My Art Is Off Limits...it's worth half the value of my home!

Donna, I saw a house where the owner collected "Hummels".   I have also seen a house that was filled with "Batman" souvenirs, photographs, autographs, and collectibles.  And I have seen others...

  Get rid of it! 

  Buyers will be so distracted looking at "The Museum", that they will never put in an Offer.

Donna -- good call.  Anything that distracts buyers from noticing the home's features is a lost opportunity to capture their interest in the home.  I advise my sellers exactly the same thing  :-)

I have encountered this problem too. Often the art work is nicer than the home. You don't want a buyer coming into a listing, looking at the artwork and forgetting to look at the house!

Anything that distracts the focus away from the home and its unique features hinders the marketing efforts of a property for sale.

Value or cost of things does not necessarily determine whether they will be beneficial to the sale of the home.  This is a hard concept for sellers to understand sometimes.

Hi Donna--250 pieces of art?  More like a museum than a house.  I am sure the client will enjoy showing all the pieces in their new home--which they get to move to faster after following your advice! 

Good for you, Donna - you strapped on that brass bra and told them the truth!  Truth will always win out.

Donna - I have a great story about "priceless" art or accessories. I partner with a local stager who often handles some of my staging consults for me. He was staging an occupied house in a very expensive neighborhood when the homeowner's daughter came home and gave him all kinds of grief for rearranging the extremely valuable vases.

Once she finished her tirade he turned them over just out of curiosity and found the $9.99 TJ Maxx price tag still attached. So much for "priceless". :)

Donna.....I run into this all the time.  And your sooooo right.....it's not a museum or an art gallery that is on the market but the sale of the HOME!  I once had a "potential" client say...."WHAT....your going to replace MY art with that production art?".  I didn't get that job!!

I just had the opposite happen.  I just did a staging evaluation for an estate home of parents - and as we toured the basement laundry room, they had stacked art leaning on the wall from their cleanup efforts - Just sitting on the cement floor...

As I flipped through the art to see if we could use any pieces, I spotted a piece I recognized, as I own one - I knew the artist and value  around $10,000.00.  Looked it up for them when I got home and was dead on.

When it comes to Art - It too pays to be Art educated in this field as well.  Glad it didn't end up in a Garage Sale... and then on Antiques Road Show!

Donna, What I always say to my clients with collections that are not deemed "stagable," - It's best that we archive your collections for now, so that our buyers aren't distracted by them (it.)  Also, if it so valueable, you risk that it might be touched, knocked over, etc...

Donna - I've switched out priceless pieces of art for $50 art from Home Sense because the colours worked better and the vibe was more contemporary.  Some of that priceless art has very heavy, dated, traditional frames.  Great call on your part.

Hi Donna,

We actually did a staging job not that long ago where we placed (we were not aware of the value of the painting)an expensive painting in a master en suite because it went better with the colour scheme.  The homeowner was mortified!  But agreed to leave in where it was because it co ordinated the other en suite pieces... at least while the home was up for sale... as it happens the home sold in a week!  All was good!

Yes, wea ll agree-great job and good blog!