SOUND OFF

Mike Bloom

Q: What is the best way to stage a home?

A: Probably the best way is to defer to the agent’s advice. We are in homes, selling them every day, so we are the experts. I like to consider myself a team seller. Some people have done what I’ve said and had people lining up to buy their homes.

Less cooperative sellers who don’t live in an orderly manner may have their home spend more days on the market, which typically ends up with a lower value as it’s not hot on the market anymore. It really defeats the purpose.

When you’re staging your home, you have to create an artificial environment. You create the look of a model home, looking new and fresh, not heavily lived-in. People don’t buy a house, they buy a lifestyle. Buyers really want to look at the four walls, not the family pictures.

If your closets are stuffed, the buyers will feel like the home does not have a lot of storage space and they’ll outgrow it, like the current owners have. Or, in a lot of houses, the furniture is in a totally illogical arrangement. You have to think like an interior designer and have your home organized and clutter-free.

Then too, the Internet has changed everything. If you don’t stage and your photographs don’t come out, the house won’t have a good showing on the Internet and may not attract buyers. The whole idea of going on the market is to move the property.

— Mike Bloom, Mike Bloom Property, LLC, 713-521-7777, info@mike-bloom.com