Furniture mistakes hurting your home sale? How to fix it

Today we are answering the question
is your furniture hurting your home sale
and how to spot the problem pieces
you’ve lived with your sofa for 15 years
and it fits your room perfectly
your room
but the moment a buyer comes through your home
and something just shifts
and you can see it on their face
and you’re kind of wondering
but they don’t say anything
but
yeah
today we’re answering the question
is your furniture hurting your home sale
and how to spot the problem pieces
hey there my name is Kasha Mcdaniel
and I am a occupied home staging specialist
where I help you reuse your furniture in your home
to help you sell it while you’re living in it
so let’s begin with what I call seller’s blindness
if you lived in your house for two
three five
10 maybe even 20 years
you know that
that is something that you may be afflicted with
and it’s not something bad
you can totally get over it
but you just don’t see the things
that are in front of you anymore
because you’ve lived with it for so long
in that same spot whether it’s the furniture
whether it’s the the clutter
whether it’s something that’s always been there
in that spot right
that’s what I call sellers blindness
because you don’t see it
and that’s what buyers pick up on and see
because they don’t have the filter anymore
they’re seeing it through a fresh set of eyes
they’re looking through your home
walking through it and they notice
well maybe that furniture piece doesn’t quite look
right and that’s what I wanna go through in this video
so let’s start off with scale
now this one can be something as simple as
an oversized sectional
that cramps the room and just makes it feel smaller
OK that makes the
so photos make them look smaller
it just takes up too much space
and maybe it’s the you know
the tiny end table at the side of their bed
okay that sense of scale is where we kind of need to
balance things out
when you’re trying to sell your house
and if you’ve seen the previous video
where I talk about moving some pieces
take a look at that video
I’m gonna share with you right here
so that you can take a look and see
well you can actually move things
just because it’s always been there forever
doesn’t mean that it probably should
um so take a look at that video
and I’ll show you what I mean
basically
if they have a tiny little end table next to a massive
huge bed then
maybe that’s something that needs to be switched out
or maybe it’s a bookcase
that blocks natural lighting that comes into that room
okay so the scale can be a lot of different things
let me show you one of these pictures
here I have of this really huge
four poster bed that’s taken up over the whole thing
and then along with this big huge dresser
it’s just there’s no space to walk around right there
it just really takes up the whole entire room
um I have another bedroom here
it’s really dark in here they have this big
huge bed it’s just dark
it’s not a four poster bed
but it’s a really big bed
it’s dark
and there’s another dresser and this other dresser
again there’s hardly any room to fit in here
another category that may be a problem
is maybe the style doesn’t work in that room
so for example
if you have like
a French provincial dining set
but your house is mid century modern
you those don’t go okay
or you have a country kitchen in a mid century modern
you know you
you know what I’m talking about right
those two things don’t go
so you want to keep the style the same as the house
in order for the pieces to work right in the room
or maybe you have an ultra modern
glass coffee table in a traditional home
you know Colonial Home
okay that doesn’t quite go
so this doesn’t mean that it’s just wrong
it’s just wrong here in this space okay
another category would be
the condition of the furniture
maybe it’s a really worn down armchair
like the armrests are really worn down
um maybe the
the fake leather is finally peeling off and in sections
and I’ve had that too right
um maybe it’s the sofa with a sag in it
okay and you just
you’ve lived with it for the longest time
or the dresser that has or a coffee table that has
you know water rings all over it right
but you’ve kind of maybe covered it up with stuff
so for each of those examples
what is the signal to the buyer right
someone who’s never been here in the home
so we kind of have two conversations here
one is the internal conversation
okay 1
can I really admit
this piece isn’t working in this room
say for example
you have a grandfather clock
and a curio cabinet in the entryway
like I have in this one picture here
those pieces number one
there’s too much furniture okay
so it’s cluttering up the space
um so those could possibly go in different rooms
now
I know grandfather clocks are very difficult to move
if you have one I
you know we work around that best we can
kind of make it
maybe its own little space in the room where it is
but the curio cabinet that could probably go right
um could probably go
whether into a bigger room
that actually has a corner to put it in
if it doesn’t then that’s another conversation that
maybe you need to dick with
and that is what is really needs to stay
so you have the internal conversation
but then you have the family portion of it
maybe it’s oh
this is my grandmother’s rocking chair
or my grandmother’s sofa that she gave me
yes but maybe that doesn’t quite go in your room
and you probably know it but you’ve got to be really
truthfully honest with you and yourself
and acknowledging it OK
that’s kind of the hard part
the question isn’t whether you love it
you probably do
and you probably want to take it to your next house
but it’s whether it’s serving your goal and purpose
right now to sell your house
okay so
there are three paths that you can take going forward
when you’re making these decisions
okay so number one
we kind of covered relocating the item
does it work better in a different room
maybe this side table works better as a nightstand
maybe this side table works better over here
on this side of the couch or the armchair
okay maybe it’s between two armchairs
so relocating items
I’m gonna share the video
if you haven’t seen it yet
this past video
where I talk about rearranging furniture for free okay
just staging your house using the things you own
in this video okay
so take a look at that one
the second one is refreshing now
refreshing could be something as simple
like
if you have a couch that maybe is not looking its best
maybe the arms are kind of worn down
maybe it’s something as simple as a slipcover
that can go over it okay
um maybe it’s um
a gallon of paint that needs to be
you know painted over
you know the dresser or something like that
because maybe it’s beyond
you know saving
maybe you can’t send send it down
or maybe you can send it down and relack it right
or if you do have those rings on there
like I have on I had one on my table
um something as simple as mayonnaise
the mayonnaise trick if you haven’t tried this one
this is oh
my gosh I couldn’t believe it
put mayonnaise on the water ring
and it kind of sucks it up
and somehow it just magically
just gets rid of that ring
I was just stunned I couldn’t believe it
I’m like wait what
it does that wow
that is so cool so
sometimes the mayonnaise trick can work on those ring
those water rings
that you may have on a coffee table or a dresser
and then finally if you can’t do anything with it
to find another space for it or recover it
then
maybe removing it all together may be your best option
maybe you’re not taking it with you to your next home
okay that may be something that you need to think about
when it comes time to moving
right so maybe the curio cabinet is going
you know to be donated
or that grandfather clock is going to a family
or an adult child or something like that right
this is um
something that can be done right
way before the photographer shows up
you have time to get you know
move them remove some things
and then when you do remove it
you may think well
do I have to put something in its place
not necessarily because sometimes um
less is more and
you know what I mean
because you need to have an open traffic flow pattern
to walk around the furniture
among the you know
around a living room around a bed
in a bedroom those kinds of things
so when you have too many pieces of furniture um
that may be something that just
kind of hindering the traffic flow
and may feel make the room feel closed off
cluttered and kind of just cramped
one example I did want to share with you
was when I had a client who had just repainted
or was repainting the front door
the same color it was um
when I was showing up to do a home staging consultation
now it was great that he was repainting it
and realized that the front door needed painting
great sometimes we need to do that right
unfortunately
he picked a color that was the previous color
that was based on his beloved wife’s favorite color
and unfortunately she just passed away
and that’s why he was selling the house
so he was still grieving he wanted to show her things
her style her colors
and yes
that is a tough conversation to have with someone
but if I would have known beforehand
that that was what color he was picking
I would have picked a different color
because this yellow does not go with the red brick
that was on the exterior of the home
I would have picked many other colors than that one
and I know he’s trying to preserve his wife’s memory
and I get that but you’re selling the house
and it’s not your taste
staging is not based on your taste and personality
that’s the hard part that most people can’t get over
and believe me once you think about it
as more of a business transaction
maybe
that will help you think about the house differently
that if you think of your mind
in your mind that this house is no longer yours
that will help you get past the thought of but but
but I yeah
I know what you mean I know grieving is a tough process
just I can’t imagine what he was going through
so I didn’t touch it I didn’t make a comment
I made a comment to the real estate agent
I said hey
I would have picked a different color
but I didn’t tell that to the client
cause I knew it was gonna be a tough thing
the front door should not make a difference
but what the other thing that he was doing
was that he had left the other colors in the house
that were going on
they had lots of blues and more yellow in the house
and other colors in there
and if you know I’ve watched
I talked about what colors turn off home buyers
yellow is one of them and there’s another one
I’ll share with you in this video too
so that you can take a look at that one if you need to
but staging is about
not about your taste and not your personality
we’re trying to appeal to the most amount of buyers
and that’s where um
that’s what staging comes into
and it’s kind of depersonalizing the home a little bit
still showing off some of the fun stuff that you have
I’m sure but we’re gonna tone it down just a bit
so the memories live in you and not in your furniture
OK that’s kind of the end game here
I wanna share with you for this video
so you may have love that sofa
and maybe grandma’s sofa or whatever
maybe that’s not to say that it should
maybe go in a different spot
maybe it works better in a different spot
but this is the time
where you can either take the sofa with you
or let it go honorably
because you’ve used it for what you’ve used it for
but now it’s time to sell your house
so if you do have some questions on well
do I need to get rid of that
do I need to cover that up
I do offer a mini home staging consultation
that we just you just take a few pictures
you send them to me via email
and I’ll respond to you with a video
and talk through what exactly stays
what should go what
you know maybe you rearrange it differently
you know those kinds of things
and
you don’t need an appointment for anything like that
so if that’s something you’re interested in
I’ll leave the link in the show notes for that
but if you’re just starting
then maybe my free home staging guide
called the how to start staging your house now
is a better fit for you
maybe you’re getting ready to sell in the fall
and you’re using this summer time frame
to start getting your house ready to sell
fantastic the more time that you can spend
on getting your house ready
the better off you will be
okay
just so you know I am gonna
this is my last video for a little while
I’m gonna be taking off June and July
so that we can enjoy our summer vacation
but I’ll be back in August
don’t worry
but you’ve got 150 plus videos to go through
if you need to watch anything in
in there
there’s playlists on home staging do’s and don’ts
there’s things on you know
just beginning so take a look at those playlists
or binge watch any of those videos that you need
maybe you can find something that you need help with
I probably covered it whether it’s the dining room
the living room a bedroom whatever
I probably covered it in one of those videos
so I hope you guys have a fantastic week
fantastic summer and I will see you back in August
alright I’ll talk to you later bye