Is Staging Your Home the Answer to Selling it?

You make a house your home with all of the personal items and touches you add to it. What makes a house a home for you may be completely different for the potential buyers you're trying to sell your home to. Good real estate agents tell their clients how to prepare their home for sale by cleaning it, moving furniture a certain way and anything else that makes the home look more welcoming.

The bottom line is potential buyers need to be able to visualize themselves living in your home with their own things, not yours. Do you need a professional house stager to help you accomplish this? In a buyer's market with so much competition, it can't hurt. Whatever you decide, here are some ways you can prepare your home for a faster and easier sale.

3 steps to prepare your home for sale

1. Neutralize
Home staging is not about the style you decorate your home. It's more about the depersonalization or neutralizing of your home. Some of these things you can do yourself such as removing family photos, personal decorations, books and magazines.

2. Clean
The cleaning portion of the staging process applies to the inside and outside areas of the home. It may include cleaning out gutters, mowing, weed eating, landscaping and a new coat of paint to the front door. It's also about neutralizing the area for personal items such as garden doodads, wind chimes and relocating your RV from the driveway. Once the outside looks appealing enough to attract buyers, it's time to move on to the inside.

Scrubbing your house from top to bottom and being conscious of everything from odors to how clean the grout between the tile is can make or break the first impression of the potential buyer. It may be worth the expense to hire a professional cleaning service to give the home a good once over that you can upkeep in the process.

3. De-clutter
In conjunction with the cleaning, it's also recommended that sellers pack away the majority of their belongings and remove them from the home or store them in the garage. Removing up to two-thirds of your belongings from the home helps to de-clutter it and puts you one step ahead in the moving process. Some of the first items you should pack are personal photos, knickknacks, collectibles, books, magazines, blankets and throw pillows. Remove as much from the kitchen counters as possible, storing small appliances away in cabinets, selling or donating items you no longer need.

You're preparing your home like a matchmaker prepares two people for a date. Take a good hard look at the benefits of your home. What are its best features? Find ways to arrange furniture, place lighting or accentuate these benefits. Remember that less is more so the less furniture, area rugs and decorations you have the better.

Turn to the professionals
Whether you're not able to stage your home on your own or you've been trying to sell your home and it isn't working, a professional home stager may be the answer. A neutral third party may be what's needed to make the right first impression, especially since you don't get a second chance to do so with potential buyers. To find a professional home stager in your area, visit the International Association of Home Staging Professionals website at www.iahsp.com.