If you go online or read home and lifestyle magazines, you will find multiple articles on home-staging dos and don’ts - about the biggest home staging mistakes. Everything you need to know can be summed up in one rule: 

It’s not about you!

What do we mean? It’s very simple. The purpose of home staging is not to showcase your home, your decor, or your lifestyle, but to create fertile ground for potential buyers to imagine their lives in the home. Good staging will give the buyer the germ of an idea for how they could live there. If you fill the space up with too much of your beloved stuff—overly personalized decor or shelves of your family photos—it distracts potential buyers and makes it more difficult for them to create their own vision for the home. 

Believe it or not, many people cannot picture the home looking different than it looks when they see it. If they find something objectionable, they often reject the home, instead of realizing they can easily change that element. Even something easy to switch like a paint color or a window treatment can be a turnoff to a potential buyer. You should try to anticipate design elements that might be too extreme and substitute something less likely to cause a negative reaction.

It’s best to avoid any furniture or decor that’s very personal or specific to your taste. That’s why our advice is not to make your staging about you, your taste, your family, or your life. Make it about the buyer instead. Remember, good staging encourages the potential buyer to begin an emotional connection with the home, which allows him or her to see how her own life could unfold there. This is absolutely what Staged Ryte does every time we stage a home. Here are some specific situations where you might feel tempted to indulge your own taste but shouldn’t:

Don’t choose colors based on your preferences.

You may love deep violet bedroom walls, black curtains, or lots of acid green, but chances are buyers will be less enthused. Take the opportunity to switch out the black, violet, or green for a more neutral color before putting the home on the market. 

At the same time, when we say neutral, we don’t mean the sterile white-on-white interiors that are popular in design magazines. Sure, they look great on Instagram, but a home on the real estate market should look cozy and livable, not like a showroom. Remember the staging is telling the potential buyer a story, one that is a balance between fantasy and reality. And the reality is most people don’t live white-on-white.

The good news on color: painting is one of the best and least expensive fixes in our home-staging toolbox. Still, if a paint job simply isn’t in the budget, embrace the vivid color and try to balance it out with neutral linens, pillows, throws or other accessories.

Want to learn more about decorating with color? Click here.

Don’t assume potential buyers are going to love your pet.

It’s hard to imagine, we know, but many people are put off by evidence of an animal in the home. We understand you love your Fido or Fifi, but you can’t assume your furry friend will charm your potential buyers. Make sure any pet fur, bowls, or toys are out of sight during showings. Your kitty litter box should be clean and, even better, removed from the house. Even better if you can take your pet out of the home as well. If people see a cat, they may imagine they can smell it, even if you can’t. Want more pet tips? Read this Architectural Digest article.

There’s no such thing as too clean, too neat.

Your idea of charmingly lived in might be someone else’s idea of a hot mess. And when it comes to home staging, there is simply no such thing as charmingly lived in. Give up your own idea of what looks comfortable and make your home a neatnick’s dream. Be prepared to do a deep clean (or have a professional do one) and declutter before putting the home on the market. If you do have a pet, be prepared to maintain that level of deep-clean and neatness throughout the showing period. It may be arduous, but it’s necessary.

Not every smell is a good smell.

The home should not only be fresh and clean but should smell that way. Sometimes people are so used to living with a particular odor, they actually cannot smell it. Recently we staged a home that had a lingering smell of damp and mold. We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned but the offensive odor remained. At the end of our rope, we popped some apples and cinnamon in the oven. Soon the home smelled like a sparkling autumn day and we could imagine drinking some cider there. The whole scene changed immediately. We just had to make sure the real estate agent was willing to go in before each showing and bake those apples to keep the scent in the air.

Staging a home for a quick sale is a serious commitment – we know! Our entire goal is to do this FOR sellers – to take this burden off their shoulders. Our home staging services are is unique and eye catching. Let us know if you’d like to learn more about how we do this.