Home Staging. Designs. Life.

I was interviewed today by San Mateo Times about the burglary that happened a few months ago in Atherton where a staged home was broken into and things were taken. The burglars took artwork, accessories and remote controls to both garage doors and sprinklers. The reporter asked me if I was surprised, sadly I said no.

This is not the first time I’ve heard about people stole things out of homes. It happens more frequent than we like to believe. It is more common with vacant homes and certainly can happen to occupied homes as well.

Real estate can be a dangerous industry; most people do not realize it. Selling your home is not only an emotional roller coaster, you are also making yourself vulnerable for all to see. There is a reason why I do not use candlesticks in homes, even though they would look darn good and it will make my life easier. I also don’t use flatware. There have been cases in the past where realtors were attacked with these objects while showing homes. Similarly, I also advise homeowners to pack up valuables, collections and personal photos. Nowadays with technology’s advancement and the popularity of virtual tour, people can browse through your home, floor plan and do their “homework” before they show up to rob you. Open house is also another great time for potential thieves to attack. With high foot traffic during open house, people can raid your medicine cabinets without you knowing. I have heard of agents’ purses went missing after open house while they were showing the home to walk-in potential buyers.

In this particular Atherton case, the burglars also took garage openers. The reporter chuckled when he told me but it makes a lot of sense. They took artwork and accessories because they are easy to run with, unlike a couch where you can be seen by the neighbors. They targeted Atherton because of the high end listing prices come with high-end expensive staging furnishings. They took garage openers because they plan to come back and rob the seller again. They took the control to sprinklers also probably because they couldn’t figure out which is which.

Here are a few tips to help you protect yourself while you put your home up for sale:

*Pack up ALL your valuable artwork, collections, bank records, personal records, personal photos especially you have small children, and etc. Move them to a safe area that can be locked.

*Avoid staging with accessories that can be used as weapons such as flatware, candle sticks, etc. It also lowers your liability in case something does happen.

*If you have windows at the front of the house that can easily tell random people on the street that your home is vacant, use curtains to conceal the interior to make yourself a less of a target.

*During open house, greet everyone that comes through and acknowledge him/her. When I was working in the retail field, simply acknowledging customers who walk in deters incidents of thefts. Because they know you saw them, they will be less likely to steal since they know you have/are noticing them. Also, people are more likely to buy when you acknowledge them! So it’s really a win-win situation for ya.

*This one is crucial: lock the doors. It’s shocking how often agents forgot to lock the front or back door while on their way out. When I was working as a realtor, I got a call from the police at 2am because a silly agent (grrr) forgot to lock the front door and the door was blown wide open! Luckily nothing happened, but I was so freaked out the rest of the night!

When you walk into a room, it tells a story.

It tells a story through the furnishing you had chosen, the color palette you had spent days to pick, and the accessories and personal items that you placed in it. Most people probably don't realize it, but the placement of your objects can make or break your room. Your furniture placement can decide how the conversations are being conducted at your dinner parties, the traffic pattern in your daily lives and the energy flow of your home. Brilliant accessory placements can determine conversational interests, kind reminders of your love & passion the first thing you wake up and what's welcoming you to a comfort zone when you kick off your boring work shoes from a day of office drama.

Now you have placed everything just perfect, but is your room flatlining? Flatlining your room will make your room looks... flat. Literally. There are no "peaks & valley" to keeps visual interests for the room.

For example, this is the room from tonight's Top Design, which the guest judge commented on as boring because it's flat. Symmtry is great, but it can get boring at times and also too safe and too formula-ish. The most visually interesting object is the orange ball paintings above the couch. Why? Because the orange balls jump up and down, unlike rest of the furniture that forms 1 flat line because of its similiar heights. To make it more visually interesting, I personally would use accessories of different heights such as a standing lamp or a standing tree to draw attention to the height of the room. The room below is still very simple, but because of the different heights, "peaks & valleys," it makes it more visually interesting.

 (Similarily in staging, you want to make sure there is a strong visual interest in the room -- usually the focal point of the room, such as fireplace, the view, etc. and the other smaller visual interests are the supporting actors/actresses in the show that help to highlight your feature. But stick with just ONE, you don't want to confuse buyers' eyes and make them feel the room is too messy.)

What makes Matt's room stand out from others is his unusual furniture placement which is visually interesting. It's not a formulaic way of couch here, accent chair here and here and bam it's done. It's time to think more outside of the box!