Home Staging Is Like "Dancing With the Stars"

Copyright (c) 2009 Alice Chan

One of my favorite programs is "Dancing with the Stars". While I was watching this last week's episode, I realized that the challenges that some of the stars have with learning their dances is similar to the challenges that Home Stagers, realtors and home sellers face when staging a property.

The judge's critique of Ty Murray's dance was that: "He got all the steps, they were all there, but it was too robotic and there was no feeling".

Lawrence Taylor's dance suffered a similar review with the judge saying that: "He had the aggression, the steps were all there, but there was a disconnect with him and the dance that they couldn't quite put their finger on".

How is this like staging you ask? Stay with me and let me explain. I often say that there are a lot of misnomers about home staging. Although there are a lot of people who can make a house look pretty, but pretty doesn't get your house sold.

Truly professional staging is more strategic. For home staging to be effective, the psychology behind it must be kept in mind. In Home Staging you must be clear about who the target buyer is, what their lifestyle is, what the price range of the property is and what the buyer's expectations are, and then you can design a specific lifestyle around all those things. Sure, de-cluttering, and cleaning are both components of home staging, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

So again you ask, how does this relate to "Dancing with the Stars"? Well, first, like Ty and Lawrence, although they knew the steps and were able to execute them, that's only a part of the dance. The rest of it is really understanding the dance and being able to perform it while projecting and evoking emotion.

Unfortunately, many homes that are staged suffer from a similar problem. The house has been de-cluttered and cleaned up and it may even be decorated, but it's lacking emotion. I often see the concept of depersonalization taken to the extreme. Yes, you want to depersonalize, but you don't want the space to be void of any personality at all. Plain Jane, vanilla box houses do nothing to tug at your potential buyer's heart strings.

Bruno said that when David Alan Grier: "Kept his dancing classic, it worked, but when he went off and got a little wild, it didn't work because it didn't work for that style of dance".

This again, is analogous to staging. Take a look at the style of home that is being staged. Is it a contemporary house, if so, make sure that the interior is reflective of that. If it's a classic, traditional house, make sure that the interior reflects that as well.

When the exterior and the interior do not match, there is an incongruency that buyers will have a hard time with. Remember, a confused mind always says no. Part of the problem here is that sometimes buyers or even stagers and realtors try to impose their own style or their taste into the staging design and personal taste has NO place in staging a home.

It's about showcasing the property and making sure that there is a connection. Lil' Kim and her partner Derek Hough's performance was praised for reflecting just that...they were said to be: "Perfectly matched and they complimented each other beautifully".

You want the same to be true of the message that your buyers get from the moment they lay eyes on your property at the curb and continue throughout as they tour the home's interior and beyond. It should all be complimentary.

To sum this all up, I'll give a quick example to clarify all of these points. I was recently shown photos of a property had been on the market, but didn't sell. It was a beautiful, custom house in a prime location with a seven figure price tag to support it. It had been staged, but there were several problems.

First, from the photos, it lacked personality. It was too vanilla and it was sadly, boring! The walls were an off-white and the furnishings were also very neutral - off-white, bone, beige...there was no color! The master bedroom, one of the most important rooms in the house, was starving for some pizzazz.

Buyer expectations for this property were elevated based on the price tag alone and there was nothing in the property that differentiated it from a house that was a third or even half the price. Unfortunately, it was probably underwhelming prospective buyers.

Second, the architectural style of the house was very traditional, but the interior was trying to be contemporary. When I made suggestions about the furnishings that I envisioned for the property, the owner comment was that: "No, that's not what we like."

Ding, ding, ding...and here we have problem number three, it's not about you and what you like, it's what the house calls for that really matters.

Bottom line, in this changing real estate market, sellers, realtors, and home stagers all need to step up their game so that a property really STANDS OUT and makes buyers STOP and TAKE NOTICE. You want your house to be like Gilles & Cheryl's performances - engaging, leaves the audience wanting more, and definitely memorable!