How to Stage a Home

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You're selling the space, not the stuff. Make sure to get rid of clutter. Photos courtesy of Stagedhomes.com. Much like detailing a used car prior to sale, staging a home allows it to put on its best face. Not to be confused with decorating, staging is about presentation, cleanliness and drawing positive attention to the space inside. According to StagedHomes.com, the web site for a unique program that provides certification and training to become an Accredited Staging Professional™ (ASP), 93% of homes staged by an ASP sell in less than 31 days. Home sellers can choose to do the staging themselves, take guidance from a qualified realtor or hire an accredited professional. Letting Go The first step when staging a home to sell is to cut emotional ties, which means temporarily living without your most precious belongings surrounding you. When the house is put on the market, it should be thought of as a product, not a home. Although you might still be living in it while it's for sale, it should not look that way to potential buyers. "The way that you live in your home and the way that you market it and sell it are two different things," says Barb Schwarz, author of Home Staging: The Winning Way to Sell Your House for More Money and recognized as one of the founders of the home staging industry. "Once your home becomes a house, it can become a product, and people want to buy the product that has the best wrapper." One way for the seller to be able to look at his home objectively is to take tours of homes for sale. "A walk through the neighbor's house can help the home seller to see things from the homebuyer's point of view," says Craig Schilling, founder of Real Estaging, a home staging company in Chicago. A little paint goes a long way toward selling your house. Trade in colorful walls for neutral tones, which make rooms look larger. Photos courtesy of Stagedhomes.com. Selling the Space Part of letting go means packing up all unnecessary "junk." Anything that can be lived without should be packed up and either tucked away or put into storage. Put away knick knacks, memorabilia, superfluous furniture, lamps or anything else that adds to the home's clutter and distracts from what is really important—the space. "You're supposed to be selling the space, not the stuff," says Schwarz. "The value of the house is in the space." When potential buyers walk through an unstaged home, they tend to focus on everything but the space, particular in an overly cluttered home. A sparse, staged home is open, allowing the size of the rooms to be the main attraction. Packing alone isn't enough, however. The staged home must sparkle, and to do that will take some elbow grease and attention to detail. "A staged home needs to be Q-tip-clean," adds Schwarz. For the exterior of the home, cleaning can mean power-washing the siding, scrubbing and staining the deck, and taking down unsightly cobwebs. Inside the house, any dust, stains and scratches must go. Every corner of every room—from the windows to the baseboards—should be made to look new.

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