Home Staging

Tips from Curbly on Home Staging when selling your house.

I love Sell This House on A&E. Tanya the hostess is a bit too perky and she wears goofy clothes but she paints and strips wallpaper so she's ok. The stager, Roger Hazard is awesome. The room will look like heck and he'll get a vase, some ferns and a white sheet and it'll look like a mansion. Usually most of the houses really just need a good cleaning and some beige paint and I'm sure they would have sold but they turn out cool afterwards.

I also like Designed to Sell on HGTV but they do more actual tearing things down and building things. They have a $2,000 budget so it's interesting to see how they spend it. Plus it's easy to see how you can cut that budget down if you need to.

When I bought my house, I looked at one that I don't fully remember (luckily I have a memory that blocks out really painful things from my past) but the parts I DO remember, I'll never forget. It was STUFFED full of junk. (well I'm sure to the sellers it wasn't junk, but in my memory it was) It was dirty. The kitchen looked like a tornado had gone through it DURING breakfast that was everywhere. It was horrible. I only remember the living room and kitchen. I honestly don't think I even bothered to look at any other rooms and I left.

What the heck were these people thinking? Didn't their realtor tell them we were coming? Did they forget? Not care? I wonder how much they got for that house and how long it was for sale?

But in defense of the realtor, I know someone (I'll only admit to knowing them, not to being related) who had a house for sale. Now I never saw this house, I'm only going on what they told me, but evidently they had painted each room a dark color. Like dark blue, maroon, BLACK!!! and now they were trying to sell. From a different state. So paying two mortgages, etc. The realtor 'suggested' they re-paint in neutral colors. Beige, taupe & tans. No. Wouldn't do it. What??? You've moved. To another house. In another state. Why do you care what color the walls are? You are so thrilled with the colors you picked out that you are willing to pay an extra 3-6 months AND take much less than your asking price for those colors? Well after more than 6 months guess who FLEW back to spend time painting? I wonder how much that ended up costing?


My house was empty when I looked at it. The couple had a nasty divorce and the husband had torn out the upstairs carpeting. Hee. The basement needed work. But I liked it. Especially because it was empty. That was a selling point for me. I could see that it was clean. Painted. And all I had to do was lay carpet upstairs and move in.

The home stagers don't like empty. Even when they do houses where the couple have shipped or sold their furniture, they will rent or borrow some to use. I guess that's what most people want. Got to give people what they want. Especially to get what you want, which is more money. And that's always the bottom line.


$10 snow shoveling
3.18 Jo-Ann Fabrics