We Are Not In the Home Staging Business

I️ was 12 years old the day that our Realtor and a potential buyer came to our house for a showing.

My mom wasn’t home.

It was just me there.

Two years earlier, on a rainy fall day in New England, the stability of my idyllic childhood world was ripped out from under me when my dad sat my sister and me down and said he was leaving.

That day.

At that very moment.

That year (and the few to follow) were hard. And the culmination was that my mom needed to sell our home.

Not just any home.

This tiny little cottage on a sweet little lake in New Hampshire was the fulfillment of a dream. This was the house that she brought two babies home to. The house that her dad renovated and added onto to fit our growing family. It was the final project he would ever complete before dying at the age of 42.

It was the only house I️ ever knew.

I️ lost my family unit and now I️ was going to lose my house.  My bedroom.

The bedroom—that I️ remember being studs and subfloor—had became my lavender oasis with a canopy bed.  I️ was going to lose it.

This realtor was going to sell it.

As the realtor and potential buyer walked through the house, they proceeded to remark on every defect and flaw that they saw in the cruelest and most insensitive way.

“I’m right here!”  I️ wanted to shout.  Instead, I️ swallowed the lump that had developed in my throat and held back my tears.

I️ never forgot the humiliation and sadness of that day 35 years ago and what it taught me. Their bluntness was so unnecessary.

It is my own personal experience that informs the way that we talk to our clients during a Styling Evaluation.

Nothing is clutter and there is no such thing as decluttering.

Nothing is dated or arranged “all wrong”.

Nothing is deemed “taste specific”

Our sellers are vulnerable when they open themselves and their houses up to our critique.

That is why I feel strongly that Rethink Home Interiors isn’t in the home staging business.  (Well, we are and we do it incredibly well, but our real mission is bigger than that.)

We are in the business of helping people literally move forward and onto what’s next for them in a kind and caring way that makes the process as painless as possible. 

Every one of our sellers has a story. Maybe they’re not all sad like mine but there’s a story.

It is our job to create as much positivity around the process of selling as we possibly can.

That is why our Styling Evaluations keep the focus on how their home will be photographed and what a camera captures and not how their things look.

That is why we give our sellers my personal phone number so they can ask as many questions as they need to complete their Selling Success Plan.

That is why we follow up with each seller by phone and email to check in on their progress.

Our goal is that our clients—your clients, family and friends—are empowered, feel supported, and never experience how I felt all of those years ago.

Nope. Not happening on my watch.

xo,

Lori