CHOPPED: The Home Version

CHOPPED: The Home Version isn't a game where you draw ingredient cards and advance on a board filled with different culinary challenges. And it's not an app either. (Not sure how that could even work, but there's an app for everything else, so let's just take that off the table now)

There is no better comparison, no better way for consumers, and the real estate industry to think about staging an occupied home than CHOPPED: The Home Version. Think about it:

• Contestants and stagers are both presented with a surprise collection of unlikely ingredients/elements and conditions.
• With the clock ticking and big bucks on the line, they need to figure out how to make the best of what they're given.
• The goal is to create something visually engaging and satisfying to critics and audiences (agents and buyers)

Further, consider what makes a good contestant/stager:

• Range and Vision: Deep familiarity with a variety of disparate elements so to create a harmonious and novel product
• Quick-thinking, and resourceful: Able to make big decisions; also knows how to maximize all resources, including time
• Confidence, and expertise: Understands process, has a mastery of techniques for excellent execution

TRH was launched in 2007 as a design consultancy. Then, the real estate market went 'poof', and the choreography of selling, buying, and moving changed overnight.

Values dropped, houses just did not automatically sell, and financing tightened mightily, necessitating selling before buying for many. Not a good time to sell, but for many, it was just their time. They needed solutions: How to make their houses look their best while they were living there, using largely what they owned.

In the 15 years since our market recovered, then thrived. It shot into overdrive during COVID, and at this writing, both fatigue, and changes in interest rates are giving everyone a little time out. Then it'll all start again in February.

In real estate, as in the show, the challenges change. And there will always be challenges. Just much more effective when you know someone who knows what to do with '20s tudors, '50s capes, '70s splits and '90s McMansions (the real estate equivalent of grouper fish, bread cheese and mustard greens)

TRH works with Westchester County sellers to get their properties their market-ready best. No matter if you're just starting the process, or are re-evaluating what hasn't worked. Change happens; it can be a good thing. Just start a conversation!

Marie Graham is an award-winning home stager and designer, and owner of The Refreshed Home and Orange Boom.