I’ve heard people suggest that home staging is actually a deceptive practice because it’s meant to disguise real problems, but this is not the case. Staging is all about letting the best features of a home shine through, without hiding serious issues that need to be addressed.

The entrance to this house says “fixer-upper” due to all the trash on the porch, overgrown hedge and peeling paint. But it’s actually a solid property that just needs a little TLC to change first impressions from “top to fix” to “welcome home”.

However, there are cases where home staging is sought out as a band-aid solution to much larger problems.

With certain properties, it makes more sense for owners to invest in repairs before staging and “staging with integrity” means the staging will point this out.

When a home is in need of repairs and has a long list of obvious structural problems and flaws, no amount of paint or new furniture will hide the problems.

If you are asked to organize such a house, suggest that the owners fix what is wrong before organizing it because any problems will show up on the home inspection anyway.

There’s a big difference between repairing cracked plaster and repainting after repairing a leaky ceiling, and doing the same thing to hide the fact that it’s leaking.

Roof problems will be discovered at a home inspection, so the home seller won’t be any further ahead and, in fact, may see their deal fall apart when it could have gone through had they addressed the problem in the first place.

As the organizer, you should emphasize the need to repair the leak and why, and suggest once you’re done, that the wall be repaired and painted. Of course, he will choose the color, but that does not remove the responsibility of pointing out the steps that must be followed before the painting is placed on the wall.

I once refused to organize a dilapidated house that had been on the market for months without an offer. Instead of calling me, the vendor should have called a contractor first.

I advised the client to drop the price significantly and either sell the house as ‘demolition’ for the land value, or take it off the market for the summer, get all the problems fixed, and then call me to get it ready for the actual fall. real-estate market.

As a professional set designer, you don’t want your home preparation business to be associated with problem properties disguised as paint and nice furniture.

There are plenty of solid homes that are crying out for cosmetic changes that can make all the difference in a real estate sale. Let your talents as a home stager shine in these. Don’t waste your time or your reputation by organizing obvious takedowns, keep promoting your business and more customers will follow!