Staging your home to sell can help you get a premium price for your home.  Done right, it helps your place sell faster and for more money.  Professional home stagers play up the best features of your home and minimize the worst.  They rearrange artwork, pack up the personal items like bowling trophies, and clear out the unnecessary items.

Here are the 10 best tips that stagers use:

1.  First Impressions

     Prospective buyers make up their mind very quickly about your home based on their first impressions.  So clean up the yard, rake your leaves, sweep driveways and porches, or powerwash them.  Spend time cleaning the front door, railings and steps.  Put away recycling cans and bins in the back yard.

2. Declutter

   Clutter will lose you money on your home.  Purge your closets, empty cupboards, box up anything you don’t use everyday. Reduce the number of books on the shelves as well as the DVDs and CDs. Be ruthless!

3. Keep it neutral

   Your goal is to have the buyer imagine him or herself as living in your house.  So remove the personal items, like the family photos, all that stuff on the fridge, all your shampoo bottles, etc.

4. Smells good!

   Smoke and pet odours can become unnoticeable to the homeowner, but not to the buyer.  A simple solution: keep your windows open for 10 minutes every day.  It’s more effective than deodorizers.  The ultimate: have chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven.

5. Cleanliness

   If it looks clean, it looks cared for.  Everything needs to be cleaned: walls, door handles, light fixtures and pantry cupboards.  Consider cleaning the furnace, as clean looks newer.

6. Do the little things

   Dripping faucets, cracked tiles, mouldy caulking in the bathtub, these can take thousands of dollars off your sale price.  It’s worth your financial while to take care of all these little things.

7. Add Colour

   Paint is the cheapest fix you can do to a home.  A fresh coat of paint works wonders. Just remember the colour must be a neutral, not personal taste.  Paint the front door.  Add urns of colourful flowers by the front door or just inside the entry.  Your house will seem cared for.

8. Create a sense of space

   People buy perceived space, not square footage.  So get rid of some furniture to create a sense of more space. Get rid of the magazines and newspapers.  Empty out closets of items not used every week.  Think of creating a space like a hotel room or a show home.

9.  Let there be light!

   It’s much easier to sell a home that is bright and full of light.  Start with a good window cleaning, inside and out.  Then thoroughly clean all the light fixtures, putting in the maximum wattage lightbulbs.  When your home is being shown, put on all the lights, and open the curtains and windows wide.

10. Those little touches.

   Planters on the front porch, a vase of flowers on the dining room table and in the bathroom, all these touches make a home feel loved and warm.  Candles can help too. Or put on the fireplace in the wintertime.

All these changes will make a difference when you sell your home.  If priced right, it should sell faster and for more money.

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