Setting the Stage

Once you’ve let go of your home mentally and enlisted some help (or not), it’s time to prepare your home for sale—a process known as “staging.” The first step is to depersonalize the environment. Home buyers want to imagine what the house will be like once they move in, not how it is with you still in it. Replace personal artifacts with less intrusive items: inoffensive, quiet prints and unadorned furnishings. Any item that could distract buyers has got to go! Think of it as their house, not yours, and you’ll succeed.

Next up: reorganizing. Jam-packed closets and dirty rooms will make your house appear tiny and sad. An unkempt house may also send a message about you. If you haven’t taken care of the inside, what are the chances you’ve treated the exterior and infrastructure any better? To avoid those horrid misconceptions, organize everything in your house from shoes to dishes to towels. While these flourishes may seem overboard, they’ll impress shoppers. Don’t give them any reason to doubt your devotion to your home, inside or out.

Lastly, break out the paint brush. A new coat will improve the resale value of any home. Choose neutral, unobtrusive colors. Although white and off-white are the colors traditionally reserved for new homes, feel free to add some life with other opaque hues, but do not choose dark colors.

If staging seems overwhelming, don’t be scared. There are professional stagers who can walk you through the process, letting you know what to keep on display and what to hide away. Ask your realtor for a referral.

DID YOU KNOW? According to a report by the Christian Science Monitor (yeah, we didn’t know they were real estate experts either), well-staged homes sell for nearly 8% more than unstaged homes and in half the time.