Since creating the “to be continued” blog, I’ve been closing each post with the words “dwell in possibilities.” I must confess that I borrowed this phrase from the great poet, Emily Dickinson. I saw her quote and realized that it summed up what I am doing as a professional home stager and interior designer.

I am most grateful to Ms. Dickinson for her insightful and inspiring phrase.

Regardless of the size or price range of a house, my objective is to find the possibilities in that house. I am looking for those unique features of that house and finding possible ways to accentuate them for the potential buyer. I am analyzing those unusual spaces that buyers find difficult to understand upon first glance and finding possible functional uses for those spaces.

In the end, my mission is to help the potential buyer see how they could dwell in the possibilities of this house!


Thursday, January 26, 2012

You Have to Teach Them How to Live in This House

In the past, we discussed the notion that selling your house can be very emotional.  But buying a house can be an equally stressful process.

The buyer’s objective is to find the “best” house for themselves and their lifestyle at the “best” price possible.  And “best” is a very relative and unique concept for every buyer.  Buyers are making a major gamble and investment that this house is going to be “best for us”.  And that gamble is measured in thousands and thousands of dollars, lots of personal status and self-image points and off the chart readings on the “Life Stress-o- Meter”.

The house buying process forces buyers to simultaneously make emotional decisions and rational decisions with lots riding on those decisions.  Buyers need to both “love” the house and “afford” what they love – not always possible and oftentimes very stressful.  Plus, it is natural to be stressed when you are concerned about whether your loved ones and friends will really like this house and/or whether your furniture will really work in this house.

Home staging teaches buyers how to live in this house.  Home staging paints a picture for the buyer about what life could be like in this house.  It opens them up to consider the new possibilities of this house rather than fall back into their comfort zone.  Home staging helps reduce the level of buyer stress as well as help them make both the emotional and rational decisions. 

When moving about a professionally staged home, buyers imagine cooking fabulous meals in the kitchen; chatting with friends and family by the fireplace; and, snuggling up with a good book in the master bedroom.  Home staging strikes the buyer’s emotional chords and drives emotional decisions. 

When done well, home staging also helps the buyer make rational decisions.  Home staging defines a home’s best features and delivers the easy flow of a home.  It makes the house feel neat, ordered and in proper perspective.  Home staging makes sense of the house and its functions which teaches buyers how to live in this house.

Home staging helps buyers imagine living their best selves living in this house.  And when they are so inspired, these buyers are more likely to find the possibilities in both their emotional decisions and rational decisions to buy this house.


Remember to dwell in possibilities - emotionally and rationally!
 

Cindy
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