Home Staging That Works

April 15, 2010
Selling a home can be an emotion-laden process. Yet as real estate easily languishes for months in this down market, its time to readjust that attitude. Philadelphia real estate entrepreneurdesigner Osborne solves the issue with a total transformation, or staging, a technique in existence since the 1970s. One warning, though: staging is a lot harder and more time-consuming than it looks. After all, it basically involves removing all traces of personality to transform a house into a visual story that a potential buyer can imagine living in. Her seven stepstarget buyers, declutter, use color, create balance, focus, repair, and cleanare well explained and photographically illustrated; befores and afters dramatically depict the difference between a cluttered, unappealing bathroom with chipped tile and chokes galore and a clean-lined pedestal-sink-and-toilet-only room. In every chapter, each step is accompanied by very practical recommendations for the habits and preferences of four different ages of buyers (baby boomers and Generations Jones, Xs, and Ys). Tips include wonder cleaning aids like Goo Gone and magic erasers; fifteen plants for varying sun conditions; right boxes for the right purposesand materials. Pragmatic advice that any and every home seller needs to memorize and follow.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)