyes of a potential buyer, with the added experience and knowledge of how to best present your home.  We view your home with no emotional attachment and can objectively help prepare your house for sale.   And if you want to do it yourself, a cost effective Home Staging Consultation will give you all the tips and recommendations necessary get your home market ready.

This post is Part 2 in a series answering Why Hire a Professional Stager in Portland, Oregon?

Part 1 can be found here:
Why Hire a Professional Stager in Portland Oregon?  I Watch HGTV!  Part 1 in a Series

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Join the Realtors, Investors, and Homeowners who call Synergy Staging to make their properties irresistible.  For more tips or to see our latest home staging projects, visit us on Facebook and read our Portland Home Staging Blog.  Please call us at (503) 557-2244 for a free no obligation quote so we can help your home sell faster.