Gone are the days when you stuck a yard sale sign in a home that was being prepared for sale, held an open house and printed out flyers as some of the major tools for marketing real estate property. As homes that are listed for sale populate the internet and are available to be viewed by a national audience, professional realtors are increasingly seeking to improve their skills in order to assist the homeowner to market his or her home in ways that will showcase the property in the best light and improve the final sale price. Often, these skills include advising the homeowner on how to prepare the home for photographs as well as the actual physical viewing of the home.

While, most realtors may know the marketability of a property based on other factors such as the location of the property, size of the property, etc., they may not be as adept in interior design principles that will enhance the showcasing of the home. Thus a whole new service industry, called "staging" has sprouted from these needs. Staging is the new buzzword in the real estate industry used to describe the de-cluttering, redesigning and in some case remodeling of a home to prepare it for sale.

In the past, homeowners were left to their own discretion when it came to home showings. If they didn't have any idea on how to prepare for the home showing they often depended on their realtor for guidance. While that may have been sufficient then, in this ever increasingly competitive market (where sellers try to solicit the best prospective buyers) staging has become a growing industry and a tool in the realtor's marketing arsenal. In order to maintain a competitive advantage, more and more realtors are adapting quickly to either learn these basic principles themselves or to add interior designers to their contact lists who can provide these services. Usually as part of the marketing of the property, several photographs of the home are almost mandatory and as virtual tours of homes become increasingly popular the need to showcase the home properly becomes a necessity.

Professional home stagers are practiced in the art of preparing a home for resale. They work with the "flow" of a home, eliminate clutter, edit and arrange furniture, and may even assist in enhancing curb-appeal. The interior design techniques that professional home stagers use increase the overall look and desirability of the home. With ever popular real estate television shows on HGTV such as "Curb Appeal" and "Designed to Sell", homeowners expect their realtor to be knowledgeable about these techniques.

In the current real estate climate where most homes have interior and exterior photographs taken of the property and posted on real estate internet sites this type of service is a plus. Some statistics show that staging improves the final sale price of the house by anywhere from 2% - 10%. For example, in the current California real estate market with the median sale price of a home at $597,640 these figures can mean anywhere from $11,952.00 to $59,764.00! That's quite a bit of pocket change for a comparatively minor investment.

Depending on the home seller's budget, a home staging service can prepare a home with simple tasks like rearranging furniture, eliminating clutter, advising the homeowner on special cleaning tasks to coordinating much more complex activities such as repainting, carpeting and refinishing hardwood floors. When it comes to higher priced homes in luxury neighborhoods sometimes extensive remodeling is advisable. While the initial outlay by the homeowner may be substantial a homeowner's equally substantial return on investment usually makes it worthwhile. With such great returns, what might have seemed liked a trend a few years ago isn't showing any signs of stopping.