It's nothing personal....

This week my team and I had a staging appointment in a great neighbourhood in the Parkwood Hills area, a well maintained 4 bedroom home with beautiful landscaping on a family-friendly street. The seller has decided to downsize into a condo now that her children have all grown up. she had lived there for years and I can only imagine the emotional attachment she has to this house. she is keen to sell but was very unsure of the staging process and why it was needed.

We arrived on Monday and toured the entire home and took some notes. The big issue in the house was the clutter - papers, family photographs, gifts from her children, and other 'collections'. We decided to start by clearing off the surfaces. We operate by the rule of 3 - no more than 3 items on a surface. The home still looks 'decorated' but not swallowed up by clutter and other items. We cleared off the fireplace mantle completely and added one simple vase with flowers. Clearing off the kitchen counter top and tucking away the small appliances made the space feel so much larger and cleaner too. And in the bedrooms and bathrooms, more of the same! What a difference!

We returned on Tuesday to add some flowers and a few splashes of colour so that the home was photo ready and much to our surprise - everything we had done to stage the home had been un-done! We had to start all over again. At least we had had some practise the day before (lol).

My assistants were somewhat confused and a bit frustrated, asking why would someone want their home staged only to un-do all of the stager's work? Well, as odd as it may seem many people, especially those who have been in the home for a significant amount of time, are offended or feel like you are criticizing them in some way. It is so important for the homeowner to understand what staging actually is and that it's nothing personal. We are there to help you sell your home for top dollar. In order to accomplish that, we sometimes have to remove (temporarily) the personal touches in the home and allow the potential buyers to mentally move-in.

The photographs are to take place this morning, I just hope the owner has not un-done all of the staging work. It is so important to have amazing photographs of your home - that is how you will draw in your buyers. It's nothing personal...just staging!

If you are interested in this listing or interested to see how the photos turned out, check out:

www.bennettpros.com/Ottawa/Ontario/Homes/Parkwood_Hills/Agent/Listing_17333605.html