Books - Even If They're Just A Staging Tool
Now, Pat Kennedy and I have a lot in common, and books are just one of the things. But, if you are trying to sell an upper-bracket home, and there are no books on the bookshelves, think about what that might convey.
The books don't have to be legal tomes, but they should be hard-cover and not by Danielle Steele.
Thank Pat for a great post on how to stage a great home.
On a recent Tuesday tour, we went through the home of a Famous American. This person has advised presidents and has to be one of the more influential people in the country. And one thing about this house that was a little bit off.
There was not a single book in his lovely upper brackets house. Nothing on history or politics. Nothing about economics. Not even any murder mysteries or travelogues. There were some decorating magazines, but not a copy of any journals or even a GQ, Vanity Fair, Newsweek or Time Magazine.
There were some bookcases, although they would be more accurately described as shelving – there were knick knacks staging them, but no books.
So, did this guy read? Maybe he did but just kept all of his reading material in his office downtown. I sure hoped so.A lot of my buyers are big readers. They are attracted to homes with walls where they can build bookcases, and better yet to homes where these walls already have built-in bookcases. And they like to check out what the sellers read. My buyers, even if they didn't know who lived there, would wonder where the books were. And on the Tuesday I was there, a number of my colleagues also wondered aloud.
Oddly, a week after seeing this house, we did a pricing party at a new listing one of my office's agents was going for. She got it, and one of the reasons was that the other agent and her stager had recommended that they lose the books in the impressive, custom-built wall of bookcases in the family room. We suggested that they tidy it up. The house, of course, sold to book people.
Go figure!
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