THE ABOUT

I’ve been a Real Estate Agent for some time now, and if there is one thing I’ve learned as I consider staging strategy, it’s that there is a huge difference between the house you live in and the house you’re trying to sell.

There is a major disconnect in my industry right now. We see agents throwing listings online with dark, blurry photos taken on their cell phones—or even worse, high-end professional photos that end up just being high-def pictures of someone’s personal clutter.

Here’s the reality: 95% of buyers (maybe closer to 100% with the exception of your nosy neighbors who see the sign first… and then still rush online to see if there are any photos!) are going to meet your home for the first time on their phone or computer. If they’re scrolling through and all they see are ‘piles of life’—the mail on the counter, the family photos, the collection of magnets on the fridge—they aren’t looking at your house. They’re looking at you. And if they’re looking at you, they aren’t imagining themselves living there.

It’s just a waste of money to hire a pro photographer if all they’re capturing is visual noise. The closer you can get to creating that clean story of your home and not of your stuff, the better it will come across digitally – and that’s how you get warm bodies in the door to see it in person.

I created The Defined Dwelling because I believe staging is a total no-brainer for ROI. It’s not about judging your taste or telling you your decor is wrong—we all love our stuff! It’s just about clearing the path so the buyer can actually see the structure and the function of the home. Defining spaces – especially awkward nooks! I can’t tell you how many vacant homes I’ve entered with a client and heard the words: “I don’t know what I’d do with this space.” If you have any of these awkward spaces and you don’t know how to stage them, you may find it really helpful to bring in a professional.

We’re stripping away the story of who lives there now to make room for the story of who’s moving in next. This site is meant to be a curated resource of neutral and mostly inexpensive items that you can use to help you accomplish this without spending hours scouring the internet or wondering what might look good.