THEY WANT IT ORANGE -- TARGETING THOSE UNDER 45 BUYERS

 

Modern Living Room design by Seattle Home Staging Lisa Lucas Design

Trend Watching
One of the biggest misconceptions is that I go into a big warehouse and select furnishings and accessories based on what feels fun for that day --- in reality far from the truth. Paying attention to trends and making calculated decisions based upon reseach and experience just doesn't sound as glamourous as talking about buying these pillows at Z Gallerie or finding this perfect rug at West Elm. I spend huge amounts of hours sitting behind a laptop figuring out what buyers will ooh and ahh over in order to increase the appeal of a property. The large chains have huge marketing budgets to set those trends and my job is to make sure I am incorporating those into my designs to increase the appeal.

Figure Out Your Most Likely Buyer
I have to first find out what the demographics are of the buyers most likely to be looking at that house. I frequently work with an agent who is Mr. Demographics and a Marketing Guru so that part is relatively easy for me after years of experience paying attention to who buys where and what. The house I staged above was a modest square foot home in the very popular View Ridge neighborhood right near the park a short walk to both Metropolitan Market and PCC. These mid-century post-war homes are popular with young families who like to walk the neighbhood and want to live in a more urban area really close to the Burke-Gilman bike trail and love the short commute to the nearby hospitals and university.

Survey Says . . .
House Beautiful recently did a large survey and found buyers younger than 45 years old voted orange as their current favorite accent color. The Panatone Color of the Year for 2013 also came out as Emerald Green. Now you can view my photos and know that if you see orange, there is ususally a reason it is there.

Results
House sold within days and seller and agent thrilled with the quick results. While many stagers go into this business thinking the goal is to make rooms pretty (and wanting to walk the warehouse making choices with abandon) the real task is increasing the marketability by increasing the appeal to your demographic is really what gets results.