Home stager meets grieving homeowner

Home stager meets grieving homeowner

Home stager meets grieving homeowner

A few weeks ago I posted a home staging business dilemma to my blog asking what home stagers would do if they walked into a home staging consultation to find a nightmarish scene with cat fur-covered furniture from the 70s the place where knick knacks go to die.

I asked what readers would do, knowing that the woman is a widow grieving not only the loss of her husband but also the loss of the home they'd shared for many years.

As a home stager you must be comfortable dealing with a grieving homeowner not necessarily someone who has lost a loved one, but someone who is having to give up their home. It really can be a grieving process.

This situation, like many others, requires you to trade your home stager hat for your therapist hat and respect the emotions of the homeowner.

One of the things I recommend is that you begin with a walk-through of the entire home before making specific recommendations in any one room. There are several reasons for doing this, but one of them is that if you keep an eye on the body language of your client, and listen to what they say in each room, you'll have an idea which rooms are more sensitive than others.

For example, I was doing a home staging consultation for a widow who was moving to a new condo. When we got to a study filled with books, she mentioned this was where her husband had worked and that this was his library. There was no point in my jumping right into editing and telling her we needed to style the shelves. She would not have been responsive and it would have put her on the defensive throughout the whole staging consultation. Instead, I left this room until last. By the time we got to it, I had built up a rapport with her and I could then more gently ease her into the need to pack up her late husband's books "in preparation for her upcoming move."

Here are other suggestions you can make for the inevitable challenges you will run into staging a home for a grieving homeowner:

Rather than telling her the knick knacks are tacky, you have to remember they were probably gifts from grandchildren that have been cherished over the years. Tell her that because you would hate to see anything happen to them, you think it's best to pack them up and store them somewhere safe while the house is on the market.

Instead of making a big deal about the cat fur everywhere, tell her that some buyers may have allergies to her beloved feline and he should go somewhere else to stay while the house is being shown.

If you have no room in your budget for rental furniture, tell her how nice it will be to have freshly cleaned furniture to bring with her to her new house or to hand down to her grandchildren and suggest a good professional steam cleaning.

POST COMMENT

Should Your Remodeling Company Have a Facebook Fan Page? Make Money From Home Without So Much Effort Online Earning at home an excellent way to financial independence for all Franklin Step Stool Chair Plans - Time Saving Tip ! Cedar Chair Kit - No Experience is Necessary ! Make A Step Chair - Quick Advice ! Hammock Chairs Homeopathic Remedies For Vertigo- Are Any Available So You Do Not Have To Suffer Anymore? Effective Ways in Reducing High Cholesterol The Way To Reduce Cholesterol Naturally Diet Tips To Reduce LDL Cholesterol Ways of Effectively Getting Rid of Eczemaat Home Simple Ways To Reduce Cholesterol Levels