Got an email from Trulia about the top seven staging mistakes. I just knew what would be on the top of the list:

http://www.trulia.com/blog/tar..._decisions_ever_made

I've seen that trophy room before. Wow!

A great trophy room and collection.

Remove them and it would look like a big, empty warehouse.

It's all just a matter of choices.

Typical realtor -- inconsistant advice. If I removed all my taxidermy, firearms, etc., my house would be an "echo chamber". Another apparent no-no.

My wife is very supportive of my taxidermy, but she also has a terminal case of MarthaStewart-itis brought on by excessive watching of HGTV. When we sold our home in Ontario, she had one of these idiot "staging" experts come in to counsel us. This delicate artiste, perhaps overcome by grief at her own apparent inability to hold down a real job, primly informed me that I would need to get rid of all my taxidermy, the large aquarium in the family room, my collection of several hundred volumes of hunting books...and our three dogs!

When she unceremoniously left the house a few moments later, she also mentioned that my boorish behaviour would make the sale very difficult if not impossible. I don't know how we managed!

The point is you don't leave the room empty. My issue with the story is not that removing the taxidermy collection is a good idead, but that the taxidermy issue would be at the top of the list.

As the article points out, unless you are marketing your house to a hunter with a taxidermy collection, you are doing yourself zero favors with a room stuffed to the gills with taxidermy. I don't doubt this is true.

My father is a realtor and my mother an interior decorator, both will tell you that a taxidermy collection needs to go. Most buyers cannot see beyond what is in front of them, so a room full of heads will appear exactly as that to them.

On the other hand, I know a guy who built a custom house with a 5,200 square foot trophy room in it. The builders thought he was a basketball player putting in a full sized court since they couldn't find any other explanation for a giant room without windows. I guess you could always convert your trophy room into a basket ball court/gym after the taxidermy is moved out.

Women make the decision to buy the house in the majority of situations. Not all, but you have to market to them.

I have witnessed the effect taxidermy has on buyers. One lady walked in my house, and turned around and left. Said there was no way she would consider this house simply because of the animals. The room she saw was tastefully decorated with mounts. Few and far between. Ok, well, maybe not few.

Another had some very rude comments when she thought I wasn't around.

I pulled them all down and rented a POD and built walls and partitions in the POD and stored them there.

The house finally sold.

Ask any realtor. People have a very hard time looking past "your stuff" and seeing "their stuff".

Truth is, you stand a much better chance of selling it without "Dead Animals" everywhere.

I had an 1800 SF single room for my trophies. I saw the same reaction.

My girlfriend sold her house about 2 years ago. I put green piggy bank on the dresser. Im still convinced to this day that was what sold the house so quick!

You will love this. I have a large B&C brown bear that was made into a rug (that is an entirely different tragic story) that was hanging over the stair rail in our 2 story entry way. A local furniture store offered a free decorating consult and I am sure my wife thought the first thing they would recommend was losing the bear. Much to her chagrin - they loved it. They suggested moving it to a more prominent spot in the house. That was the last we heard from the decorators. Who would of thunk it.

My wife is warming up to taxidermy, but anything outside of my office needs to be "more exotic" than boring old whitetail deer.... Go figure....

"Most buyers cannot see beyond what is in front of them, so a room full of heads will appear exactly as that to them." quote Sevens


That is profound Sevens... can I use it?

I've noticed in my own girls, who didn't really appreciate the Greater Kudu in the stairwell going up to their rooms (only place with enough ceiling clearance), a similar reaction. When I had my zebra flatskinned and felted they suddenly started arguing about who wanted it most. Rugs or OK, heads are not.

When we sold the last house, I removed all the hunting and shooting stuff from it. I rented a storage space to get all my stuff out of the house and unclutter it.

The realtor wanted us to paint the entire interior in "Cape white". Wifezilla told him to stuff it since she had just done it in tans and olive tones.

The first family that looked at it bought it but almost didn't because the "awful" picture in the front bathroom (old English print of two dead pheasant, a shotgun and a dog). I can't imagine what the wife would of thought of the taxidermy, gun safes, etc.

It is amazing how little imagination people have when looking at property.

I see a indoor range with out the mounts, a great exercise room for just a couple.

I had a fellow shooter tell me that he wasn't going to buy a property because it had a half in the ground poured silo on it.

He said it was ugly.

I said a see a great tornado/bomb/vault shelter in the bottom half and a great shooting room in the upper half over looking the feilds.

quote:

Originally posted by Exit31:
"Most buyers cannot see beyond what is in front of them, so a room full of heads will appear exactly as that to them." quote Sevens


That is profound Sevens... can I use it?

Sure, have at it.

Advantage to living in WY. Asked realtor about mounts (2 elk, 6 deer, 9 antelope, large yote, badger, big pike, big mac, bison skull, several antique long guns) in cath ceiling LR. She said" (she hunts) "huh ? why would you ever remove them ? Eastern dumbasses pay 2 grand for an elk mount up in Jackson as a "decorative" piece for their 2 million dollar log home."

small sample:

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
The point is you don't leave the room empty. My issue with the story is not that removing the taxidermy collection is a good idead, but that the taxidermy issue would be at the top of the list.

As the article points out, unless you are marketing your house to a hunter with a taxidermy collection, you are doing yourself zero favors with a room stuffed to the gills with taxidermy. I don't doubt this is true.

But, if you had a large taxidermy room like the one shown---- would not the marketing be tailored to a hunter by a good realtor? I guess you could put a bar and 5 pool tables or a bowling alley in that room. But that room speaks 'man room' and hunting trophies!

When SCI founder C.J. McElroy sold his home in Tucson to a family with lots of children, the buyers built multiple bedrooms with baths on two stories in what had been his trophy room.

Funny true story: When Mac was having it built, one of the workers asked another worker what that huge room with an 18-foot ceiling would be used for. When he was told it would be a trophy room, his response was, "Geez, he must do a lot of bowling!"

Bill Quimby

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
The point is you don't leave the room empty. My issue with the story is not that removing the taxidermy collection is a good idead, but that the taxidermy issue would be at the top of the list.

As the article points out, unless you are marketing your house to a hunter with a taxidermy collection, you are doing yourself zero favors with a room stuffed to the gills with taxidermy. I don't doubt this is true.

But, if you had a large taxidermy room like the one shown---- would not the marketing be tailored to a hunter by a good realtor? I guess you could put a bar and 5 pool tables or a bowling alley in that room. But that room speaks 'man room' and hunting trophies!

Yes, but when marketing anything, you must market to as many people as possible. An empty trophy can be "sold" as many different things to many different people.

To a hunter - This would be a fantastic trophy room
To a Vegan - This would make a great greenhouse (or whatever the f vegans do).
To a non hunter - This would be a great exercise/game/office/widget/whatever room. You get the point.

When I sold my house in FL, the realtor told be to put the taxidermy in storage. I told him to go to hell because I wasn't going to offer a denial to my hunting by crating up the stuff. I also told the realtor that the people buying the house would be buying the walls and not the heads and if they can't see past the heads then they are just looking for excuses not to buy the place.

Bottom line, some people that saw the house made negative comments about the taxidermy, others thought it was pretty cool. The most important thing was, the house sold, the realtor earned his commission and I didn't have to pay extra to rent a storage unit for things I have no shame of.

I tried like hell to sell a house for my ex-room mate while I was living in Maine.

He was out of town for a couple of months and I had quite a long list of buyers making my life hell.

In the end small stupid things would wreck a sale. Mostly because the wives that have made themselves in charge of buying the house can't look past a couple empty beer cans on the counter. Or a bathroom that has a cat box in it.

I had several people show up, walk in and say "this must be a man's house" and walk out.

He spent $20,000 after I moved to Europe on getting it repainted, recarpeted, re-tiled, new kitchen and new bathroom. Then ate that $20,000 as he lost in it the purchase price.

My own wife can't see beyond curtains that she doesn't like, or an carpet she doesn't like.

A big well-made house that you can fix the way you like it is worth more than a piece of junk knocked together in a couple weeks by a millionaire contractor's 3rd world illegal immigrant construction tradies.

I reckon it's my job to see beyond what the wife can not.

Nice room. Are you trying to sell the house