Most of us think of home staging as a technique to enhance a home's aesthetic appeal, and that's certainly true.
But a recent incident with a prospective listing client made me realize that it's really much more than that.
I usually offer home staging services from interior designers Joanne Gardner and Bonnie Cordeiro of Decorate with Pizazz as part of my marketing package, along with professional photography by Jay Groccia of the Online Property Showcase. These talented artists have done a first-rate job for me for several years now, and we can point to numerous examples of how our program has sold homes that had lingered on the market for months--or even years--before we metamorphosed them.
Recently, though, we had a startling experience with a homeowner who couldn't live with the design and furniture placement changes that Bonnie and Joanne had made. When we left the home, after having spent almost three hours moving furniture and changing accessories, I thought the place looked fantastic, and knew it would photograph beautifully. You can imagine my dismayed surprise, then, when I started getting calls from Mr. and Mrs. Seller, complaining that the staging had created chaos, rather than harmony.
I should mention that this particular home had already been on the market for four months, with no takers, in spite of significant price reductions.
The day after the staging consultation, Mrs. Seller called to tell me that she had put everything back exactly where it had been before we started rearranging it. Rather than argue, we just agreed to a mutual parting of the ways.
And then it hit me: the reason the home was not selling was because the homeowners couldn't let go. They couldn't appreciate the real purpose of our home staging: by rearranging furniture, and clearing away extraneous accessories, we were breaking up the old, established energy patterns that had been created to serve the needs of the current occupants. Our single-minded purpose was to allow new energy to enliven the space, and to create a clean, fresh, impersonal palette designed to attract new owners, not please the old ones!
The homeowners' rigid insistence on having everything their way has erected an invisible--but very real--energetic barrier that will continue to turn away prospective buyers, who may not even recognize why they can't envision themselves living there. They'll just experience a vague feeling that this place belongs to someone else, and that they are not welcome.
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