Houses are so personal
Recently, I’ve been working on a project that requires me to look at literally thousands of photos of homes. (I’ll share more about what that project is in another post). I’ve been looking at homes that are currently on the market and if you’ve been keeping up with the latest Middle Tennessee real estate news, you may recognize that inventory is very, very low these days: house sales really picked up in 2013!
I’ve learned a very important lesson upon viewing these thousands and thousands of homes. Well, in truth I already knew this lesson, but the lesson, nonetheless, has resonated powerfully with me during this project. Ready for the lesson (in case you didn’t know it already yourself)? Houses are extremely personal. It is easy to get turned off by a perfectly functional, affordable house in a great location with all the right amenities simply by finding the current owner’s tastes undesirable. 
We all bring personal elements to our homes; that’s no big news flash. But in the thousands of photos I’ve examined, if you are thinking of selling your house, you have to neutralize the decor of your home if you’re going to expect a rapid sale. You may love love love your vintage bathroom with pink or baby blue tile. You may love love love the fleur-de-lis embossed gold wallpaper you found on sale, so you bought enough to do the entire living/dining area. And you may love love love the opportunity to go a little crazy with all those beautiful paint swatches, which led you to the decision to do one bedroom wall purple, one bedroom wall a neon green, and one bedroom wall a mustard yellow hue. You may feel perfectly cozy and restful in that room –but I’m thinking Mardi Gras and a couple too many Hurricanes when I click on that particular photo, and I am not-so-secretly erasing your house from my list of possibilities. Extending that same idea, I can respect your love for UT football or your toddler son’s love for the latest Spiderman adventure. But frankly, I don’t want to purchase a house that’s so heavy laden with orange paint that the words “Neyland Stadium” keep running through my mind, or I’m wondering how many coats of primer it’s going to take to send Spidey off to never-never-land. Let me state it unequivocally: I will not buy a house whose rooms and ceilings are painted black; that’s just gruesome.
I know, I know: you may love love love a room that is avant-gardely painted black. (Hope you are humming the Rolling Stones’ song here). But that black room is not for me. And that’s the point. Sellers need to depersonalize and declutter as much as possible. As an accredited staging professional AND a realtor, let me recommend some excellent paint suggestions for you, colors that I am certain will appeal to a wide range of potential buyers — even you — and will get your house sold much faster! Decluttering is just as important (if not more so). The only recognition that truly struck home in viewing these thousands of pictures was how much S T U F F we seem to own: every corner is filled with tables, pitchers and bowls, pricey rugs, artificial plants and flowers, dustables, and every wall is covered with family photos, metal flourishes, and items that really should be put away in boxes.
Did you get a little tired reading that overly long last sentence? That’s how I felt upon viewing these thousands of photos — it’s tiring to try to wade through someone else’s beloved personal space. You end up wanting something clean, simple, refreshing. Like a blank slate. Or a Hurricane.