Professional home staging has become big business in recent years. Professional stagers can charge fees ranging from $500 for consultations to $5,000 for a full service staging. If your budget is too tight to fit a professional stager, there are a few simple ways that you can stage your house yourself.

Step 1
Remove clutter from your home. If possible, pack up everything that you are taking with you, aside from essentials like your clothes and furniture; rent a storage locker or store items in your basement or garage. Now is the time to pack up all your knickknacks, photos, souvenirs and fridge magnets.

Step 2
Clean from top to bottom. If possible, hire professional cleaners to do this. Otherwise rally together friends and family and make a concerted effort to clean everything in the house. Don’t forget those dusty corners, baseboards and appliances. It is important to make sure that everything shines, including your windows.

Step 3
Make minor repairs. Now is the time to patch holes, fix leaky faucets, replace light bulbs and any other of the little annoyances that you have gotten used to. Remember to also look at whether or not your interior needs a fresh coat of paint.

Step 4
Paint all rooms with a fresh coat of neutral color paint. Paint the trim and baseboards with bright white oil paint, this well best showcase and show of the interior. If needed paint the ceilings as well.

Step 5
Get organized. Tidy up all of your cabinets and closets. Get everything off your counters, including everyday appliances like toasters. Organize your closets according to types of clothes, and then by color. You must also organize your kitchen and bathroom cabinets, as buyers are likely to look in them. Of course, you still have to live in your house, so you may need a place to store your personal items. Purchase some decorative storage boxes or baskets that you can easily pull out for any essential everyday items.

Step 6
Curb appeal. Since a typical homebuyer decides if they are attracted to a home or not in the first 8 seconds of seeing it, curb appeal is generally viewed as a vital aspect of the staging process. Therefore, curb appeal, the practice of improving a homes exterior appeal, is used alongside interior improvements. Take a look at the exterior of your house. Does it look clean? Are there bushes that are overgrown? Make sure that your grass is mowed. Consider planting some flowers or buying some potted plants to place on your patio to brighten up the house.

Step 7
Show the interior space at its best. Open up all the blinds and curtains so that you are getting the maximum amount of light coming into your home. Put out some candles or plants, both will help bring pleasant aromas into your home, while at the same time being welcoming to buyers. Now is the time to decorate your home with a few knickknacks so that it does not seem too bare. Don’t put out anything personal since buyers want to envision themselves in this house–a few candles, a vase, a few pretty books or some throw pillows will work. If the walls are too empty, consider hanging up a picture. The decorating you do now should show off the space, not the items.

Tags: curb appeal, design to sell, designed to sell, home property value, home selling tips, home stage, home stager, home stagers, home staging, home staging checklist, home staging furniture, home staging guide, home staging ideas, home staging sell, home staging sercets, home staging services, home staging tips, homedecor, homestaging, house selling tips, house staging, open house staging, professional staging, redesign staging, sell a house, stage to sell, staged homes, stager, stagers, staging a home, staging a house, staging courses, staging design, staging for sale, staging furniture, staging guide, staging homes, staging to sell, staging training, staging your, staging your home, staging-house

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 3:29 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.