How to See a Home the Way a Designer Does (Before You Make an Offer)

Before real estate, I spent years working as a graphic designer and art director. When I walk through a house with a buyer, I am rarely paying much attention to the sofa, the throw pillows, or the paint color. Those things can make a house look beautiful, but they are also some of the easiest things to change. The first thing I notice is usually the basic structure of the space. Are the rooms proportioned well? Is there good natural light? Where are the windows? Does the ceiling height work with the size of the room? Is there somewhere logical to put furniture? It sounds simple, but buyers are understandably distracted during showings. You are walking into someone else's home, sometimes with beautiful staging, music playing, candles burning, and ten other people coming through the open house; it can be easy to react to the presentation instead of the property.

I have seen homes where buyers walk in and immediately say, “I don't like this,” when what they really do not like is brown paint, oversized furniture, and a dated light fixture. Those are solvable problems. If the room has good proportions, nice windows, and a layout that works, I am much more interested in that than whether I like the seller's taste. The opposite can also happen, where a beautifully staged room can make you forget to ask where your own furniture would go. Maybe the living room looks fantastic with two small chairs and a narrow sofa, but you have a large sectional, and there is only one usable wall. Maybe the dining area photographs beautifully, but once you put six people around the table, you would block the main walkway to the kitchen.

Another detail I pay close attention to is the flow of the building. You should be able to move through a home without constantly thinking about where you are supposed to go next. Walk from the kitchen to wherever you would eat dinner. Walk from the garage to the kitchen carrying imaginary groceries. If you have kids, think about backpacks, shoes, and everything that ends up near the entrance. If you entertain, think about where people will naturally gather. The area of my job that my background in design comes into play the most is potential. A dated kitchen may have a fantastic footprint. A dark room may simply need lighter finishes and better lighting. A strange dining area may become much more functional by opening one wall. An older home with imperfect finishes might have proportions and character that would be extremely difficult to recreate in a newer property.

That does not mean every fixer is a good opportunity. Sometimes buyers see “potential” everywhere and underestimate what it will actually cost to create it. Part of my job is helping separate a cosmetic problem from a structural one and deciding whether the amount of work makes sense for that particular buyer. I have worked with everything from move-in-ready homes to investment properties and homes where the value was much easier to see once you looked beyond what was currently there.

What I want buyers to think about is that while paint, cabinetry, and lighting can change, a bad location cannot. The next time you walk into a showing, give yourself thirty seconds before deciding whether you love it or hate it. Look at the windows, walk through the rooms, pay attention to where your eye goes and where your body naturally wants to move. Then ask yourself a much more useful question: If everything in this house were removed tomorrow, would I still like the house?

Your answer to that tells you a lot more than the staging ever will.