Furniture Rental? Check. Stager? No Check.

I recently stopped by an open house for a fairly average row house in Washington, DC. The house is in an up and coming neighborhood, just on the cusp of being the next big thing. From the outside, the house was nothing special. In fact it was less than special. It was painted a hideous brick red color, but at least the paint was even and it seemed to have been painted fairly recently. I peeped through the windows of the home to see that the interior appeared to be new- a complete rehab job, in fact. That’s nice. I turned my head to the right to see the living room. There was a chair, a sofa, a coffee table and an accent chair. Interesting. And then I moved my eyes to the dining area where there was a formal dining table with six chairs. Interesting. I moved my eyes to left. I saw a kitchen. Moved my eyes to the right. I saw nothing. And then I walked away. I didn’t make it past the front porch. Another case of furniture rented: check. Stager: no check. The place felt cold. Without accents and the touch of a staging professional, the furniture served no purpose. I desperately wanted to tell the Realtor to tell his client that they were wasting about $1000 a month renting furniture. It was ineffective. It didn’t make the place look lived in. It didn’t give buyers any idea how they could use the space. For example, how this tiny living room could become a nice, warm and peaceful nook. It didn’t highlight the personality of the house. In fact, it made it appear that the house didn’t have a personality. It was sad. But it also made me feel proud. In an industry where value is sometimes difficult to prove, this house made the case for home staging more convincingly than any words or statistics I could string together. As I walked away, I knew exactly what I would have done to that house to make the conversation areas more defined, what color scheme would have given the place warmth and at the same time, offset that hideous red paint outdoors. I knew where the house needed greenery and that the best thing about the house was the light. If they could find a way to accentuate the wonderful natural light, it would sell. Yet another case of furnishing without the aid of a stager.

Next time, call a stager for help. We can make it beautiful.