So you are all ready to put your home on the market. You’re excited right? Not so fast! Before you have your Realtor® post your home on the MLS, and before you schedule your first open house, you have to get your home ready for the market.

One of the most important home preparation steps is staging. Staging is difficult, but super important. It has been proven that well staged homes tend to sell for higher prices than homes that aren’t staged. To those ends, today we’d like to share five rules to consider when staging your home, before you put it on the market.

RULE #1: It's not your home anymore
Remember this: You are putting your home on the market. Because of this, you cannot think of it as your home anymore. Look at your home more as a product you are trying to market. You want it to look it’s best and stand out from the other homes on the market. You want prospective buyers to imagine themselves living in your home, and the lifestyle they would have living in the home.

Stage your home in a way that isn’t about what you like, but what would be most appealing to the greatest number of people possible.

Rule #2 Hire a professional. 
The fact of the matter is that staging a home takes lots of time. All told, including planning, picking up needed materials, clearing out and actually staging a home, even a small house can take upwards of 30-40 hours to complete. Then of course there is the expertise factor. Do you “really” know how stage a house so it will look it’s best to prospective buyers?

Given a few phone calls, you will likely find when contemplating doing this yourself, versus hiring a professional, the professional will make the most sense in the long run.

RULE #3- Don’t forget the paint and the windows
It goes without saying that no matter what you do when you stage your home, you HAVE to put a fresh coat of paint on the walls in your home. Fresh paint is not expensive and can really improve the look of your home.

If you have recently painted your walls, just be sure to give them a good cleaning. If you find it is not doing the trick though, do not be afraid to paint.

Along those lines, your windows are super important and something that can be often overlooked by sellers. You want to make sure your windows are clean, and that the window’s treatments you have selected allow for maximum light to come through (especially if you have a small, or dimly lit home).

Buyers are looking for homes that feel open and airy. Using light window treatments will bring in the much-needed light, and actually make your painted walls look even better.

RULE #4 Clutter is your ENEMY
The whole idea of staging your home is to make it look it’s best, when it goes on the market. If you do not get rid of clutter, there is no possible way you can do this. Run through every room in your home and get rid of anything unnecessary or anything that takes up too much space. Things like children’s toy bins, extra appliances on kitchen counters, family photos, or knick knacks from trips.

Also, remember that when touring your home, prospective buyers are going to be looking at “everything”. Make sure cabinets, closets, storage areas, etc. are clean, neat and free of clutter. Storage is a very important thing to a prospective buyer. If your closets and storage areas are cluttered, it will make it look as if there is no storage in your home.

RULE #5 Don’t worry about the whole house. 
Especially if you decided to pay for staging, rather than do it yourself, remember that you don’t need to stage every room. Instead, stage the most important rooms in the house where people will be spending the most time. Again, remember that you want to help prospective buyers imagine what it would be like to live in the home. Focus on the living room, kitchen, dining room and even the master bedroom. If you have left over budget or ideas for any other special rooms in the house, you can always do those as well.

Staging can be a tricky thing. If you want to get the maximum sales price for your home, you cannot ignore it. If you’re getting ready to put your home on the market, and would like some tips and tricks as to what might make your home look it’s best to prospective buyers, contact us anytime. We are more than willing to help in any way we can.