Staging home for sale re: replacing personal wall decor

i worked in the building industry (new homes) and we had the models professionally staged with fake family photos and memorabilia, so I think that advice is kind of b/s. I wouldn't take it down if looks nice and certainly wouldn't take it down and replace it with cheap crap just to fill space. If you have extra furniture for the basement, sure, use it and make it look nice. If your market is slow and you have lots of competition, stage your house. If it's like here and a seller's market, just make sure it is super clean and fresh.

I agree with Colleen, that the pictures are okay to have up, but it also depends on HOW they're displayed. If they're displayed like an updated gallery wall vs. something like the outdated line of a bunch of smallish framed family pics, then I'd keep them up. If it's current/trendy, I say leave them, if not, maybe check Pinterest for ideas and give them a little change and you don't have to go buy a bunch of stuff.

I just wrote a check for $6,000 for the staging of our house. We have already moved and the house was empty. I was blown away by how many things she brought to hang on the walls. The difference it made is amazing. It's put together way better than we could have done it and I am 100% sure that it will help the house sell.

For me personally, I can’t say I remember if there were photos on the walls or not when we bought this house. Foe me the number one distraction is clutter. So, I guess if you have a zillion photos on the walls, pare them down to just a few. Clear the counters off in the kitchen and bathrooms and please clear all the crap off the frig. The lighter the better, open curtains and let lots of light in.

I’m always amazed when looking at homes on Zillow when I see dishes in the sink and laundry in the chairs, and they chose to take pictures of all that. Selling a house is a lot work and stressful. Good luck.

When my Sister on law and her dh tried to sell their home a few years ago they had family pictures on their walls and didn't get an offer. I mentioned what I heard about depersonalizing the house and they did so and sold it. I have a friend in another Province that tried to sell her house last year and is trying again this year. I had a look at the house and with all her family pictures I would have trouble imagining my family in there. I sent her a short e-mail mentioning about removing pictures. We have friends that just sold their house. Their Realtor suggesting they remove all family pictures including ones on the fridge and remove some of the furniture to make the place look bigger. They were going to put most of their belongings in storage anyhow so they starting paring down the closets, kitchen cupboards and moving furniture. Within one day of listing they got two offers with one being over the listing price.

When you prepare your home for buyers, you are selling the idea of how they will live in the house. Not all, but the majority of potential buyers are hoping that with the new home will come a new improved version of their family. It’s why we like magazines like Real Simple.

Clean, uncluttered, fresh. We all long for these. Staging works because it taps into this emotional place. I believe that most people who say they are uninfluenced by good staging are just unaware of it.

If you do it yourself, do look at Pinterest or buy a book in staging. That’s what I did. When my realtor brought in a stager just to check things out, he said I did a great job and only had a couple minor suggestions. I think it helped that my X was in the building trade, and I had toured numerous high end model homes so I knew what I was going for.

As for family photos, yes, model homes often include them, but I’ll be frank. There’s good ones and not so good ones. The kind you see in picture frames at the store? Good. The JCP shot of gangly kids with messy hair and fake smiles, not so much.

Genevieve from Trading Spaces used to scan, crop, and convert to BW truly engaging pics of family members then print big and display in attractive Symmetrical groupings.

That will be quite the change. So many fun new things to experience.

If you have nice frames for your wall photos, you can print photos you’ve taken of locations and use them to fill the frames. Maybe some local spots, printed in black and white? Shouldn’t be expensive and you can still use your frames later.  Display the photos in a modern gallery look, lots to choose from on Pinterest.

When I toured houses, I was surprised to see some of the model homes with inflatable beds in the bedrooms. They were really nicely made up and I only found out they were inflated when I jiggled them. LOL

Marcy

I just sold my house a year and a half ago. I had a big gallery wall of family photos (along with our last name initial) and I did not remove them or put art in its place. I would leave it. Sometimes it gives future buyers ideas on what to do decor wise. Good luck! 👍🏻

This is what I would do too if you have nice frames and groupings already. I did similar for the last two houses we've sold. I replaced photos with postcards, pretty calendar pictures, abstract scrapbook paper, free printable art from Pinterest...

And the level of staging does depend on your market. You can look up comparable houses on the market right now and check out your competition.

Yay- another Southern girl!  You'll either love it or hate it and I'm talking about the weather! 

For me, when viewing houses, is that if a room is empty, it's hard for me to figure out if it will work well for us, because I suck at spacial type things. I just can't look at an empty room and figure out what it may look like with my own stuff in it at all. And the larger the room, the harder it is for me. (I think in small rooms, windows and such take up enough space to help me mentally figure out measurements in terms of stuff in the room.)

So when we look at homes I compare the listed room measurements to our current room measurement to try to help myself out, BUT, if I walk into your dining room and there's a table and chairs set up in there, or there's a sofa or loveseat and chair or whatnot in the living room, it still really helps me so much.

I think different home buyers have different things that they have trouble visualizing. Some can't see past paint or carpeting that they dislike; others can't see past clutter. For me, it's trying to figure out those empty rooms. Even if I hate what you have (LOL!), it's way easier for me to imagine changing something than it is for me to imagine putting something into nothing.

the idea of replacing your family photos with other prints is a great one. if your arrangements look good now, then replacing the "artwork" in them will be easy!

you can probably find stuff to download from the internet.