Staging your home for sale is a big deal nowadays. There are even multiple television shows, like Designed to Sell on Home & Garden Television, that focus on that concept alone.
It’s Not Your Home Anymore
A homeowner who has had difficulty selling his or her house is assisted by a realtor and a designer. The realtor often comments about some aspect of the house, such as it being too cluttered or too dark. I’ve seen some of them get pretty energetic about how awful something is.
What they tend to leave out is that’s it’s not good for selling.
For example, the “cluttered” one that sticks in my mind involved a very well-done display of owl collectibles flanking a fireplace. It was attractive with blank space around each owl and irregular groupings that kept your eyes moving and interested.
The designer put it to the homeowners differently – that the prospective buyers would be looking at the owls and not the fireplace.
Or maybe the homeowners did something else that suited their lifestyle. They put an office in half of the living room or turned the larger master suite over to their kids.
Then the prospective buyers have trouble processing the space and how it will fit their lives.
It Must Belong to the Buyer
For someone walking in the door who had seen many other houses to fall in love with this particular one, they needed to be able to see and appreciate the features. They needed to feel the value and not be looking at other things.
It’s not about spatial intelligence. Even though both my husband and I can see the potential through someone else’s furniture and decor, I could still tell the difference in the emotional connection I felt when it was simple to imagine versus difficult.
It’s about leaving the decor and furniture choices and room uses open so they can imagine their own life in the space. Or, maybe, the life they’d like to be living. It’s about fulfilling expectations.
So the designer on the show takes over and transforms a few rooms in the house, with a budget of $2000 for materials plus some free labor. Sometimes that labor cost would have been extensive and a wall comes down, for example. Other times the changes are simpler.
Either way the homeowners almost always like the new version better. Some are awe-struck. But what matters is the reactions of the visitors to the open house that are able to see themselves in the house and be inspired by the changes.
Taking it Out of the House
Do you leave space for other people to visualize?
Whether you’re in business or just trying to get someone to collaborate with you, try asking yourself if you’ve filled up all the rooms of your mental structure with your personal preferences to the exclusion of others. Can the person you’re talking to see a way that he can contribute or she can add her touches?
If most people have trouble emotionally connecting to a dining room that’s being used as an office and really seeing themselves eating there when the space is right in front of them, then how much harder is it to see where they fit in someone else’s abstract idea?
Does this ring a bell for you? Have you had any experiences like this?
