November 11, 2013

Real estate is a subtle matter.

Who knows what will warm the heart of the buyer? It depends on the context. When you "stage" your house, what do you leave out and what do you put away? Let's say you had one of these:



Out or in? Assume Madison, Wisconsin.

44 comments:

Bob R said...

Remind me. In the contest for "Most Murderous Thug of the 20th Century," who is #1?

Michael said...

Definitely in. In. In. In. Edgy, cool, unspoken solidarity. A great leap forward in subtle identity coupling/salesmanship. In.

Cool on the tenured's desk too.

Bob Ellison said...

Would Madison like a statue of Lenin? It's for sale.

Anonymous said...

In for sure. Staged with an alter suggesting worship and with burning incense and fresh flowers. Special lighting too.

And finally don't forget that President Obama is a lying sack.

lgv said...

Simple. Out. Same if it were Ronald Reagan or William Buckley.

Why alienate 1/3 of potential buyers? Logically, it shouldn't make a difference, but why risk it? Try not to offend anyone. It's about selling your house.

It's the same reason boring earth tones dominate.

Anonymous said...

You're selling to a "Communist enriched" audience. So possibly in.

rhhardin said...

Handyman special.

rhhardin said...

It needs an Obama addition.

traditionalguy said...

A Sarah Palin bobblehead would express a happy home.

FleetUSA said...

You can have any fun you wish but staging professional recommend that nothing indicates politics or religion in the house. It avoids upsetting some potential buyers.

southcentralpa said...

In Madison, only leave it out if you're willing to entertain the inevitable "Does that come with the house ??!!"

I'm Full of Soup said...

In- especially if they are life-sized.

n.n said...

Mao produces a superior optical illusion. Mao is in.

Heartless Aztec said...

Do kids even know who Mao is these days? My inner city kids think President Lincoln freed the Ho Chi Minh peoples during the Spanish-American War in 1952. Surely they're not matriculating to adulthood and knowledge of Mao...

tim in vermont said...

Depends, is there an opening in the back to shove a daily pineaple up?

rhhardin said...

Dictator hailing a cab.

MadisonMan said...

Put away. Too easy to pocket.

Freeman Hunt said...

In, but only if it's next to a commemorative Reagan plate. Something for everyone to love, and something for everyone to think ironic.

rhhardin said...

Climate deniers analyzed by a psychology professor.

David said...

Hey, big extra points if that's not Mao and is Kim Jong Il.

Anonymous said...

If the buyer is American leftist, all three should be displayed in prominent places. If the buyer is freshly landed Chinese immigrants, hide all of them.

Scott said...

The conventional wisdom is that if you're staging a house, you should declutter and depersonalize everything. No pics of the spouse, the kids, the dogs. No effigies of Mao.

When I staged the house that I am selling, I rented some very generic looking furniture for the living room, dining room, and the master bedroom. Then I set the dining room table for a dinner party. It seems to have worked -- the house is under contract after being listed for about two weeks.

George M. Spencer said...

Best of all....Empty house. Totally empty. Move. Get out. Right now. Go! Scram! Beat it!

Ann Althouse said...

This was not an inexpensive house. It was almost a million dollars.

Ann Althouse said...

And it was an open house, so no ability to pre-determine the interests of the prospective buyers other than to know where your house is located and who might have that much money to spend.

Craig Howard said...

I've gotta say "in".

I mean the Kim-Jong on the left is holding an actual sickle. That's gotta be hard to find.

Indicates a discerning collector.

Known Unknown said...

Is FORWARD! one of the options?

garage mahal said...

Can Mao play quarterback?

Meade said...

Mister, we could use a quarterback like Chairman Russell Wilson again.

garage mahal said...

Badgers are just fine.

Meade said...

I know. I meant Packers.

FleetUSA said...

The Professor mentioned $1 million. Are there only liberal millionaires in Madison?

garage mahal said...

The pic is from a UK site. I don't think the figurines are from a home in Madison.

Irene said...

If the realtor has listed the house, then he/she advised the seller about which items to hide/display during showings.

The figurine's location also might illustrate context. If it's in a rec room or bedroom, then it might be a quaint vacation souvenir.

If it's in the study, then the house might be in Shorewood Hills.

Anonymous said...

Feel compelled to link to my favorite Mao-themed figurine: "Struggle session". The human tragedy (comedy) captured in porcelain kitsch.

Bob R said...

It you get the Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and Idi Amin figures, it's a good start on the whole collection. (Only a few dozen more to go. Don't forget the Rachel Carson figurine. Malaria kills more poor kids than bullets.)

Douglas B. Levene said...

The official line of the Chinese Communist Party is that Mao was 70% good (uniting China, defeating the Japanese) and 30% bad (the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution). Madame Mao, on the other hand, was 100% bad. Thus, the politically correct answer would be to hide the Mao holding the sickle, and leave out the young Mao and the General Mao.

Ann Althouse said...

"The pic is from a UK site. I don't think the figurines are from a home in Madison."

We don't take pictures in someone else's house. We searched the web for a photo of the statuette we saw.

WestVirginiaRebel said...

If you go around carrying statuettes of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Display it with a lawn jockey. I say "display" because I'm not sure if "out" means "put it out where it can be seen", or "take it out of sight". I'm similarly unsure on "in".

LTMG said...

If those are the three wise men, then put them in a crèche for all to see. Kim Jong Un could be the as...I mean, the donkey.

LTMG said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rusty said...

Ann Althouse said...
"The pic is from a UK site. I don't think the figurines are from a home in Madison."

We don't take pictures in someone else's house. We searched the web for a photo of the statuette we saw

Here we'd have little porceline statuettes of John Wayne Gacey and Ted Bundy.

Sam L. said...

PERFECT, or perfekt, for Madison, given what I've heard about it. And seen, here on the blog.