I read on your website, with regard to staging a home for sale, that a seller should remove personal family pictures. My realtor agrees with this. I'm enclosing a picture of the wall that we use to display our family memories. I'm wondering if the pictures are excessive or fabulous. Please respond.

Sandra Mariotti
Lewis Center, Ohio

Dear Sandra,
First of all, the term "fabulous" is usually used by stagers and designers exclusively. I have yet to hear a lay person use the word correctly with regard to an aesthetic design issue. That aside, I stand behind my statement that buyers do not want to see your family memories. They will feel that they are in the "Mariotti" house. Buyers are unique characters. If they feel the house belongs to your family exclusively, they will not be able to see themselves living there, which, in turn, will not net an offer on the house.
Bottom line, the pictures are definitely not "fabulous." They are simply "ordinary." I'm sure you feel your family memories are special, but others do not share that feeling. To be successful at staging you must remove them. The sheer number is, indeed, excessive. To coin another designer/stager term, "less is more.

I was amazed to read about all the benefits and positive results associated with staging a home for sale. Thanks for all the staging tips on your website. My husband has been very impressed with the cleaning, clearing, decluttering and rearranging I've been doing with most of my own furniture and decorations based on your suggestions. While he loves all the improvements I've made, he stubbornly refuses to budge on one issue. He is an avid collector and I am not allowed to touch his, as he states it "carefully displayed collections." I have enclosed pictured of just a few of them. They are all over the house. I've been a patient wife, meticulously dusting them, cleaning around them, and making room for more. Our realtor thinks we should pack them before the open house. I agree as I'm sure you do too. HELP!

Trudy Melnick
Columbus, Ohio

Dear Trudy,
The advantages to cleaning, decluttering, packing early, and rearranging furniture for optimum visual appeal usually results in a quick sale. When I say usually I mean in almost every case. Buyers are purchasing a home's architecture and space (closets, cabinets, drawers, walls, floors, etc.) and if your possessions are cluttering it up, they won't see room for their own things.

It's purely a psychological thing, but buyers buy based upon emotion and emotion is part of the human psyche. I'm not a psychologist, but I am a professional stager, and I feel that my training, compiled with my experience with buyers, enables me to state with confidence that they want to buy a house that is clean, well-maintained, uncluttered, well-organized, and up-to-date with the latest fashions. And yes, has lots of space for their own stuff. In fact, as they tour your home they will be saying to themselves (and a psychologist can probably verify this one), "I wonder if my sofa will fit in this room."

Tell your husband that his precious collections must be packed BEFORE the first open house or showing. First of all, they are precious to him and he wouldn't want them knocked over by accident or slipped into someone's pocket (on purpose). Take away the temptation and keep them safe by packing them and he'll have something to look forward to in his new home. And speaking of the new home, I would suggest seeing a psychologist for his obsessive/compulsive behavior of taking over a home with his collections, and your codependent behavior of "meticulously dusting them, cleaning around them, and making room for more." Just a suggestion.

I was searching the web for help with getting my house ready to sell. I had never heard of "staging" a house. I have cleaned, packed away all clutter, and sold some furniture to make the rooms look bigger, but I have one issue I need your advice on. I consider myself to be pretty handy around the house so I decided to save money and put in a concrete driveway myself. After a small tremor (we experience many here in LA) I noticed my vintage VW bug in a large sinkhole where I had just poured the new driveway. (Sinkholes are also common in LA.) Well here's my question: Should I repair this and make it a driveway again, or use the opportunity to make it into a swimming pool or hot tub? I don't know which choice would get the biggest bang for the buck here in LA. What's your suggestion?

Brandon Richards
Los Angeles, CA

Dear Brandon,
First of all I commend you for soliciting professional advice in the selling of your home. Stagers and realtors are extremely knowledgeable about how to "get the biggest bank for your buck" in making improvements to your property.
It would be a good idea to hook up with a qualified realtor in LA as they will be best able to help you with the nuances that are unique to the LA housing market, like deciding whether a new driveway, hot tub or pool would fit in the space appropriately.
Based on the picture you attached to your email, I would suggest not trying to repair the driveway or installing a hot tub or swimming pool by yourself. I'm sure you're very handy around the house, but some projects are best left to the experts. A realtor or stager in your area will have lots of professional contacts to help you make the necessary repairs or improvements.

I read on your website the many advantages to staging a home so that it will sell faster and for more money. I've implemented many of your suggestions and I can say that my realtor is quite pleased with the results. She and I, however, disagree on one of your staging suggestions: that a seller should not have their pet at home during open houses and showings. My dog, Stella, is kind, attractive, and very social. (I've enclosed a picture.) The realtor agrees with you that she should not be present and to put her bowls, toys, and outfits out of sight. Now I can see that bowls of dog food and water are not attractive, but she has very expensive toys neatly displayed in our family room, and her outfits have been designed by one of the top designers in the country. Her hat collection alone is worth several thousand dollars.

Carol White
Ft. Worth, TX

P.S. The realtor also feels it's very distracting to prospective buyers when they arrive at our home to hear my husband calling the dog by yelling, "STELLA" at the top of his lungs. She said it reminded her of some movie and that you never know what might offend certain buyers.

Dear Carol,
Thank you for enclosing a picture of your dog Stella. She is quite attractive for a wiener dog. Her hat and accessories do look very expensive. I explain to my clients that some buyers are allergic to dogs. I, therefore, agree with your realtor that you should not have Stella present at open houses and showings. Putting away all the dog bowls, toys and outfits will not only remove clutter, but will allow non-pet-owning buyers a chance to view your home without the distraction of the pet issue. I would trust your realtor on this one. They deal with many buyers and base their opinions on the reactions and feedback of those willing to shell down big bucks for a new home.
It is also very wise to avoid anything that may offend buyers. I usually suggest removing religious items, alcohol and smoking paraphernalia, and any other indications of vices that may be evident in your home. These are just distractions and you never know whom you may offend.
On another note, I commend you for naming your dog Stella. When your husband calls for Stella it's sure to evoke the memory of Marlon Brando yelling, "STELLA" in the move, "A Streetcar Named Desire." A great movie and a great actor. Again, however, there could be someone who saw the movie and did not like it. You can never be sure what buyers will object to. I suggest having Stella gone from the home in plenty of time before prospective buyers arrive.

Thanks to you my wife and I are in marriage counseling. She used to be a very frugal housewife and we had no financial worries. In fact, to prepare for retirement, my wife and I decided to sell our house and downsize to a smaller, less expensive home. My wife came across your website to see how to get our house ready to put on the market. She read that "staged" rooms should look like those in catalogs and magazines. Wanting to get "staging" ideas, she subscribed to every design magazine and catalog she could find. If that weren't enough, she stays in her robe at home all day long waiting for the UPS man to deliver the latest catalog purchase. Our house is so overflowing with purchases that we've had to hire a professional stager just to eliminate the clutter she has accumulated. I want my frugal wife back!

Bill Kulhanek
Bel Air, MD

Dear Bill,
I have two things to say to you:
First, I cannot be held responsible for the way your wife reacted to the information on my website. Stagers are highly trained professionals whose expertise in making rooms look like those in catalogs and magazines comes with lots of experience. Your wife is clearly and amateur and should not have taken on the task of staging her own home. She must have missed my suggestion to go to the library to get ideas from the many design magazines they have available.

The second thing is this: I noticed from the picture of your wife in her robe that she is quite a looker. Could you possibly be in marriage counseling because she and the UPS man have developed some sort of "friendship?"