Seller's Center > Home Preparation > "Staging"

Four "Staging" Principles & Specific Ideas to Maximize Your Home's Value

Why Stage?

Three words. Buyers Lack Vision. You are helping a buyer see your home in a positive light. Showing them how they might live in the home and enjoy the home. It is the same reason that packaging costs several times more than the product itself. It is the reason why drinking Coke will create world peace and drinking Pepsi will make you young and hip. All products should set the stage for why owning the product will make your life better, and a home is no different.

Four "Staging" Principles

Once you have addressed any cosmetic improvements that you are willing to tackle, you are ready for the finishing touches.

If you understand the principles you will be able to think like a professional stager when evaluating a room.

Principle one: People are territorial

Imagine checking into a hotel. You get your key and open the door, and uh oh, someone else’s clothes are on the bed and the shower is running. Would you go in and make yourself at home? Heck no! You would feel embarrassed, like an intruder, and immediately leave. Does your home create this feeling? It is quite possible, you may not even be aware what makes your home, "Your Home", may turn other buyers off.

Clear out as many of your personal belongings as possible, which means everything that makes your home look like yours. The new buyer must walk in and be able to envision it as theirs. This is broad and sweeping statement and takes some experience to apply. So here is an additional way to look at it. If I were to look at the items, would I be able to learn about you?

Could I tell that you loved antique dolls, by your 30 dolls stuffed into display cabinet?
Might it be obvious that you are a fisherman, because of the 2 taxidermied trophy catches and photos proximately displayed.
Might I know that you are really like to read because your bookshelves are overflowing with, you name the category of book.
Could I tell that you have raised 4 children and have 8 grandchildren because of the numerous family photos?
Might I know that you are a poor house keeper because of the dirt and clutter?

When you "Stage" a home for a buyer, it is no longer your home. You are making it available for the new buyer. Buyers don't want to know about you. They want to see if the house works for THEM.

Distinction: The beautiful people that come in the photo cube people. I remember walking through a new home that was staged properly. There was a wedding photo of a young and beautiful couple. Why would they leave this type of personal photo? What the photo said to me, was not so much that these people owned this home, but if you bought this home you could be beautiful and happily married as well. You can have some personal items when the fall into the beautiful photo cube people category.

Principle Two: Remove all clutter

This is an extension on rule one. Get rid of stuff, all of your odds and ends, as much as you can. This doesn't’t mean you have to throw it away, just get it out of the way for the time being. This will make it easier to look at the home and for the prospective buyer to visualize it as theirs. Too much stuff just makes the home look busy and distracts the buyer from what they are trying to buy. If you have a china cabinet, don’t put every single piece of crystal in there. Use it as a display to show off only a few choice items and box the rest. It will look more elegant.

China Cabinets: If you have a glass display cabinet that you use to keep ALL of your fine china, consider removing at least half. Use the cabinet as a DISPLAY case not as a storage case. Pre pack your china in boxes and leave your best pieces for display.

Book Shelves: The same applies to book shelves. Full bookshelves look heavy, overbearing and cluttered. Eliminate 2/3rds of the books and leave the most appealing books. Alternate between several books vertical and several horizontal, and maybe add a nick nack, here or there. The point is to turn your book shelve from an ugly storage unit into an attractive display.

Mantles, Shelves and other Display areas: As a good rule of thumb 3 items is enough. Keep things simple.

Principle Three: Create flow

Physical Flow: Make sure you can walk around your house freely. Space is often deceptive. The chair that you use to watch TV, may be ideally located for viewing TV, but it might get in the way. Buyers will usually be up and walking around the entire time they preview your home. Even heavy items on the wall wall in a hallway will block flow.

Dining Table: Consider removing extra leaves and only using 4 chairs. For showing purposes, being able to walk around a dining table to get from room to room is more important than being able to seat extra people.

Extra Furniture: If your living room or master bedroom is full of furniture, consider removing one or two items. It is more important that your home looks spacious, than being able to seat 8 people in front of your TV.

Visual Flow: Visual flow is just as important as physical flow. When standing still we only occupy about 1 square foot of space, but what we see is limited only by our sight. So it is important to allow the eye to not be stopped by obstructions. Do you keep the shades drawn? Opening them will make a room seem bigger. Is there a tassel - pull chain hanging from the ceiling fan, that blocks your view? Remove it. Are there bushes in the way of your windows? Trim them back. When you look into the back yard is there some obstruction that stops your eye from looking to the back of the yard?

New Home Example: Have you ever been to a model home and noticed that many are presented without the interior doors installed? This is a perfect example of maximizing the physical and visual flow over function.

Exception: Buyers usually just look into a bedroom, they will not need to walk to the rear portion of a bedroom. However make sure there is nothing large on top of a dresser located at the bedroom entrance that blocks your view of the room.

Principle Four: Add life

Once you have stripped your home of YOUR personality and removed all of the clutter, your home may seem a little barren. At this point you re-introduce life, but it will be non human life, through plants, color, smells and sounds.

Plants, plants and more plants: My stager often jokes that she has stock in a plant store, because she suggests A LOT of plants. On top of the refrigerator or kitchen counters. Tall plants with height for in the corner of the living room. Plants make the home feel alive and warm. Just simple house plants will work. Silk plants are ok as well. If you are moving borrow some of your neighbors plants for the time that the home will be shown.

Color: A fresh bowl of fruit (no bananas - the go bad too soon) can add a nice touch of color to a table or kitchen counter. Use citrus as they last. How about a bathroom that is drab? Colorful towels can spruce up the appeal at no cost.

Smells: We always recommend scented candles in the bathrooms and the kitchen. Keep it simple with just plain vanilla candles. Having them lit during open houses or broker tours certainly enhance the ambiance.

Sounds: Music at a low volume throughout the home completes the feeling of inviting warmth. If you have a stereo in the living room and a clock radio, simply tuning to the same station can accomplish this goal. I usually recommend either a classical station or a jazz station. Is your home a classical music home or a jazzy music home.

Specific "Staging" Ideas

So now that you know how to Think like a Stager, what are some specific ideas

Your Furniture Should be Scale Appropriate

While the current trend is towards large homes, most Los Angeles homes are older and have smaller rooms, it is important to have the correct size furniture for rooms. Most dining rooms in Long Beach's tract homes will not support a large full size 8 person dining table.

When thinning out excess furniture pieces, consider leaving the furniture that is more appropriate to the space. Ikea can be a great place to get a small piece of furniture that is appropriate for smaller spaces.

Turn Cheap Furniture into Cute Furniture

Sometimes you need a small table but don't have one, or what to spend money. Simply get a card table, or a really cheap end table at Target for $15 and cover it with a nice table cloth that you already have.

Stage Your Fireplace

If you have a wood burning fireplace and there are no gas logs already in place. Pick some up some real wood logs and put them in the fireplace. Keep the screen open, so that they can be seen. Just a friendly reminder that your prospective buyer will be able to cuddle up with their family and enjoy a real fire on a cold night. That is what staging is about. Setting the stage as to how the home will be used.

Rooms that might be difficult to understand, then set the stage

Without a dining table in this space, the area just felt like a wide & wasted hallway connecting the living room with the family room.

Some rooms are just harder than others, especially in Long Beach where additions abound. If a buyer would look at a room or space and not be sure what they might use the space for, help them out. Stage the area.

The picture to the right is an examples of a dining room that might confused a buyer. This dining room was likely a centrally located rear bedroom. But when a family room was added the bedroom become a dining room that now opens up to the new step down family room addition. Actually quite a good change. But without the dining table in place this area looked like an 11ft wide hallway. The simple addition of a light fixture and a table convey to the buyer that this is the dining area, and not a super wide hallway. With this suggestion you have created value, dining rooms are more valuable than hallways.

Difficult rooms are usually ones that don't fit into the standards. Either because it doesn't flow like a normal home might flow, or it isn't the correct size. Often these rooms are small additions, or multi purpose rooms. What you need to do is create value. If you have a small room that is used for storage, turn it into a home office. A home office has more value than a room to store crap. Figure out what use will have the greatest appeal and value and create the space along those lines.

Kids Rooms

Let kids be kids, but neat kids. Don't worry about the purple wallpaper, or the fun toys. Most buyers will just look in a kids room. Not walk in and snoop around. Just make sure that there isn't too many toys or large items, then the room will seem to small.

Patios, Courtyards, etc. Stage the space to Create Value

This fenced in entry courtyard space was undefined. Adding a table created an outdoor sitting area giving purpose to the space.

Concrete patios and outdoor spaces are not defined like rooms in a home. Without a patio table to define a space, buyers just see a large space. They don't see how they would enjoy the area.

When setting up your back yard create conversational areas or eating areas like in the pictures to the right.

This is especially true in Southern California, where outside living spaces are frequently used because of good weather. An outside living space greatly enhances value the perceived value, since it greatly enhances that useable living space, without the cost of construction.

Backyard Designations

This backyard is more inviting with the addition of patio furniture and a barbeque

When a buyer steps out into your back yard they will visually survey the situation. Creating a little sitting area in a far off corner, will help them envision the possibilities. Set the stage for where you might gather.

Garages - Put all of your mess there

We have been saying to declutter, thin your personal belonging and do some prepacking. But where do you put your extra stuff? The garage.

It is ok to have a garage stuffed to the gills because garages are not emotional, they are functional. A two car garage is a two car garage. The buyer knows that when you leave, your stuff will go with you. So spend time cleaning your garage. Only in the rare instance where the garage is a showplace might in enhance the value to work on presenting the garage. But in 99% of the Long Beach homes we sell, the value will be the same whether a garage is cluttered or clean. Work on the home, use your garage for overflow.

Too Bright is Just Right

When buyers or agents show your home, they are coming in from outside where it is very bright. It takes the human eye 5 minutes to adjust to the new light level. Your buyers won't be there that long. Even if your home is too bright for normal living purposes, it will probably be just fine for showing.

Setting a Dining Table is Overkill

This is just my personal opinion. I see it done. A dining table that is set and ready for dinner, looks like I am coming over for dinner. It feels too formal for me, and I almost now feel like a guest, not a potential owner.

Can You Live Without your Countertop Microwave for 30 days?

In quite a few Long Beach tract homes there is a limited amount of counter space. A large microwave might be useful, but it can consume a good portion counter space. Can you move it into a cabinet or maybe just live without it while the home is on the market?

This goes for not just a microwave, but all kitchen top appliances. Is there a bread maker, a blender, a toaster over a coffee pot? Put all, except the most essential away.