We’re gonna let you in on a little secret. Home buyers visit a LOT of houses when they are searching for the perfect place to call home. After a while it’s hard to remember each house you viewed.
So it’s human nature to focus on something memorable about each, by giving the property a name. Names are often based on some stand-out feature, be it good or bad or yes, ugly. There are a lot of aspects of a home that will garner it a nickname, so we asked some of our friends, family and customers to share some stories with us.
Décor
Here’s a great example from one of our clients. “When we were shopping for our first home, there was a nice house in a good neighborhood that had been on the market for quite a while. A few offers had been made, and those were low-balls. When we finally went to a showing, we learned why. Nearly EVERY room had stenciling. Borders, cabinets, walls…no surface was safe. When we mentioned it to friends, they immediately said, ‘Oh yes, the stencil house!’ Someone, probably a professional home painter, eventually got it for significantly under its market value.”
Committed to Collecting
One of the challenges in staging occupied homes is dealing with collections. Whether it’s beer steins, Lladro figurines or vintage dolls, displayed collections are distracting to potential buyers and can be very polarizing. We advise our clients to go ahead and pack these items for moving before we come in to stage. While there are worse things than being known as the “Precious Moments” house, it’s important to remember that how you live in your home is not how you sell your home.
Something Icky
Our marketing specialist related this story about a home they looked at. “We moved to Michigan in the early 80s, and having grown up on the East Coast, I had no idea what a ‘Michigan Basement’ was. You don’t see them much anymore, but we looked at a home where the basement had a dirt floor. It was a historic home and just lovely…until a giant centipede slithered across the kitchen floor at about 30 mph. And then, in the main bathroom…there were two in the tub. We named it the ‘Creepy Crawler’ house. It stayed on the market for quite a while, and the people who eventually bought it ended up moving it to higher ground on the property after putting in a proper basement and foundation. We still call it the Creepy Crawler house when we drive by it!”
They Called it Shaggadelic
Dated décor is one way to quickly garner a nickname for your home. Groovy wallpaper from the 70s and furniture from the 80s are memorable to buyers…and not in a good way. Painting over wallpaper is usually a good option (vs. trying to remove it for purposes of selling). Shag carpet from the 70s was almost always placed over hardwood floors. Removing it and quickly polishing the wood beneath is an important update you can make easily. Replacing the most dated furniture and décor with pieces from our inventory can bring your home visually into the 21st century.
Keep it Clean
While you’re thinking about how others view your home, remember details matter and even just one significant negative can garner a label that you don’t want. “Dirty Kitchen,” “Hoarder Basement,” and “Broken Sidewalk” aren’t names you want associated with your home, so we always recommend our staging clients deal with these details before we come in to stage.
In some cases the label is something you can’t overcome. Situations like a busy road, a traffic light, a narrow driveway, small bedrooms etc. are very difficult to avoid. Even with characteristics that may not be favorable, you can change the perspective by making sure they fall in love with other aspects of the house. Staging helps overcome many buyer objections.
We actually staged a property a few years ago that did not have a basement, yet buyers stayed in the house for nearly an hour to figure out how to make the house work for them…because they fell in love with the look, feel and features of the home.
Make sure the “label” your home gets is one that shines a good light on your property. Staging is the fastest and surest way to do that!
