Staging a modern home can be tricky. People have different ideas about what modern means to them.

Before choosing the items to stage the property, you need to assess what specific functions the house needs based on the “profile” of the potential buyer, price of the property and the size of the rooms.

Always think of who is going to be your buyer. If the house is priced over a certain amount of money, say in today’s market in the heart of Toronto, over $2M, that means its not a first time buyer, its likely a family or someone who is planning a family, and they would like to be able to accommodate 3-4 people in the living room, and at least 6-8 adults in their dining room – if they are going to entertain. Staging a house with table and 4 chairs in the dining room area, would make them feel like there is no room for their family, and are likely to move onto a different property. This means you are narrowing the number of your potential buyers.

Buyers with a family would like to see a 3 seater sofa in the living space. 2 would be even better. The second one can be a 2 seater, but the first one must be a 3 seater.

Families would also like to have a separate space for a kitchen table and chairs. Not the dining room. When you have small kids, you don’t want to feed them at the “good table”, you want to feed them at a smaller kitchen table that can take more abuse. This one should be able to accommodate at least 4. Breakfast bar won’t do for babies. Its hard to feed a baby at a bar. If you don’t have room for a kitchen table, you need to re-think your style of table in the dining room, to accommodate such a scenario.

The bedrooms need to show how big they are by putting the right size bed in the room. For the master bedroom, if you can fit a king size bed, it would be best. Cutting corners here makes the house less luxurious. If a King does not fit, it must be a queen. Double won’t do in the master.

In other bedrooms, Buyers have a preconception that a single bed means tiny house. If you have no choice, single will have to do, but if a double or queen can fit, that is the right thing to do for selling the house. Buyers can always visualize a smaller bed if that’s all they need, but they will never be able to visualize a larger bed.