0 Seller's Guide: Staging Your Home

Home staging is about illusions. It's beyond decorating and cleaning. It's about perfecting the art of creating moods. Staging makes your house look bigger, brighter, cleaner, warmer, more loving and, best of all, it makes home buyers want to make it their own.

Think of it this way: How we stage is not how we live. It is how we want to live. We have all seen magazine pictures of beautiful homes and thought "I want to live there!" In reality, it took the owner weeks to get their home picture-perfect. They had to declutter, remove excess furniture items and deep clean to get their home ready for the magazine photographer. This is exactly what you are doing to prepare your home for sale. We want buyers to leave your home thinking, "I want to live there!", just like the homes in magazines.

Your Realtor should be able to provide feedback on how to best stage your home. It is important to remember to separate yourself from your home at this point. Your Realtor is not criticizing your decorating skills, they are simply helping you use what you already have to best accentuate your homes features. For example, you may have a stunning china cabinet in your dining room that you would definitely want to display in your personal home. However, by removing the china cabinet from your home while it is for sale, your dining room may appear larger. Buyers are looking to buy the space, not the china cabinet.


Here are a few staging hints to prepare your home to sell:

Depersonalize the space by removing family photos, trophies, posters, etc.

Clear high-traffic areas of excess furnishings to maximize feeling of space.

Highlight key features in each room, such as windows and fireplaces, by making sure they are not obscured by plants or furnishings.


For more staging tips, visit the Designed to Sell section of Living the Home Life.

-Cara