Keeping Up Appearances: Making Your Home Sale-Ready with a Staging Pro

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PATRICIA EBRAHIMI CLAIMS her first staging job was when she was 12 years old, when her mom said she had to share a room with her sister. A few rearranged beds and a room divider later, Ebrahimi realized she had a knack for bringing out the potential in a space through creative design.

In 2005, Ebrahimi started professionally staging homes in the D.C. market and founded the Rockville-based business Show-Smart! to help homeowners make their properties more attractive to potential buyers.

"Everyone looks better elegantly dressed than naked — unless you're a swimsuit model — and that's the same for real estate," she says.

Ebrahimi says sellers need to accent the best features of their property — a great layout, floors, renovated kitchen, lots of storage space or a master bathroom, for example — and play down the negatives. It's about neutralizing the space to appeal to the broadest set of buyers, so don't take it personally.

"You did a great job making it a home," Ebrahimi says. "Now it's a product for sale."

Home staging is especially crucial in vacant spaces because it shows buyers how furniture can fit in a room. In this type of situation, pieces with simple straight lines and tables with glass tops often help make the space look bigger, Ebrahimi says.

"People don't have visual imagination," she says. "You have to help potential buyers make an emotional connection with a property and say, 'Yeah, I could live here; it feels good.'"

Ebrahimi gave Express a few quick and easy tips on how to carry out mini-home makeovers that can make a sale.

1. Get some pull
For a quick fix with major impact, Ebrahimi suggests replacing handles on kitchen cabinets and the knobs on bathroom vanities. Chuck the ornate or dated hardware and opt for simple round knobs in a satin nickel or rubbed bronzed finish. Liberty Hardware sells an attractive, inexpensive line at Home Depot, Lowe's Hardware and True Value stores.

2. Sold on shades
Do you want to sell your home to someone who loves the wild color you chose in your living room, or do you just want to sell the place, period? Sellers need to neutralize their accent walls, says Ebrahimi, who recommends Benjamin Moore colors such as Barren Plain, Navajo White or Bradstreet Beige.

3. Color between the lines save face
After a sloppy paint job with Goof Off which can remove any latex paint that's gotten on floorboards, cabinets or chair rails. Yes, that's Goof Off, as in: We goofed; let's get it off.

4. No paper trail
Ugly wallpaper tops the list of turnoffs. Four words: It has to go. Simply mix some Downy fabric softener with hot water — as hot as you can stand it — then spray it on the seams and saturate the paper to melt the glue. "It's messy," Ebrahimi warns.

5. Hard To miss
Hardwood floors are the real-estate equivalent of six-pack abs - they're rare, they shouldn't be concealed with unsightly fabrics, and they can make interested suitors swoon. To spruce up your floors, roll down Rejuvenate like a deck stain to get a glossy finish. It's like putting a layer of clear nail polish on the floor. Ebrahimi says, "The stuff is magic."

6. Fake it to make it
Vignette staging, or filling an empty room with just a few basic items, works well for some units. Simply bring in a chair and some small tables and hang a few pictures on the wall. Then, blow up an air mattress and add sheets, a comforter and a headboard.

7. Cut the clutter
Homes that aren't completely moved out of look bedraggled and abandoned, Ebrahimi says. They scream, "I'm desperate, I'm carrying two mortgages and need to sell now!"

Of course, there's also the other extreme: people who have been in their home 30 years and have walls covered in family photos, mementos and awards.

"People are buying square footage, not your stuff," Ebrahimi says. "Even if your home is well-decorated, if it's personal and outdated, people will feel like a guest." Public Storage rents units for $1 the first month. Typical units are 5 feet by 5 feet, but the $1 rate also applies to 5-feet-by-10 feet units on up - the second month rate varies from about $78 to $120 per month, depending on location and demand.

For before and after photos of Patricia Ebrahimi's work staging homes, visit the Show-Smart! web site.

Written by Express contributor Josie Roberts
Photos by Marge Ely/Express; courtesy Patricia Ebrahimi