People have been asking us what we’ve been doing to “stage” our house. Short answer: not much. Well, besides generally cleaning things within an inch of their life and stashing some items in the car a la this method. But we haven’t put any large furnishings in storage, repainted any walls or ceilings, removed any personal items like photos or wall art, or done any of the other tricks that we’ve heard through the HGTV grapevine (though I’m sure a professional stager would probably advise us to do some – if not all – of those things to some extent). We figure if people see a house that’s clean yet personalized and obviously well loved and lived in, it might be more interesting than a house that has been stripped of all personality and evidence that it has been enjoyed and appreciated. At least that’s our point of view at the moment. And thankfully we’ve had a few really promising showings so we’ll keep you posted if our approach ends up working out.
That being said, there is one pretty obvious change that we did end up making. We took a good hard look at the rug in the kitchen…
… and decided to nix it.
Even though that’s an old “before” photo from our old camera above, we realized the Company Store rug that graces our kitchen floor was doing us a disservice when it came to selling. It not only covered up the hardwood floors (hello selling point!) it also made the space feel less open in person (by creating a big definitive rectangle on the floor). Sure we loved it for the fun texture and softness underfoot, but because people aren’t buying a rug (they’re buying a house), we realized it was probably a smart call to roll it up and stuff it under our bed. Here’s what the room is looking like these days (this pic’s taken with the new camera, hence the longer shot, different lighting, slightly different angle, etc):
You’ll probably also notice that we removed some of the cute kitchen-y items on the counters to declutter things and show off another selling point in there- our granite counters. After all, we’re definitely not peddling a cutting board or a bowl of tomatoes, so we want to be sure the real features of the room are the ones that get noticed.
Oh, and our bathroom caught the rug-removal bug too. Gotta show off that marble tile, right? (Don’t worry, we bring out our rug friend when we shower so we don’t bite it on the aforementioned marble tile).
Maybe if none of our upcoming showings work out we’ll decide to try a few other “staging” tricks. Do you guys have any house-selling tips (or superstitions) that you wholeheartedly believe in? Or anything that you don’t think is worth the trouble?
L says
Reading the other comments that talked about leaving informational fliers out for buyers made me think more about what it means that you guys are going it alone, without a realtor. Our realtor was great about pulling the platts for the houses we were going to see. Since one of the big selling points of your house is its yard, you might want to have this available for buyers, so they can see exactly where the property lines are and what they’re getting.
We particularly liked the maps that also showed utility right-of-ways, because they run in rather unexpected places in our town. We liked knowing where we could and couldn’t add onto a house or garage. (But that might be one of those weird things about the two of us.)
YoungHouseLove says
Hey L,
Yup, we definitely share all that info! John actually used to work in real estate advertising (so he’s good about all that stuff)!
xo,
s
Amanda says
When we were house hunting we looked at something like 70 different houses and one thing that was a major turn-off was a house that smelled bad. We saw some houses that were so musty or had such a strong odor of animals or cigarettes that we could barely walk through them. There was at least one house where we didn’t make it past the front door.
On the other hand, we also couldn’t stand houses that were so obviously full of scented candles or plug ins. It made us wonder how the house would smell when those candles or plug ins were gone.
I think a house that just smells clean and fresh is best. Open up the windows when the weather is nice, bring in some fresh flowers, and forget about the fake smells. We didn’t visit any houses that smelled like baked goods, but I’m sure that would be great as well!
Andrea says
Oh, your house is perfect!
I don’t know how you guys can think about something else to improve it! :)
Ashlee says
Ha ha, I cannot believe someone else noticed the bathroom towels in the Modern Family episode. We have the same towels in pink & green, which is probably why I remember yours so readily…but I watched that episode with my ‘modern family’, and commented that you guys had those same brown/blue bathroom towels. Of course, I got crickets as they aren’t the blog following variety. But I was still excited!
Emily @ The Happy Home says
my mom would always put a bit of vanilla extract in the microwave and nuke it right before someone came to see our house. she INSISTED that the house smell like baking cookies.
Carla says
You guys ROCKD IT on the Nate show!!! So exciting!!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much Carla! Still waiting to watch it ourselves. Nervous….
xo,
s
Olives and Daisies says
My one suggestions that always turned us off when we were looking for our house was the smell of pets, and even through we have two beloved Boston Terriers, we still did not want to smell other peoples pets in our potential new house…so my suggestion would be to remove the pet hair and pet toys (sorry Burger) and light a scented candle when you show the house to make it feel homey and smell like somewhere you would want to come at the end of the day and put your feet up.
Good luck with the selling your house, its so cute Im sure it will sell in a minute! and from someone who ended up buying a HUGE fixer upper and is almost done – I think its so great that you guys are buying another fixer upper, I don’t think I would have the energy!
- Sarah :-) says
So here’s a staging question for you… my husband and I are trying to fix up the house (without using any debt… great idea from you, btw!), to include finally fixing up the kitchen (appliances, floors, countertops, painting cabinets, and new cabinet doors – can you say cha-ching?!), the backyard (another big one but we’ll probably end up doing it ourselves, as much as possible), and replacing a fee cracked windows (they were there when we bought it).
So on top of trying to re-do the kitchen in a buyer friendly, not-too-personalized-or-taste-specific way (tips on tha tone?), we know that the burnt orange accent wall in our dining/living space will probably need to be painted. Unfortunately, we have beige on the other walls, beige furniture, beige carpet… beige beige beige (think “marsha! marsha! marsha!”). So though I know the orange is too taste specific, I’m concerned about stealing the breath/focal point out of the room. Not to mention it’ll be LOADS of fun to cover up. *sigh
Any ideas on that front? I don’t want the hosue to look like a sterile beige blah-land for buyers, but I know the orange could possibly be a bad thing when it coems to them picturing themselves living in the space. Help?!
YoungHouseLove says
You could go with a lighter cream color or even a soft tint of color (like soft celery or sage). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Melissa says
Hey guys- your kitchen and bathroom are beautiful but I have a strange question….I noticed in the background of the bathroom photo that your door hinges are white…did you paint them white or can you buy them in white? I like that look much better than our nickel/chrome hinges!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Melissa,
They were painted when we moved in so since we haven’t replaced them or anything they remain that color!
xo,
s
Lisa says
I think the house looks great, but I would still recommend removing personal items and some of the accessories. The reason is that I think people can feel your connection to the house and instead of looking at it as potential, they feel like they are touring “your” house. Taking away stuff, esp. personal items, helps them to visualize the opportunities for how it could be theirs and where their personal items could/would fit.
Right before we got married my husband and I both sold our houses and bought one together. I do think the staging helped – it was the summer of 09 and it only took a month for his and two for mine.
katy says
….I’m suffering through the Wendy Williams show so I remember to watch Nate since he comes on right after…can’t wait to see it!
Liz says
We’ve sold 2 houses. The second was in a horrible market, but sold within 3 weeks. I think a lot of it was due to our amazing agent, but our house was also immaculate. I’m on the fewer personal touches bandwagon, but my best tip (that no one has mentioned so far) is to not cook anything that might smell icky later…like mexican food. It smells good while it’s cooking, but the next morning it just smells faintly gross. I hate walking into a house that smells like last nights dinner. You guys seem like people who would have a nice-smelling house though!
Jenny says
Love the kitchen sans the rug! Looks like a million bucks! So, I DVR’ed the Nate Show today and didn’t see you guys…it was a show about “romance in the bedroom and first impressions” or something. I went back to check the blog to make sure it was the 25th….something I’m missing?
YoungHouseLove says
Weird! Maybe something about your market or area is causing the Nate’s show to run a day behind or something? We’ve had lots of people commenting that they saw us today right here on this post (and today’s show as described on Nate’s site is the one we’re on) so we’re stumped. So sorry!
xo,
s
Melanie says
We house-hunted over the winter and, although this is probably not as big a deal in the Southeast as it is in New England, we always appreciated seeing pictures of what a property looked like without snow and ice. The house we bought had a Powerpoint show running with beautiful pictures of the lawn and gardens in summer. SOLD!
Danielle@Newlyweds Paradise says
You know, it never bothered me when I saw personal pictures in the homes while house hunting…unless they were just plastered everywhere. I liked looking at their memories in that home. And I don’t feel your home needs any staging at all! You guys have made a home that shows off the best features!
Jenny says
Too funny….just checked my DVR and it recorded at 5:00 a.m.! I repeat, A.M.! I’m sure I’ll get your episode this afternoon! Can’t wait.
:)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh so glad you figured it out Jenny!
xo,
s
Melody says
Removing the rug really made a difference in the kitchen! I’m sure it’s better to have one for everyday use, but your floors look really beautiful.
Krysta says
First of all, you guys did an amazing job on the show!! I am going to watch it again tonight so my boyfriend can see it. He thinks I am crazy and has to remind me that I don’t actually know your family. Just out of curiosity, what happened to the Brooklyn Limestone segment?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Krysta,
Something crazy happened! They had an issue with the sound (which they only learned about afterwards) so she was brought back and ended up re-recording it (therefore shifting her show from ours to another one). So sad because we wanted to see her segment today too! There’s more info on her site about it. We’ll keep an eye out for her newly assigned episode!
xo,
s
Joie says
Sad that I couldn’t see all of your time spent on the Nate Show, but his website has a great preview: http://www.thenateshow.com/videos/detail/435
You were amazing and upbeat. Loved the ideas.
Megan says
We just bought our first home in August so do’s and don’ts are still fresh in my mind! I absolutely hated entering a house that was overly fragrant. I have a very sensitive sense of smell so I was definitely put off by all the scented plug-ins – they give me migraines! The same goes for overly frangrant cleaners, like Lysol or Pine Sol, which we definitely encountered. And like others have said, it definitely makes you wonder what odor they might be trying to hide!
As far as personal items go, I could go either way. In some homes when family photos were prominently displayed, it did make us feel uncomfortable – like we were invading their home. But I think so much of it depends on the potential buyer’s personal taste. As long as your personal items are tasteful, I wouldn’t think it would be a problem.
And finally, if you have a pet dog – pick up the yard waste. I was surprised by the number of sellers that failed to do this! Crazy!
Kristen says
Removing that rug in the kitchen made a world of difference! I love reading all your home selling ideas and I also like that you’re keeping your personal touches up while selling. I like when a house has personality!
K (Barking BabyMama) says
Okay, I know everyone else has said this, but I’m SO EXCITED to see you guys on Nate Berkus today! It comes on here in AZ at 2 pm – can’t wait!!
Laura says
My advice:
I found a reed diffuser in sugar cookie scent. Smelled fabulous!
I also organized every possible space. Buyers are going to be looking in your closet and fridge and cupboards so everything needs to be neat and clean, and having your storage spaces look only half full is helpful as well.
Lorna says
We’ve sold two houses ourselves FSBO, one with a good realtor, and two with lousy realtors sent by the relocation company (meaning we did all the work). The only thing we did in addition to what you’re doing was to put together a binder about the house. It contained things like the best photos we had of the exterior and yard in each season, manuals for all the appliances we were leaving behind, a copy of the plat, and a list of improvements we’d made – with dates. We also included a list of things that someone moving in from out of town might not know, like which day is garbage day, phone numbers for utility companies, schools, etc. Buyers always liked it.
Hope you find a buyer REALLY soon!
Laura says
Nate Berkus Show just came on! So excited to watch :)
Christie says
I’m watching you guys on The Nate Berkus Show right now!!! I absolutely can’t wait to see the rest of the episode. :-)
Krys72599 says
I hate the idea of depersonalizing a home – YES, declutter by all means, but no one lives in a museum. YES, pick up the dog hair and the baby toys, but if you have a nursery, odds are you have a baby and family photos or a high chair are not going to turn off an experienced home buyer.
If you’re shopping for a home, you have to look past the decor and past the colors and past the style of the furniture and look for things like flow (does it work for your family?), construction (do you need a new roof? windows? floors?), utilities (an electric stove would be a dealbreaker for me, no matter what the house looked like!), etc.
A buyer isn’t getting your house with all your stuff in it – they have to learn to look past it or they’ll never find a house to buy…
Scott says
It truly is amazing how you can change a look in 10 seconds. The floor is just beautiful without the rug. Of course if you are using the kitchen everyday you would want the rug there. Trying to move a house you will put up with “slip and slide” in your socks in order to sell.
Amy M says
Having just bought a new house, I’d have to say that the houses we appreciated seeing the most still had the owner’s personality displayed. Neat accent pillows, a few portraits, and fresh flowers helped the house seem like a HOME, rather than a showroom. Despite what HGTV and our realtor said regarding staging our own home for sale, I couldn’t stand the overly decluttered and depersonalized places… I wanted someplace with life!
And if you don’t have time to bake cookies (which we did as well), try simmering a pot of water with some cinnamon sticks and cloves tossed in. Makes the place smell delicious but is super easy.
Lonely Wife Project says
This sounds like so much work, but your advice will go a long way when we’re ready to sell. Oh and I LOVE your personal stuff. It’s not tacky and shows potential buyers your great taste!
Peggy says
A lot of people have commented on smells in a house. A good tip could be to bake an apple pie before someone comes to look at the house. The smell of homemade apple pie makes people feel cozy and at home.It worked great with friends of ours. While they showed the people around the house, my friend went to the kitchen several times to open the oven door for a few seconds. The people they tried that on moved in!
Patti says
I don’t think you guys will have any problem whatsoever selling your house! Have you seen what’s out there? Jeesh! Yours is a stand out as is, rug or no rug, in move-in condition. On shows like sell this house, I’m always surprised when people complain about the furniture or the curtains or whatever it may be as if they’re buying that stuff. Open your eyes people and buy the YHL house!
katy says
watching right now…..you guys look fantastic!
i’m dying over the Jim and Brian parent confusion. Lol! Nate is sooooo cute.
YoungHouseLove says
That had us snorting with laughter! Nate really is hysterical and so nice in person.
xo,
s
Christina says
Have you seen this yet?
http://www.thenateshow.com/videos/detail/435/nates-crate-one-hour-studio-challenge/
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Christina,
Yes! So exciting!
xo,
s
Mary says
We sold our house this past Spring to the first couple that saw it on the first day it was on the market! LUCKY! I made sure there was fresh flowers, opened all the curtains to let in all of the nice sunshine and decluttered every room. Good luck to you guys! Can’t wait to be a part of your next adventure! : )
Leanne says
I heard that having fresh flowers and baking cookies (and sharing) helps. good luck!
Lauren says
I’m really hoping that you (or someone) figures out a way to post a video of your appearance on The Nate Show! Are you planning to do a post about your segment with all the details?
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, tomorrow we’re going to blog all about it and link over to a clip on their site!
xo,
s
erin says
Good for you to not remove the personal stuff. I know the stagers say too many personal things hinders potential buyers from envisioning themselves living in the house, but I know that when we were house shopping, I didn’t mind (and sometimes actually liked) seeing people’s personal things in the home we were touring. It actually helped give me ideas for our things. Like, “Oh, so THAT’S what that nook is for!” or “What a beautiful place to hang a collection of photos.” Staged homes are beautiful but very impersonal, and in reality my home is not going to be staged.
Jennifer Adams says
I heard you are supposed to bury st joseph upside down in your front lawn.
Kristin says
A couple of years ago, I privately sold our home and everytime there was a showing, I would put an apple pie in the oven and fresh flowers on the island. I also heard that frying onions right before can be effective, but I thought the apple pie was a better bet:) Your house is beautiful!
Jen @ The Decor Scene says
I really think that the way that your house is right now is completely fine…..actually great. It all depends on the person or couple walking in the door really. People need to look past the color on the walls…it’s just paint people and you can change it. And don’t look at the furniture, it probably doesn’t come with the house. Look at the room, the square footage, the layout of the house, the updated kitchen and updated bathroom. And you guys have the updates that are needed (kitchen and bathroom). Maybe the only problem that you might have and I’m only saying this because HGTV seems to say it so much, your office might have to turn into an actually bedroom for buyers to see it that way. Silly I know, but hopefully you don’t have to. Maybe you can show buyers a picture when the office was your guest room so they “Can See It for themselves”. ;) You shouldn’t have to do this, but some people just don’t think things will fit into a room without seeing it already. Since it’s your house and you know it fit there and you have pictures of it, it might be a good idea to hang a picture of the room the way it used to be just a few months ago. Just a thought.
Otherwise, I don’t think you have that many personal pictures up, so I don’t really think you need to change that. I remember when my mom was selling her co-op and was told to take all the pictures down, she turned to me and said “I’m not ready to take pictures of Dad down yet” and I said to her “you don’t have to and you shouldn’t do it”. We had just lost my step Dad almost a year before that and she wasn’t ready. No real estate agent should tell anyone to take all your pictures down, some people just can’t for different reasons. Not that this is your reason, but I just thought I would share my story. And at some point the right buyer came along and bought the co-op (even thought the pictures were still up). Some people can look past it and some can’t.
Good Luck! Anyone would be lucky to buy your home in the condition it’s in now. And they should see the love that has gone into it too. :D
Lauren says
I LOVE your house ….. everything about it is cute, gender neutral and amazing. the only thing that I would change before you sell would be the blue pattern on the sun room floor. Love your house, you guys are so cute! This house will sell in no time!
Anna says
Firstly I am new around here. But just loving it! Having just caught up with your archives I’m a little sad to see you sell this house :(
But on to your question about selling. I’ve sold 3 houses in the last 12 years, and my suggestion goes against the usual advice, but it has worked every time for us. I like to show people around myself. My last house we sold in a really difficult climate (in the UK end of 2007 when prices started to drop dramatically), the agent showed probably 8 couples around, but when I insisted on doing it myself we got an offer. I think me doing the showing injected a sense of ‘home’ into things – I have 3 kids and the couple I was showing round had 2 and wanted another, and me demonstrating how it worked for us I think made it more appealing. I could also talk schools, the quickest way to walk to town with a pram, the local nature reserve (all stuff the agents couldn’t!). So that’s my top tip – show them around yourself.
BrassyDel says
I think one of the advantages that you guys have when it comes to “de-personalizing” your house for sale is that your personal affects are (in the photos at least) already staged pleasantly and are incorporated into the look and feel of each space. The point of the advice is to let prospective buyers imagine themselves living in your home, and you guys are already on the right side of flavor vs. overwhelming.
Wendy says
It’s strange that Mrs. Limestone got cut from today’s show because back on Friday I saw her and her hubby in the teaser for Monday!! Oh well! :)
YoungHouseLove says
I know! So odd- it was a sound problem. But they went back and got to re-record things so they should be on soon!
xo,
s
Melanie Ward says
Loved you guys on Nate’s show today!! So cool how you’ve gone from blogging about remodeling your house to nationally known in print and on TV. Blessings!
Lissanee says
We predominantly saw unoccupied houses on our (epic) search last year. But I have to say the idea of “staging” , not cleaning/ fixing/ decluttering in order to show features in their best light, irritates me. To me what those shows communicate is “we think buyers are idiots.”
Amy says
I’m fairly new to your blog and I was wondering if you ever disclosed to your readers how much you bought your current house for and how much you spent in rennovations?
Just curious.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Amy,
We haven’t talked in those large scale numbers (we try to share what we’d share with family and friends at the dinner table, but if it’s something that feels too personal to announce over dinner with relatives it feels too personal to announce to the world). We do plan to share in vague terms if we made back our money, broke even, or lost some moolah on the sale of our house when it happens. Fingers crossed that we have an it’s-sold announcement soon!
xo,
s
Katherine says
The smell of fresh baking (cookies, bread, pie, anything) really does help. Cookies are great because you can then have a plate of them out for the viewers to eat. Helps to have them remember your house.
Kelly says
I think removing the rugs was a good idea. It does make the kitchen look more spacious and clutter free. It also shows off the lovely fllor features you have both in the kitchen and bathroom. A simple change but so effective