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Home Stager Looks At Curb Appeal: Depersonalizing the Personal

knocker rock

They're Popular...They're Attractive...They're Inappropriate when you're trying to sell your home!

As home stagers in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky we are increasingly coming across attractive personalized elements in our clients front yards. It struck me as we left our second home this week where we recommended removing one of these items that this may be something often overlooked by home sellers as they prepare their homes for the market.

Most homeowners now understand the need to remove family photos and religious items as they prepare to sell...but what about the engraved boulder in the front yard? As home stagers we assist in creating the vision of homeownership for prospective buyers. Curb appeal is critical and removing monogrammed and personalized items is an easy way to improve the odds for sale.

Design To Market has been staging homes in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky since 2004. For more information about this project and our other Cincinnati home staging services please call us at 513-265-0952 or visit our website at www.designtomarketllc.com .

Posted by Jo Potvin-Home Staging Cincinnati - Design To Market on 08/13/2008 04:05 PM

Comments (14)

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14 Comments on Home Stager Looks At Curb Appeal: Depersonalizing the Personal

AUG

2008

Excellent point, Jo! It's so true that anything monogrammed would personalize the home to a fault. Great post.

Kathy

Jo ~ I agree, this is an excellent point. I have a neighbor a couple of houses down, with her house on the market for a year, and her mailbox at the curb was personalized with their last name.

It can be such a touchy subject with sellers. Sometimes they look at me like - are you crazy? - when I say (delicately) they need to remove personal pictures, exterior nameplates, etc. It's as if they just cannot believe that doing so will affect the sale. They usually come around, but it has to sink in first.

Maybe we should suggest that they replace their personalized plaques and boulders with ones that say, "Your name here"!

You are so right! We had a client who went shopping to buy the requested items we needed to complete her staging, like white bath towels etc. She came home with some beautiful white soap and white hand towels, all with her intitials............... They were lovely but we had to break it to her that we couldn't use them but they would look great in her new home :-)

Laurie-I guess with that line of thinking you could put "your photo here!" in picture frames!

Great point, I havn't run across that, but on the other hand I really wasn't looking. I am now! Laurie and Jo, what a crack up, I'm stiil laughing!!

AUG

2008

You have made an excellent point-and I agree that some of the blatant displays of ownership should be removed. However, as a realtor, I still have mixed emotions about completely sterilizing a home. I have never found a few family pictures or a drawing on the fridge to stop somebody from buying a home that was priced correctly. There is a fine line between tasteful number of personal items versus the museum effect...and that is why sellers need a neutral 3rd party- the stager- to assist with those decisions.
ksk

Jo: I love this post! While these personalized items are small, they are usually front and center, like on the front door mat or front door where they are most obvious. I find that sellers who are unwilling to remove or cover these items (including family photos) are still having trouble with the concept of letting go of the home. "Energetically" this can make a home difficult to sell. The sooner they let go and move on, the sooner someone else will want to move in!

Laurie, your suggestion to have the door knocker inscription say "Your name here" made me smile to read it. With certain properties, prospective buyer may have the same response.

Kathy, I totally agree with you in regards to the issue of too sterile a feel in the home. Our belief is that the placement is key. For example a few nice family photos in the study or the master bedroom can add warmth to the home. However, a gallery of photos across the mantel or a large protrait as a centerpiece on a wall usually need to go.

AUG

2008

It's like a stamp that says YOU all over it from the minute potential buyers step foot on the property. As minor as this seems to some, it really makes a big psychological impact that says "yours not theirs"

I know how upset my kids used to get when they never saw their (unusually spelled) names on those pencils, mugs and products that were personalized - and that's pennies compared to buying a house!

Good info Jo!