Professionally staging a home will increase its value, create excitement in realtors and buyers, and frequently lead to a faster sale. And yes, you can do it yourself (DIY).





Before you can successfully prepare your home for market, it helps to step out of yourself and try to see and think like the home buyer. This is where the difference between interior decorating and staging becomes important. Most people think they're the same, but they're really exact opposites of each other.

• Interior decorating showcases your taste, color preferences, art collections, personal pictures and memorabilia so that you love and feel comfortable in your home. Decorating is for you, the homeowner

• Staging, uses a proven formula to add color, art, furniture and decorator accents to showcase your home so that anyone would love your home and want to buy it! It's marketing your home to entice a buyer

A lot of people like to be cozy and comfortable in their home. If you want to sell your home, however, it's in your best financial interest to give up a little comfort. You will feel like you're living in someone else's home. And that's the whole idea.

You want every qualified buyer who walks through your door to feel at home in your home. There is a strategy to this and it works.

Living Room Before

What Happened in this Room?

• Walls were painted a soft neutral tan color (not white)

• Only enough furniture was left to keep the eye moving around the room and to allow it to rest on the best architectural features (the sliding glass door and the view beyond)

• There is no evidence of personal use

• Art, pillows and accessories are strategically placed and in a consistent color scheme

• The result is pleasing, harmonious and does not detract from what's really important here, to sell this house

If you're serious about selling your home, you will want to do everything possible to make it outshine and out-sparkle the competition. Lots of people have done it and lots more are doing it every day.

This is a strategy that's caught on in a big way, and if you don't do it, you will be at a disadvantage when your house goes on the market.

The following steps will take you through the process. You will find tricks of the trade, creative ideas, easy tips, specific instructions, and before and after pictures to show you how to present your home at it's best.

Why do you want to go to all that work when the buyer is just going to change things anyway? Because presenting your home at its best is going to bring you more money.

Essential Steps to a Profitable Sale

1. Committment to the Process - Do you really want to move? Do some serious soul-searching to make sure that you (and your partner) are fully committed.

2. Hire the Right Realtor - Tips for finding the best realtor for you

3. Deliver the Dream Home - How to think like a buyer

4. Looking Through the Eyes of the Buyer - How to see what the buyer sees when they look at your house

5. Sorting and Packing - Step-by-Step how to do it as painlessly as possible, and in the process how to identify great staging props you already own

6. Color - What's the best color for your walls, accents, and accessories?

7. Repairs - Can you afford to lose thousands of dollars because you want to avoid a $100 repair?

8. Cheap Free and Budget Conscious Ideas - You don't have to spend a lot of money. Find creative ways to make your house beautiful and share your ideas!
   
   
9. Clean - Inside and out and pest free (need information about bedbugs?)

10. Improvements - Invest your time and money where you'll get the greatest returns

11. Arranging Furniture - How the pros do it

12. Art that Sells Homes - There can be a difference between choosing art that will help sell a home and choosing art for personal reasons

13. Bathrooms - A formula that works every time

14. Kitchens - Buyers LOVE a professionally staged kitchen...and it's so easy

15. Bedrooms - How to make your bedrooms irresistibly inviting

16. Dining Rooms - Invite your buyers to imagine a lovely dinner in their NEW home

17. Finishing Touches - Where the magic happens

18. Going the Distance - How to keep it that way

19. Hiring a Home Stager - What to look for and questions to ask if you need more help

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