Don’t visually accost would-be buyers
Is it just me? I am beginning to think I’m the only person who finds vibrantly colored and patterned pillows, towels and linens incredibly messy-looking in home interior photos. If your furniture has patterns or non-neutral colors, be very careful about introducing more. The worst offender, in my humble opinion is the self-consciously nonchalant blanket thrown over the back of a sofa or club chair (or at the end of the bed).
Pay attention to how the room photographs
To my eye, it always looks untidy and I want to put it away in a closet. Pictures of living rooms with lots of throw pillows (with or without those shabby chic blankets) look busy and the very antithesis of serene or elegant. I could easily live without serene or elegant; personally, I prefer a space to look inviting, but these rooms just look tacky to me. The biggest surprise is that the stagers are often the culprits who bring in these loud, clashing linens. I think they may look at the space in person, but not at the pictures of those spaces. Remember, the pictures are what prospective buyers use to decide whether they should visit the property.
Make your bed!
While we are on the topic of linens, I have found that the most disappointing pictures of listed home are often the bedroom shots. Why? Because it’s actually very hard to get bed linens to look crisp and taut. Rumpled and wrinkled is more common. I’m amazed at how often I see sheets hanging out at the edges of the comforter or pillows that still have head indents in them. Consider getting an inexpensive, very plain comforter to use, at least for pictures, when you are selling your house and maybe a couple of new pillows, too.
Throw in the towel
A brief note on towels: the stained kitchen towel hanging on the stove handle needs to go. I’d opt for “less is more” and not put one out at all. In the bathrooms, any kind of hand towel should be clean (you think that would be obvious, but you’d be surprised). Finally, and this is incredibly common, think about how your bath towels smell. That’s right–if your towels are damp, they don’t smell very good. Put them in the wash or hamper and either replace them with fresh ones or leave the bathroom towel-free prior to showings.
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