Home Staging To Sell - Decluttering, Neutralizing

Here we go again.

Start at the curb, walk up the front yard, walk in the front door and through every room in house, walk the back and side yards.

Last time we did this, we were looking for items that personalize the property, items that tell prospective buyers that this house still belongs to someone else.

This time, we are looking for items that might elicit a strong, emotional reaction.

Please note, I did not say "a strong, negative, emotional reaction". Positive or negative, if the reaction is strong it will impact the successful Staging of your house.

Why? Well, let us assume that for every one person who has a positive reaction, there is one person who has a negative reaction and one person who does not care. By leaving that non-neutral item out, you have reduced your potential buying pool by 1/3. That will probably impact the time it takes to sell your house.

And, it gets worse. Many of those positive reactions are going to be uncomfortable about the seeing the item. That is because they do not expect to have a strong reaction when looking at houses. The unexpectedness can leave them with a bad impression of your house, as in "It just felt wrong." Of course, the positive reaction and the feeling of encountering the unexpected is going to leave a few people with good memories about your house. They are not in the majority.

So, remove the nude paintings and statues, anything of a sexually explicit or implicit nature, religious symbols, political posters, taxidermy, anything involving or implying violence. Unload and lock guns out of sight and out of reach among your personal belongings.