Depersonalizing a property before putting it up for sale is one of the most important aspects of home staging. Staging Diva, Debra Gould, says, “That’s because when you depersonalize a house, you help a potential buyer imagine themselves living there instead of wondering about the current owners and why they might be leaving.”
A wall full of family photos in the hall will, for example, distract anyone there for a showing because they’ll end up looking at baby pictures and wedding photos and thinking about the current owners’ lives spent in that home rather than thinking of themselves living there.
“Every minute spent gazing at the people in the wedding photos is a minute not spent looking at the home or imagining how they’ll have the whole family over there next Christmas,” says Gould, founder of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.
Another good reason to depersonalize a home during staging is to help protect the homeowners. Gould explains, “Displaying information like where a child plays soccer and their name (like on a trophy for example), or the family calendar so that anyone can see the normal comings and goings of the family, give predators and burglars enough information to cause a lot of harm.”
Every good home stager knows it’s not always easy to make a space less personalized without having it end up looking cold and unwelcoming.
Gould says, “I’ve visited many poorly staged homes that are so depersonalized they actually look like the burglars have already been there! You need to keep warm and inviting details that hint at what life can be like inside this home, without the personal items that turn off or distract buyers.”
To further understand what it means to de-personalize a space for the purpose of home staging, visit the Home Staging Glossary by Staging Diva.
There is also an abundance of information on this topic in the “Staging Diva Ultimate Design Guide: Home staging tips, tricks and floor plans”
About Staging Diva
The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is the president of home staging firm SixElements.com and has trained over 4000 home stagers in over 20 countries start and grow their own businesses.
Debra has gained international recognition through features in major media in the US and Canada including: This Old House, HGTV, CNN Money, CBC National News, CBS Radio, Global TV, City TV, The Wall Street Journal, Women’s Day, Reader’s Digest and more.
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