When staging your home for sale, the key is to try to think like your potential buyers. You want to feature the positive things about your home, while minimizing the things that aren't so positive--without having to spend huge sums of money in the process.

One simple, relatively inexpensive thing you can do to enliven your home's décor is to add some plants. They almost always add a touch of hominess and vigor to a room. Of course, you'll need to make sure they thrive. Few things look worse, or give a more negative feeling to a room than dying plants.

Looking dispassionately at your home is critical to staging it for sale. For instance, if you have a prized collection, regardless of what it may be, it's probably worthwhile to pack it up and send it to your temporary storage facility while your home is on the market. The key is that while you see "a collection," a buyer sees "clutter." That means that they get psychologically caught up in the clutter of your collection and forget to look at the house itself, which may cost you a sale.

It's not easy, but removing your personal feelings from the place that has been your home is vitally important to being able to successfully stage it for sale. While your home is on the market, it's best to remove everything that isn't basic for your day-to-day needs. As a general rule, the less stuff in your home, the better, because it gives buyers a better opportunity to envision their own belongings in that room.

Though it won't be easy, you must let go of your house. After all, it's no longer your home. It's just the place you're staying until you can move into your NEW home. In essence, your house has become nothing more than a commodity that you want to sell to the highest bidder as quickly as possible. That means you want to stage it well to show it off in its best possible light.

Sometimes it can be helpful to ask an impartial friend to walk through the house with you and offer their suggestions and first impressions of rooms as they enter and walk around. This can be an eye-opener, but never take what they say personally. Remember, you have asked their honest first impressions, regardless of what they may be. The more you can remove your personal feelings from your home and begin to see it through the eyes of potential buyers, the better your chance of selling your home quickly--and at a better price.

Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher

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