5 Essential Tips to Prepare Your Home for a Speedy, Top-Price Sale

"Home staging" was coined in the early '70s,and the concept has become well known as "house fluffing," "dressing to sell," and "home presentation".

The focus of staging is to make a home more marketable by creating the most appealing home to the greatest number of prospective buyers. It should be impersonal enough not to infringe on a buyer's own sense of style.

Decorating is optional. Staging, on the other hand, is essential - that is if you want to sell your house for the most possible money in the shortest amount of time.

You can make at least 3 percent more with home staging. In some areas, that number can go as high as 50 percent! Statistics also show that homes that had not sold in an average of four and a half months after listing sold within a week of being staged by a professional. Homes staged before listing were under contract more than twice as fast as comparable homes that had not been professionally staged.

As you know, your home becomes a house - a product for sale. Staging your property gives you a more competitive edge in today's market by transforming it into a marketable product. A staged property helps you sell your investment for top dollar and is the first line of defense over lowering the price. Do not settle for less at the closing table simply because you did not understand the value of staging or did not want to take the time or spend the money to do it properly.

In this world of busy buyers, a property has to be staged to appeal to their imagination. They want to be able to look at your home and know that they can live there. They want to know that their furniture will fit. They want to know that everything is in "move in" condition. That is why staging is so important. It allows buyers to imagine themselves living in your home with their stuff, not yours.

Presentation is everything and staging is presentation! The result is improved functionality and complementary space. Following the techniques in this guide will maximize your equity while reducing the market time for your home.

1. Be sure that your home is staged before you or your Realtor takes the photos for the web. Over 70% of all new apartment/home searches are started on the Internet.It is imperative that the property looks good in the photos so that it can attract as many people as possible to see the real thing.


2. You should not have one person look at your house until it has been staged completely.It should not go through the broker walkthrough, MLS, open houses, or anything.Stage first!


3. Home staging works for all properties regardless of the price point because home staging is about preparing your home for a faster and more profitable sale and marketing your property to the most potential buyers for its target audience. A home stager who has have staged homes ranging from $100,000 to $10 million has had the same result - the homes sell faster and for top dollar compared with the competitors within their price range.


4. Do not offer money towards painting or installing new carpeting. Remember, if you are not willing to do it, your buyer is not likely to either.


5. You need to be willing to change paint colors. Paint is very inexpensive and gives you a big bang for your buck. Although a bit labor-intensive, painting is not expensive and gives your home a new, fresh, clean look. There are certain universally accepted colors and these should be used when repainting your home. Yellow or shades of gold are warm and inviting. You should also accent with yellow. Your eye absorbs more yellow and therefore sees it first. Green or blue in the bedrooms are great colors because they are restful.