10/16/2026
To my Sellers with love: Just Because It Cost You Money Doesn't Mean It Adds to Your Sale Price...
Why the improvements we value most aren't always the ones buyers are willing to pay for.
One of the most important things I do as a professional home stager has very little to do with arranging furniture.
It's understanding the buyer.
Homeowners naturally make decisions about their properties based on their own needs, preferences and lifestyles. And while those decisions may make perfect sense when you're living in a home, they don't always translate into value when it's time to sell.
I recently consulted on a beautiful 3,500-square-foot, two-storey property with a sweeping “Gone With the Wind” staircase, located just two doors down from an elementary school.
The owners had spent thousands of dollars installing a custom stairlift.
When I recommended removing it before listing, they were understandably reluctant. They explained that it was useful for transporting groceries upstairs and suggested that perhaps the next buyer would appreciate having it.
But the home's size, location and layout suggested a very different likely buyer demographic.
The stairlift was a specialized feature that didn't align with the needs of the buyers we were most likely to attract. It also distracted from a beautiful architectural feature that should have been one of the home's selling points.
Stairlifts are a little like pianos and China Cabinets. They can be very expensive to purchase, but finding someone who actually wants one now can be surprisingly difficult.
Once I explained the reasoning behind my recommendation, the owners agreed to remove it. We addressed several other challenges in the property, and the home sold.
Here's another example.
I once worked with a homeowner in a new-build, move-up community who had spent thousands of dollars reinforcing the second-floor laundry room to support a washer and dryer. One caveat...the floor had already been designed to accommodate those appliances. By the architect and builder.
To pay for the additional reinforcement, she had given up standard finishes, including hardwood flooring and stone countertops, that were present in the other homes in the neighbourhood. Her house had laminate flooring and countertops.
Think about that for a moment.
She had traded features buyers could see, appreciate and compare against competing properties for a structural modification that offered no apparent additional benefit to the typical buyer.
The investment was significant. The contribution to market appeal was essentially nonexistent.
And that's the important distinction.
Cost is what you spend. Value is what someone else is willing to pay.
There's another challenge I encounter regularly, and it has less to do with the property than with the mindset of the seller.
I hear things like, "But I LOVE my red walls!" or "It only takes ONE buyer to sell a house!"
Well, yes. Technically, that's true.
But imagine developing a product that only one person in the entire marketplace might want. You wouldn't stay in business very long with that marketing strategy.
This is Sales 101. You don't market a product based solely on what the seller loves. You market it based on what their customer, the buyer, actually wants.
Inexperienced sellers can inadvertently become their own biggest obstacle when they confuse personal attachment with market appeal.
Our goal isn't to find that one elusive buyer who happens to love your red walls, unusual renovations or highly personalized features. Our goal is to make your property appealing to as many qualified buyers as possible.
And here’s your why. More interested buyers can mean more showings, stronger offers, better negotiating leverage and potentially a higher selling price.
You only need one buyer to complete a sale. But for marketing a home, you want as many as possible competing for the opportunity to be that buyer.
And you don't have to stop loving your red walls. You just have to recognize that the next buyer may not love them quite as much as you do, so painting over them in the for sale home, and dreaming of the shade and location in your new home is a win/win.
When preparing a property for sale, we need to stop looking at it exclusively through the homeowner's eyes.
Who is the likely buyer? What are they comparing this home against? What features do they expect at this price point? What will make them choose this property over the competition?
These aren't questions we answer by guessing.
I research the neighbourhood, the property, the surrounding amenities, the competing listings and the demographics most likely to influence buyer interest.
Much of that information is available before I even walk through the front door.
Professional home staging is not simply about making a property attractive. It's about making strategic decisions that position it competitively in the marketplace.
Sometimes that means adding furnishings. Sometimes it means editing what's already there. And sometimes it means having a difficult conversation about an improvement that cost a great deal of money but isn't helping sell the home.
You're not selling your home to yourself. You're selling it to the next buyer.
Understanding that one fact can make all the difference.
