Staging your home for a quick sale is becoming an industry all to itself. There are hundreds of home staging services and websites that offer staging services. Now, while these services can help your home sale out quite a bit, there is really not that much to staging your home yourself. You can easily break up the process into three stages, cleaning, fixing, and presenting or final touches.



Cleaning - This is the part of the process that will be the most involved and time consuming. There is a big difference between cleaning your home for daily living and cleaning your home for a home showing. When you home is showing to prospective buyers you can bet that they will notice every scratch, streak or bit of dust. When cleaning you must also be mindful of odors, watermarks and other small things that are easy to forget about. Go from room to room and make a list of everything that needs doing. This way you can work your way through the lists, making sure that every room is picture perfect before moving on. Clean the rooms that are least used first saving the high-traffic areas like the kitchen and bathroom for last. You will be less likely to mess up a study or family room than you will a bathroom.

Fixing - This step should be completed before you start the big clean. Find anything in and around the home that) does not work properly,b) is old and out-of-date, or c) just doesn't look right for the show. These things can be as simple as some new towel racks or light switch covers or as complex as new appliances, new paint or wallpaper, new flooring, countertops or new fixtures. Basically anything that could negatively affect the showing should be changed.

Final Touches - This is the part of the process where your creativity will come into play. Many home stagers will bring in certain pieces of furniture and remove others to enhance the way a room looks. Big bulky furniture that crowds a room should be removed along with any extraneous items that can clutter up an area. Take down any posters on the walls and replace them with nice pictures or wall hangings and make sure that any plants that are in the home are neatly trimmed and do not overpower the room. Something else you can do to make the home more inviting is to have certain scents in the rooms. Naturally pet smells will be a negative for any home buyers, but scents like a light vanilla, or cinnamon are very calming and add to the attractive value of the home.

Staging has become ever more necessary in today's home market where buyers want the very best home for their dollar. Staging your home is a great way to intrigue buyers and beckon them to take a closer look.