How Important Is It to Stage a Room That No One Really Wants? A Follow Up
On Sunday I asked this question in a post because more and more Stagers and Realtors are seeing homes in which the living room is being used for something other than its original purpose. It’s been used as a play room, a catch all room or home office. So just how important is it for the room to be staged as a living room?
I thought you might want some kind of follow up. Some of you may have been waiting for me to come up with my answer but I threw this question out there because I really wanted to see what everyone else was thinking.
It was almost equally divided.... half felt the living room definitely needed to be returned to its original purpose.... while half felt it depended upon the floor plan and other circumstances.
Most were emphatic that the pool table in a living or dining room had to go.
Toni Weidman has a good solution if the Living Room is being used as something else... in the descriptive part of the MLS she would state “the living room is currently being used as a _____”. Including this in the MLS will alert a Buyer’s agent so they can point this out to the buyers.
My opinion ( and that’s all is is... it’s not a dictum) is that there are no absolutes.
I think you have to consider....
1. The expectations of the Buyers -regions and communities vary. In some areas a Formal Living Room would be expected and wanted.
2. The floor plan-with some floor plans, for example, those with the Living Room off the entry, it’s not all that distracting to show the Living Room as a home office.
3. If the living room/office is where they conduct their business. As zealous as we are to have everything just so, it’s not that easy if the seller needs this space for his business.
4. The financial aspects of packing and storing the “pool table” as well as renting or buying living room furniture.
What is more important is how well the room shows, regardless of the purpose. As Kathy Nielsen suggested... if the living room is being used as a home office, then make every effort to make it a “dream” office.
Common sense, as Lenn Harley suggested, is an important component of a Stager’s tool box. We have to “pick our battles” and understand that part of the creativity that we profess to have is to deal with what we’re given. Not every home is going to be perfect...and there are no iron clad rule books.
As many differing points of view as there were here are also out there in the eyes of our buyers.
So however the room is used.. for whatever purpose
just make sure that it does not distract or detract from the
buyer’s ability to see the possibilities of the house.
Of course... some rooms just defy definition. This living room wanted so badly to function as a “Sports Bar”.
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