When I was in college (during the Pleistocene era), an art major friend had a show off-campus, and I was thrilled that so many of his works had sold on opening night. I asked George what his secret was. His answer has stuck with me: “Blue soothes, but red sells.” Yep—he put red in many of his abstract works, and they all sold.
I’ve used a “shade” of that wisdom in my 12 years as an accredited home stager, and his axiom holds true for selling houses, too! Staging with color always gets more buyers to a house and results in more/higher offers. Buyers spend, on average, 8 to 15 SECONDS looking at an individual house’s photos on Realtor.com before deciding to visit…or swiping left and moving on. And more and more buyers access Realtor.com from their cell phones, which makes those images even smaller. Since Realtor.com is the new curb appeal, it’s critical to tell your listing clients how to make their photos look amazing.
Here is some free advice for you that works every time I stage a house for Realtors in our area:
- Furniture—remove anything from a room that doesn’t have “legs”…magazine racks, piles of books, fans and space heaters, etc.
- Put a piece of wall art in every room and replicate one color from the art piece in a few other ways in the same room.
- Add white or cream wherever possible (see the before/after example in this email).
- Remove anything in the room that’s smaller than a bowling ball. Why? Because it will look like noise instead of décor in small cell phone photos.
- Remove scatter-rugs from the bathroom, kitchen, and foyer floors. Your MLS photographer will likely use wide-angle lenses in those spaces, and small rugs will make those areas look choppy instead of expansive.
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- BEFORE
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- AFTER
I hope you find these tips useful, and if you’d like more free advice, I love giving Lunch-and-Learn and education talks to sales teams! I consider educating Realtors to be part of my service to your profession. I am delighted to visit your office, explain how staging can help your sellers make LOTS more money, and talk with you about what to expect when using a home stager for occupied and vacant houses.