Setting the stage - Featured in City and Shore Magazine
February 25, 2008
SETTING THE STAGE
Designer: Akanke Cadden, Open Door Staging, Fort Lauderdale
Akanke Cadden could be one of those do over designers you see on HGTV who comes into a home, depersonalize it and make it ready for sale.
As a home stager, she sees things differently from Steven G and Sonia Longchamp. Homeowners often hire her directly, but she also works for developers and real estate agents who want her to make empty spaces buyer friendly. Her clients range from those with homes selling for $400,000 to more than $1 million. She often brings in rented furniture and accessories to “stage” the home.
The most common mistake is assuming your home is ready for sale just because you like it. Cadden says the way you live is not acceptable to every buyer. A good example is a client with small children who converted the dining room into a playroom.
“Buyers don’t want to see a playroom,” she says. “They want to see a dining room. It’s not about what you like anymore. It’s about selling your house.”
Another major mistake is failure to declutter and put away personal affects such as family photos or anything that gets in the way of the buyer imaging himself living there.
“You have to put away your collections, and you have to take away that favorite l0-year-old chair that the dog has been chewing on,” Cadden says. “You may have a great collection of Lladro, but when the potential buyers come in you don’t want them to see your collection. You want them to look at the house, not the Lladro.”
Some people take her comments as a personal attack, but she lets them know she isn’t being critical. She’s being practical.
“I am not telling them that their taste isn’t great,” she says. “If you like country and a lot of red roosters and the buyer likes contemporary, they may not like your house.”
Buyers like to see plenty of space so that means clearing out furniture that makes the room look small. The space should appear light and bright.
One of her best examples of what not to do was a house that was selling for the high $800s in Pembroke Pines. The daughter’s bedroom was painted bumble gum pink.
“I told her she needed to think about neutralizing the walls,” Cadden says. “The reason we talk about neutralizing is if you paint it a nice beige or taupe, it allows the buyer to imagine moving their things in there. We also neutralize because it’s one less thing the buyer has to do. Everyone feels they can move into a neutral house.”
Images (C) Open Door Staging Inc 2008
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Some Of Our past Stagings.
Lived in/Occupied Property
Town Home Staging
Beach Front Condo
Single Family Villa
“Everyone feels they can move into a neutral house” - I so agree with that and find it much easier to present in that way to my clients.
Kathleen Lordbock
Re$ale Design & Home Staging
Brainerd,MN