There’s a definite trend for people moving into their houses to make it less minimalist and more maximalist. They’re incorporating patterned wallpapers, lots of plants, mixed-media art in all different styles and in general, making their home an eclectic place to live. While this is popular for those who own homes, it’s not popular—or recommended—for sellers putting their house on the market. Here’s why:
Online Photos: The maximalist look is very fun in person but very busy in photography, especially for marketing purposes. The camera catches everything, so a maximalist home can look busy and even make the viewer a little dizzy. It just doesn’t translate to photos.
Less Is More: I’m still a believer in “less is more” when selling your home and that includes muted colors throughout the house. Harsh black-and-white interiors are less popular now. The theme for homes on the market is quiet luxury, which means warm whites and beiges and very clean, relaxing lines. That’s also what you want for photography because quiet luxury interior decor creates spaciousness where buyers can imagine putting whatever they’d want in each room. With maximalist decor, there’s so much going on that people don’t know which way to look. It’s fun to see and experience a maximalist home for a dinner party, but it’s not as much fun when you’re touring the place during an open house …
Neighborhood Vibes: For most people, maximalist decor doesn’t work but that rule depends on the neighborhood. You always want a house to seamlessly reflect the community in which it’s located. If it’s an eclectic neighborhood like West Hollywood or an artsy community, a maximalist home may be sellable. However, in most Los Angeles markets, people have such diverse taste that it’s better when the staging is streamlined.
Potential Buyers: When staging a home, you’re quite literally creating a stage so that it can perform for the widest swathe of interested buyers possible. When you decorate in a maximalist style, you could be limiting your audience, and the buyer pool interested in your home might shrink dramatically … simply because of the decor.
Collectors not Buyers: You want people to be looking at your house and not the stuff inside your house. It’s why we always have clients thin out and declutter their spaces. If you don’t, it can feel like you’re in some kind of antique store or boutique when walking through the house. While that experience is exciting, it attracts buyers who are more interested in the items inside the house than the house itself. It happens all the time: Buyers walk through a property and ask, “Is this table for sale? Or, “Are you selling the vases?” The response? Politely: “No, we’re selling the house.” When a home is too cluttered, it can feel like an estate sale. People who are serious about buying usually don’t want the seller’s collections of antique plates or leather-bound books. If you have too much stuff, you get people who want to shop and not serious buyers.
When we stage a home, we create a clean palette that’s so effective, people often want to buy the staging! During the staging process, we’ll create fantasy spaces to show buyers what it would feel like to live cleanly. Most people aren’t living with one book on the coffee table or one item in the corner of the room. It’s a fantasy, but it helps buyers imagine what might be possible.
Now that we’ve talked about why minimalist is best for houses on the market, please don’t think all homes need to be minimalist to be “on trend.” What’s on trend is whatever makes you happiest! If you’re going to live in your home, you should enjoy it. Have fun with the interior, make it as maximalist as you’d like. Everyone thinks our house looks cool but if I was putting it on the market, I’d have to streamline our spaces, too. I’ve lived there for 24 years and bought the home as a midcentury fixer. If I was selling it (I’m not!), I would style it Italian modern, with really cool and clean lines for a simple, fresh vibe.
There are psychological studies that back up the theory behind why minimalist decor is better when selling. When a house is cluttered or maximalist, a typical buyer may say, “Oh that house is too small,” even if it’s 5,000 square feet! They’re looking at the photos, walking through the rooms filled with stuff and thinking there’s no room for their personal items in this house. They’re also wondering if the sellers are moving because they didn’t have enough space to live there either.
If my husband Steve walks into a maximalist house that we’re planning to list, he’ll say, “Wow, you’ve got a lot of stuff in your house. It’s good stuff but there’s a lot of it!”
In other words, there’s too much there. It’s got to go.
My client, who is also my neighbor, was selling her house a while back and I told her she had to declutter. She walked into my house and said, “Oh look at all the stuff in your house! Why aren’t you decluttering?”
I smiled and told her, “My house isn’t for sale. If I was selling, I would give myself the same advice I’m giving you!”
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Andrew Manning • REALTOR® • Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties • DRE: 00941825 • 818-380-2147 • andrew@andrewmanning.com