Well, folks, I’m almost ready for my “year-end” blog posts, but not quite ready!

The first will be published on Thursday, and the second will be published next Monday.

In the meantime, I wanted to provide something light, simple, and fun!

I also know that over the holidays, people spend far more time at home than they usually do.  Many people have a propensity to “putter” around.

As a result, a lot of you will look at your home, the contents, the features, the styles, and the conditions, and start to wonder, “Should I update this?”

“Should I fix that?”

“Should I improve this?”

“Is now the time to replace that?”

Many years ago, my own mother told me that she felt she needed to upgrade her home, because, as she explained it, “I’ve been reading your blog and you talk a lot about furniture, staging, refreshing houses, and well, I just sort of looked around my house and decided it looked like a dump!”

Oh, sorry, Mom!

But the impact that reading an article on staging, or perusing through a home style magazine can have is often subconscious.  You might start to see your own home in a slightly different light, and, who knows, you might decide to make some changes in the near future.

For example, I often explain to home buyers that once they purchase a new home, they’ll start to see their existing home in a different light.

“This is no longer your home,” I explain to them.  “Now, it’s an asset.”

You’ve mentally committed to the new home, so your existing home is simply a means to an end.  As a result, many people start to feel detached from the place they called “home” for so long, and begin to see the property through the eyes of an individual trying to maximize the asset’s value.

So here’s hoping that the following article will give you some ideas to kick around in your head over the holidays.

This article was written by my stager, Lucie Brand, from Toronto Staging & Design, for our annual INSIGHTS Magazine that we distribute every fall.

Hope you enjoy!

Beyond The Staging: Taking Your Listing To The Next Level

By: Lucie Brand
For INSIGHTS Magazine, Fall 2025

While others cut corners, we’re re-shaping the way we stage and prepare properties for sale in this ever-changing market.

The last two years in the real estate market have certainly kept us all on our toes, and it has also changed many of our business practices; some for the better and some, unfortunately, not so much.

What we’re witnessing right now in the staging world is a dichotomy between those sellers and agents that want to go above-and-beyond, and those that want to cut corners at every turn.  With the uncertainty of listing a home, and the desire to cut expenses, many listing agents and sellers are minimizing staging and marketing efforts, or simply not staging at all.

I believe that this is the exact opposite of what sellers should be doing in order to be successful in this market.  There is a tremendous opportunity to differentiate your listing and raise it a step above the competition.

As other listing agents and sellers list properties without the care and effort (and cost!) that they would have undertaken several years ago, positioning your listing as the best in that particular area, neighbourhood, or price point is even more essential if you’re going to achieve a successful sale.

As a result, it’s not just about basic staging anymore.  De-cluttering, packing, moving, storing, and staging are no longer all you should be looking to do.  “Pre-staging” efforts, such as minor repairs, renovations, upgrades, and modernizations, are an added weapon in your arsenal as you seek to combat buyer objections before they arise, as well as liven up any dated aspects of the home.

As many of you have worked with the Toronto Realty Group to sell your properties over the last few years, the following pre-staging improvements that we find cost-effective and simple to implement should come as no surprise.  And for those of you who own a house or condo and see yourselves making a move in the near-term, consider this a head’s-up on what you might want to consider down the line.

Painting

Simply put, a fresh coat of paint is the best return on investment you’ll ever experience.

That classic “new paint smell” alone is worth the expense, as every buyer who walks through the door will have their senses buzzing.  Nothing screams fresh and clean like a new coat of paint, but more importantly, it represents a blank canvas for new buyers.

When we prepare homes for sale, everything is typically painted some shade of white.  It might be boring to you, but it’s neutral to buyers, and it allows us to warm up the home with strategic pops of colour in staging elements like couches or area rugs, and accessories such as wall art and throw pillows.

A neutral background in listing photos allows the buyer to remain focused on size, layout, and how the furniture interacts with the space.

Lighting

Is there a bigger turn-off than a 1990’s track light that was white when it was installed but has now yellowed?  Then look at the burn marks from three decades of heat, and is it any wonder why the buyer thinks that the house feels older and more dated than it actually is?

While you or I might not know the black and white wires from the green and red ones, installing light fixtures is actually quite simple.  This is one of the most cost-effective upgrades in any home and it has a significant impact.

No buyer out there covets a dark home, nor does any home show well with burnt-out bulbs or badly lit basements.

By adding more lighting, brighter bulbs, and new fixtures, it shows the house in the best possible light, metaphorically and literally.

We also recommend removing ceiling fan lights from most bedrooms as they’re often out of style, they shrink the ceilings (making the rooms feel smaller), and hint to the buyer pool that there are issues with air flow throughout the home. Not to mention I haven’t met a ceiling fan that actually has decent light.

Always defer to the brightest solution when deciding what should stay and what should go!

Kitchen Cabinets

Contrary to popular belief, painting kitchen cabinets does not require the doors to be removed from the cabinets, separated from the hardware and hinges, and “sprayed” off site.  Sure, this is one way to paint existing kitchen cabinetry, but a great painter can do this on-site.

Every year, we paint kitchen cabinets in dozens of listings, not only because the existing paint colours are out of style, but also because it’s the best (and only) way to repair scratched, chipped, or water-damaged doors.

The kitchen is the focal point of any home, house or condo, and some buyers are turned off from the kitchen photos alone.  A refresh of the cabinetry is cost-effective and can often be done in a single day.

Kitchen Counters

Raise your hand if you like black granite counters?  How about that bevelled or live edge to the counter, or worse yet, that round style that made bar stools impossible to place?

Styles of kitchen countertops have come and gone faster than just about any aspect of design, and along with the kitchen cabinets, your countertops can deter buyers before they ever enter the home.  Good thing replacing them is so simple!

Installing new kitchen counters is as simple as picking a style, having them measured, manufactured, and installed.  All you need to do is write a cheque!

The popularity of quartz and Caesarstone counters has risen in recent years, and the lower cost is highly attractive.  Many of our clients have refreshed their kitchens in the pre-staging process along with adding a new stainless steel undermount sink, faucet, or water filtration system.

Investing money in your kitchen with a new counter will always benefit your bottom line on offer night.

Bathroom Vanities

You know how kitchen appliances like stoves and dishwashers are always sold in “standard” twenty-four or thirty-six inch widths?  Well, bathroom vanities work a lot like that as well.

Odds are, no matter where you live, you’ve got a standard vanity width, and that makes replacing it all the more easier.

Many people look at a bathroom vanity and see a cabinet and a counter, much like you would with a kitchen.  But vanities are sold off the rack at places like Home Depot and Rona.

Any basic contractor can uninstall an existing vanity, take the new one out of the box, and install a sleek, modern faucet in a couple of hours.

If you’re in a condo, you can remove that awful builder-grade mirror that’s glued to the drywall, paint the wall, and add a flashy new mirror from HomeSense or even Wayfair.

And as we noted above, light fixtures are also simple to replace, and any builder-grade bathroom light fixture is just dying to be upgraded.

Runners On The Stairs

The staircase between the main and second floors gets as much wear-and-tear as virtually any area of the home, and it’s often with rushed footsteps that deliver big impact.  Is it any wonder why the wood is so scratched and the runners are so worn?

Removing existing runners means either cleaning and re-staining the stairs or removing the glue residue underneath, so why not just replace the runners altogether?

Custom runners can be expensive, but don’t be afraid to look online for some cheap and cheerful solutions that will look good in listing photographs and pass the eye-test during buyer viewings, even if they aren’t the same quality as what you might install in your new home.

Remember, these pre-listing repairs are an element of staging.  We’re trying to showcase the house, not renovate for the new home owners.

Pressure-Washing & Painting Decks

Have you ever noticed how a deck with sixty-some-odd planks always has two that are rotted right through?

With an aging deck, replacing those three boards alone will make them look seriously out of place.  So why not replace the damaged boards, pressure-wash the entire deck, and then add a fresh coat of exterior paint overtop to make all the boards look uniform?

Even a trained eye will never know the difference from board-to-board, and the deck itself will look brand-new.

Toronto winters are long, hard, and cold.  When buyers come out from hibernation in the spring, they look at summer features, such as a spacious back deck, as a major selling feature.

Give them a reason to fantasize about new patio furniture and summer barbecues with friends and family!

–

We have a saying when it comes to pre-staging improvements: “There’s always something else that can be added to the list”.  With a long enough lead time, you could probably upgrade and renovate each and every aspect of the house, but in reality, time and money are finite resources.

The improvements we’ve just described represent the projects that we take on more than any others when listing homes for sale in this market, and they’re also the most cost-effective, simplest, and easiest to implement.

And who knows, you might just learn a thing or two about renovating and find some inspiration for your new home while you’re at it!

Short and sweet, folks!

A nice little read for a Monday morning, too.

While I’m going to have two weeks “off” over the holidays, I do plan to take on a few projects in that time period.  One of which will be a “Pre-Listing Renovation Guide” that incorporates Lucie’s ideas from the preceding blog, as well as other improvements we regularly make to our listings.

Back in 2004, when I started in this business, “staging” was a relatively new concept.  Today, every agent says they stage, and while most do, to some extent, there’s still bad staging, good staging, and great staging.

But what’s the next level?

It’s pre-listing renovations.  It’s the work done before staging which is even more important these days, as we find ourselves in a cooler market.

Who knows, maybe I’ll turn that into a blog series for the New Year.

Have a great week, folks!  And we’ll see you back here on Thursday for “Top Five: TRB Blog Posts Of 2025.”