Home buyers will see your home very differently than you do. When you live in a place day in and day out, you stop noticing things.

• You get used to the pile of books and magazines on the coffee table
• You don't mind weaving around furniture to get from one end of the house the the other
• How many family pictures do you have on the walls?
• How long has that faded bedspread been on the bed?

• Your home buyer will notice everything, because they're seeing it for the first time

Family Room Before

What Happened in this Room?

• Love seat and side chair were removed
• Lamp blocking the view to the backyard was removed
• Mantle was streamlined and only three items left to complement the clock on the wall
• Book shelves pared down and arranged for color and balance
• Greenery and a pretty book on the coffee table
• Updated panels at the windows in a soft tan to match throw pillow and subdue some of the pattern in the room
• Pillows that coordinate with the furniture pull the room together

Visit a Model Home

• How open things feel
• Wall colors
• What's on coffee tables, end tables and night stands?
• What's left out on kitchen counters?
• Do you notice a color scheme throughout?

Now Comes the Time for a Ruthless Assessment of the Condition of Your Home

• Ask a realtor you trust, a friend who will be honest with you, or a family member who won’t be influenced by the cost of improvements to do this with you

• Get your camera and a stack of paper and a pencil

• You take the pictures and have your neutral companion divide your paper into two columns and list every single positive and negative impression of your property room-by-room, front yard and back

• Pretend you've never seen your house before and try to look at it through the eyes of a buyer. Start at the curb and imagine a "first impression"

• How does your house compare to a model?

• Don't get hung up thinking you have to spend a lot of money or that everything has to be new to look good to a buyer. There are lots of ways to make a home look great without having to spend much money. And there are lots of tips and ideas in this website to show you how

There are many useful staging items hiding in your home. Sorting and packing will show you how to identify and use them so you can stage your home, just like a model home, without spending much money.

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