You’re not selling this house. You’re not! You’ve just made your living room look like it’s the size of a postage stamp.

Guys, please, I beg you, THINK. When you want to sell your home, you must think about the buyer. You have to get into the mindset of ‘the masses’. Most people do not want a giant sectional sofa taking up all of the real estate! It short circuits the buyer’s mental process of buying. And here’s a little known fact for you: Most people cannot ‘envision’ the space without your stuff in it. They see the sectional sofa as hogging the space and blocking the aesthetic. And they are correct, by the way and more importantly, that huge trendy sectional has just hijacked their imagination.

And it’s not a judgement of your decorating taste. If you like it, do it. You do you. I’d actually love to plop down on that sofa in the picture. Would I buy that house? No. The room’s too small (I’m chuckling). BUT when you want to sell that space, you have got to back your taste into the space behind marketing. I’ve studied marketing; I can even recommend colors. But I don’t do that. I love it when my buyers get to see a lovely space that looks like a HOME. Yes, even with pictures. The days of ‘minimalism’ are fading fast, but maximalism is already blasé. The happy medium and the quicker sale aesthetic, is somewhere in between. Speaking of colors in marketing…if your living room is vibrant orange with purple trim, I’m gonna recommend a change.

Now, do I think you have to sterilize your space? NO! The home should still look like a home. But you have to remember, you are selling space. Big, wide open space. Even people who want more delineated spaces want those individual spaces to look big. And when they stop walking and start to place their OWN furniture in their mind, that’s a GREAT thing. But they never get there if their senses are overwhelmed by MASSIVE furniture crammed into a small space. So here’s what I advise my sellers.

You are moving. This will soon not be your home. Start thinking like a buyer, and ‘rearrange’. Take a deep breath and let go of the emotion (I know that’s hard). Think about your sales price now. Maybe get a small storage unit and put some items in there. TRUST ME. I cannot tell you how many times my buyers turn around and leave when they think the spaces are too small. And there’s this: So many people put the back of a sofa right across the room where the fireplace is the focal point.

The fireplace wall is the ‘money wall’ for your home. DON’T BLOCK IT. Switch the furniture placement to open that view while you are marketing your home. People say, “Wow!” when they see the sweeping vista (okay that’s a bit hyperbolic) from the kitchen island to the fireplace. If you have the floor plan where there’s a dining table between the kitchen island and the living room, don’t put tall decor on the table. Make the VIEW un-interrupted all the way to the ‘money wall’, because they WILL stand behind that island to view the den or living room with the fireplace. They will. It’s okay to put decor on the table (I would), but don’t let it grab the attention of the buyer who is trying to decide if this space will work. Think: SQUIRREL! So…what about that buyer’s decision process:

Buyers enter your home and their creative brain takes over. They immediately start thinking how they would live in that space, and they think about how they would put THEIR stuff in it. The home should have a comfortable temperature, it should SMELL good (don’t put the fragrance things in the outlets; it makes buyers think you’re hiding something). Open the blinds and push back the dark curtains (better yet take them out). Let the sunshine in. Sunshine is a wonderful psychological marketing tool and it’s FREE. Don’t have gigantic decor on spindly tables (danger) and take the pet snake terrarium to a friend’s house (don’t laugh; I’ve had that happen). Think like the masses.

Now about that sectional: Here’s my editorial. Sectionals are a smart marketing tool for furniture makers. They get to make a sectional cheaper than regular sofas and make you think they’re worth more money. So they create the “everybody’s doing it!” idea and of course people fall for it and they pay more money. In marketing, that’s called affiliation. And it has worked. And it’s the bane of my existence unless I’m showing a huge home to my buyers because chances are, the dreaded sectional will be in the living room.