Quick, what can you easily do without when selling your home?

Not your realtor.

Not you handyman.

Not your stager.

It’s your curtains!

I routinely recommend that clients remove curtains or window treatments when getting ready to sell. Clients are usually horrified.

• Won’t people be able to see in? Maybe
• Won’t the buyers be able to see the (less than ideal) view? Yes, but they already knew it was there.
• Won’t the buyers miss the carefully chosen (dated, dusty, and dark) curtains? No.

Window treatments are both costly and highly personalized. Updating to a more neutral choice is prefered, but it can easily cost the seller $100 per window and up to outfit a window. Per window. And it is not unusual for the curtain hardware alone to be as costly as the window treatment.

So what’s a homeowner to do? Often, the best choice is to remove the window treatments altogether and leave the window bare. Most home buyers can evaluate the house better without any fashion statements hanging at the windows. Showing a property as light, bright, and well-maintained will always win out over decor that is personalized, sacrifices the available light, and might be regarded as “another project” that the new homeowner will need to deal with.

Home stagers agree. We’re happy to update or add window treatments if the budget allows, but if there are more pressing updates needed, curtains should be simplified or removed for an instant facelift.

Your professional stager is the best person to recommend the lean look or to fashion a low-cost, on-trend solution that coordinates with the decor.

Best wishes with selling your home this spring!

Thanks to realtor Stephanie Newcomb of EveryHome Realty for her involvement on this post.