staging ~ the 3ds

by lin ellis on October 8, 2009

I was getting my usual Sunday morning HGTV real estate fix a few days ago when Sofie Allsopp, host of The Unsellables, spoke of what she calls the “3ds” of getting your home ready to be placed on the market ~
* dis-associate
* de-clutter
* de-personalize
I use another “d” for her first one ~ detach ~ & wrote about all 3 of these concepts here.

When selling, it is important to appeal to the largest buyer pool that you can. To further illustrate the “3ds” in action, let us dissect this MLS picture of a kitchen.

This kitchen, though lacking the high-end finishes that buyers crave like stainless & granite, is actually fairly modern & spacious & has some nice features in it like the window. But, obviously, the owner did not implement the “3ds”.

There is way too stuff in this space & all this stuff distracts potential buyers from seeing its actual features. Some serious editing needs to happen, starting with everything north of the top of the cabinets (what are those 5 frond shaped things?) & continuing onto the countertops. A good rule if thumb is to not have more than 3 small appliances on your counters ~ you do not want buyers to think that there is not enough storage. And, loose the fridge art when selling.

I am going to go on a little rant ~ there are a lot of bad MLS pictures out there that should not be. It just requires the person on the other side of the lens put a little thought into the final product. For instance, in addition to all the personal clutter, in this picture your eye is drawn in several directions that have nothing to do with the home like the trash can & water cooler. The table & chairs are also in the way ~ in fact one of the chairs appears to be blocking the dishwasher. And, that’s the point ~ you want your pictures to NOT be confusing to potential buyers. It would have taken no effort to remove these items for the picture. And, sometimes just a slight adjustment in the angle of a shot makes all the difference in the world. That window is a selling feature, so I would have aimed the camera slightly to the right to get all of it into the picture.

When you are selling your home, you are presenting the public a product & products need to be merchandised ~ especially in the buyers market we are currently experiencing. So, detach or dis-associate, de-clutter & de-personalize. Or, call in a stager ~ it will be money well spent.

photo credit: ugly house photos

staging ~ the 3ds

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