Urban Discoveries Baltimore

So there was a big story in the New York Times last week about home staging. This is the practice –– and for some, the thriving business -– of arranging in the house which you are trying to sell a kind of lovely fiction of your life. Or rather, of someone else’s life.

The theory is that what your house looks like as-is (ripped wallpaper, beer can pyramid, futon) may negatively affect the ability of your realtor to sell the place. Thanks to the likes of Malcolm Gladwell, we’re by now all familiar with the power of peripheral effects. Coke just doesn’t taste as good in a Sam’s Choice can.

So while you’re busy absorbing your realtor’s wisdom on the primacy of location, take some time to think through the details prospective buyers will encounter. One doesn’t find oneself  acing a job interview simply because one’s dress shirt isn’t mustard-stained. But as with any first impression, dumb stuff matters way more than it should. A few things you can take care of yourself before you go hiring a local home stager (there are more of these guys than you’d think):

1.    Fix the little things that you’ve been putting off. No matter how negligible a crack in the molding might seem to someone who already lives there, you can’t overestimate the appeal of “already perfect.”

2.    Remember, you’re not preparing for a visit from your mother. Your taste (or hers) is not at issue here. You want to offer prospective buyers a blank slate, albeit a cozy blank slate. Yes, that Ghost in the Shell poster rocks. No, you shouldn’t leave it framed above your bed.

3.    No photographs. Nothing’s more unsettling than finding some dude’s name tattooed on your blind date’s calf. (Maybe her brother is named Egon Forever?)

4.    Unless… your house is in a neighborhood where prospective families might find themselves uneasy after dark. One or two warm, confident family portraits can, in some cases, make buyers feel a little more secure.

What kind of story does your stuff tell?

Posted in: Real Estate - Buying, Selling, Talking About It.1 Comment