Doctor back with more home cures

If anyone can sell a house it is Ann Maurice, the House Doctor, who brought the notion of home-staging to clutter-filled Britain. Caroline Wingfield learns some tricks of the trade

Ann Maurice is back in town. As the driving force behind Channel Five's property show House Doctor you may be familiar with the tough-talking Californian. She takes on properties unable to attract a buyer and turns them into desirable homes. The format is addictive, a house that screams, "I'm a DIY disaster. Get me out of here", an unrepentant owner who just does not get it and a presenter who does not mince her words. And no matter how much of a bombsite it was at the beginning, it works every time.

"I've seen everything," she says. "One of the worst was this woman who had 13 dogs in the house. They were running the place. It was like walking into a kennel." One wonders how her subjects react when the Maurice whirlwind rolls in. "She did not take too well to my comments; let's just leave it at that."

But people do. So next month Ms Maurice will hold the first of two introductory seminars in home-staging. The house is a stage, she says, and her job is to prepare it for someone to walk in and say, "I'm going to buy this house". She adds: "Judging by the feedback so far, a lot of people are interested in making a career out of it."

She is not into major refurbishment; hers is a more subtle craft that, crucially, is not about spending a lot of money. "It's about spending time and effort on rearranging things, getting the colours right. It's a lot about space. People want as much space as they can get for the money they're spending."

So before you think about tearing out the bathroom or fitting a new kitchen bear in mind what Maurice calls surface changes. "People can walk in and think that it's not the most modern kitchen in the world, but if it's pleasant and clean and usable it will do."

Her first rule for anyone planning to put their property on the market? "If nothing else, clear it out. Even the most tidy people in the world become immune to their environment. You collect things, you have things where they're unnecessary." Her advice? "Rent storage space, put it in your in-laws' loft, anything. It's astonishing, people really don't see their own mess."

With her brisk, ship-shape manner, I wonder if she intimidates people. "I think people are scared of the persona they see on television. If you met me you'd see I'm really not that bad. I wouldn't walk into your house and go, 'Hi Caroline, your house smells of dog', even if it did."

She is quick to add that what you see on television is not the way you should behave if you are dealing with clients. Selling your home is one of the most stressful situations people go through so it helps to be a little sensitive. As Ms Maurice puts it: "If you're not tactful you're not going to have many clients."

She was an estate agent in the San Francisco Bay area before she studied interior design. She has spent the past 10 years building her design business, getting into television seven years ago. Here, she has made her name.

"British homes are very different from what I'm used to in California. You have many more objects, things handed down the generations, and a lot more books. It's good, but when you're selling your house you don't need to have every book you've ever read. I'll go in and edit the collections. I thin them out so you can see the nicer books, arrange them by size and colour and intersperse objects. It's more of a display thing than a library."

She discovered that once she had done up a client's house for sale, they would often call again after they moved. "That's how I started my design business." she says. "People would say, 'We like what you did so much to our last house, can you come and do our new one'.''

But if home-staging really is as straightforward as she makes it seem, is she not putting herself out of business by giving away the tricks of the trade? "Sometimes I get letters from people saying, 'I've done everything you said but it's still not selling.' Well there's a fine line between creating a neutral environment and creating a positive welcoming atmosphere. It's easy to make a house bland and uninteresting. People have a list of what they need in terms of bed, bath, location and so on, but if it does not have that emotional hook they're not going to buy it."

But can you teach people good taste? Maurice pauses a moment. "You can always teach people better taste than they have."

Ann Maurice's two-day Home-Staging Seminars (in association with UK Style) will take place in London on 1 and 2 March in London, and in Glasgow, 24 and 25 March in Glasgow. Courses cost £270.25. Call 020 8408 0122 for details. 'House Doctor' is on Five on Friday evenings at 8pm.