The staging process starts when you search for a qualified listing agent by asking the questions regarding staging and preparing your home for sale. Some Real Estate Sales Professionals are had earned an ASP RE Certification which is an Accredited Staging Professional for Realtors designation. Other Real Estate Professionals will have a certified ASP Staging Professional on retainer or on staff.

According to statistics, 94.6% of ASP Staged homes sell within 35 days. Additionally, the cost of staging a home can have a 300% return on that investment during the sales process. Using a Realtor that has these resources for you will reduce the days your home is on the market and get you a much better price for your home.

The “Seven C’s Of Home Staging” include clean, clutter free, color, compromise, creativity, commitment and communicate. Remember that the investment of staging your home is far less expensive that the possible price reductions on your home may incur during it’s time on the market. If your take just one price reduction in 45 days of listing your home, you could have saved probably half of that money staging your home.

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Most owners love what they’ve done to their homes. And they’re color blind too. So if they’re told to depersonalize, reduce clutter or whatever the advice that is coming their way, they ignore it, unless they’re that rare individual who can take off those rose colored glasses and really “see” their home as others will.

So get your person or persons – two advisers are often better than one – and walk through your house with a pad and pen, making notes as you go. And start with the outside if you’re living in a townhouse or single family home. Otherwise, start at your front door.

Noticing as you go – is the door clean? Is the knocker or bell working? Are their shoes/umbrellas, stuff littering the foyer? What’s on your kitchen counters and around the sink? Put it all way, including sponges, soap dispensers, picture on the fridge, anything on top of the fridge or stove. Leave your coffee maker and one other appliance out. Flowers or a potted plant look pretty on the counter. Maybe one more accessory such as a teapot. No tea towels hanging on the front of the oven either. Do you get my drift? You have to be brutal. If you hardly ever use it, pack it up or throw it out or give it away. Then start cleaning. Everything should sparkle. Floors, windows, furniture, accessories, everything! Too much furniture in the room. Again, remove it and don’t put it in a garage or basement. Move it out of the property. Remember, less is more. If you’re debating about any particular item, just remember this little saying – if in doubt, move it out.

Now look at your walls and floors. If you have wallpaper, chances are no one is going to like it. Remove it and paint the walls a warm beige. If the carpet is not a neutral color, change it. If the carpet is stained, change it. And you don’t have to spend a lot of money. Your goal is to make it look good. Don’t worry that it might not stand up to normal wear and tear. Your buyer will probably change everything anyway – and probably start with the things you liked best!

If it’s broken, fix it. If light bulbs are burnt out, replace them. If furniture is worn out, cover it or throw it out. If you’re not taking it with you, out it goes.

Now let’s talk about bathrooms. Wallpaper? Again, not good. Remove and paint it a neutral color. And don’t argue that you don’t like neutral, wishy washy colors. You’re moving anyway and neutral colors sell homes. Clear the counters. Hang some new, pretty towels – everything in neutral colors. Change the shower curtain to a solid white or beige. Put one thing on the counter. Scrub the room from top to bottom. If anything is broken, fix it or replace it. Nothing should be on the floor. Just the tile. No toilet paper stock in a basket. No bottles of shampoo and conditioner on the tub ledge. Maybe a rubber ducky if it’s cute and clean. No sponges, no cleansers. And no black mold on the grout where the tub meets the wall. Use bleach to clean it – lots and lots of bleach.

Let’s talk about the bedrooms. If you have floral bed coverings, unless they’re really neutral, change them. If you have a bunch of toss cushions sitting on the bed, put most of them away. Clear the night tables and dressers. Just a lamp, a phone and maybe a clock. No books, no magazines, no pretty accessories….unless you have a fairly large night table. Same deal with the wallpaper. Neutral paint again. No hampers. No junk. No piles of books. Clear out the closets. Nothing should be on the floor. Give away the clothes, shoes and purses you don’t wear anymore. Pack up the seasonal items and hide them under the bed. Put the remaining clothes on nice plastic hangers – no wire ones. Leave space between each hanger. Shoes on the shelf neatly please. Handbags there as well. All like soldiers lined up in a row.

If you have children, their toys should go in baskets. The baskets should be in the closet. Dresser tops should be clear. The rooms should be almost empty because kids rooms are usually a lot smaller than the master bedroom and all that stuff lying around will make those bedrooms appear smaller than they really are.

If you have a den or family room, you’ll probably have lots to do in there as well. Coffee and end tables should be almost empty. People often place furniture with TV viewing as the focal point. Lots of times, this is not the best furniture arrangement to show off the room. No one will notice that the TV is not in the best viewing position. Your goal is to make the room look as large as possible.

When your Realtor calls to say there’s a showing, get out of the house. Take the dog and cat if you can. Don’t forget the children and your Mom. No one should be home. If you can’t leave, then the rule is – don’t talk to anyone. Maybe nod your hello. Don’t follow them either. Sit outside if possible. Go for a walk. If you absolutely cannot leave, squish yourself into a corner and make yourself as unobtrusive as possible. Pretend you’re Casper the Ghost. Don’t eat or drink either. Stay out of the kitchen. And definitely don’t cook anything. You’ll make the house smell and buyers don’t like smells – only pleasant and mild aromas.

It’s best if you’re not there because you’ll make the Buyers uncomfortable. They’ll be so busy trying to avoid you, trying to talk quietly that they might not give your house the attention it deserves. You may think it’s a good idea to be home so you can answer any questions the Buyers may have. Trust me – you’re wrong. If there are questions the Realtor can’t answer, there are phones in use today. The Realtor will call the listing agent to get answers.

Let’s talk about valuables. If you have things that you value, such as jewelery, coins, cameras, knick knacks, put them away or pack them up. Hide them. Leave nothing lying around that might tempt anyone. And while we’re talking, pack up all your family photos. Every last one.

I think you’re now getting the idea. That you just don’t decide to put the house up for sale. The majority of sellers need to do a lot of preparation to get their property into its best possible showing condition. If you do it right, you’ll sell your property quickly and for more money. The rule is, “the quicker you sell it, the more money you get for it.” So set aside as much time as you need to do this preparation the right way. Then you’ll be able to pick up that extra money that your property can produce and move on with your life. Trust me, it’s not fun showing property. Do what you need to do before and you’ll go to the bank after, with a fuller wallet.

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Sure, your stager would have advised or helped you to depersonalize your space; but somehow the day to day items that you use or newly received are left in areas that prying eyes can view.

1. Rumour has it that very many normal people peek into medicine cabinets. Do you really want the prescription medication or medical equipment that you or your family use to be viewed by complete strangers? Those items could send the wrong message to the buyer.

2. In your rush to leave the house, you left the mail on a table; uppermost in that bunch of mail is your credit card statement or paystub. Curiosity sometimes overtakes good manners; as a result the amount you owe or make is seen by everyone who dares to take a look at the statements. These statements could tell the story of your finances and could be misconstrued.

3. Your choice of reading material and DVDs speaks volumes. Risque material whether DVD or magazines should be stored out of sight. Self help books are very much in vogue, but ones on addiction or other quirky topics definitely need to be hidden from view. On lookers could assume that there may be something wrong and could hamper the negotiating process.

When your real estate stager advised you to rid your home of all personal effects these are some of the potentially, damaging consequences about which you are being warned. No one wants to intentionally give damaging, personal information to inquiring minds, so heed the precautionary measures and put your medication into covered boxes or closed handbags; get a non-see-through container into which to put your mail when you are finished reading it.

The only messages you want to give those viewing your house is great ambiance; clean, fresh air; subtle decor; free-flowing space; strategic furniture placement and the desire to make it their own.

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Obtaining certification credentials will identify you as a professional, a master of your trade with the expertise to get the job done. Realtors look to home stagers as a way to boost their showings to sales conversions. If a realtor has never used a home staging service before, presenting as a certified specialist in the area will gain you additional credibility. Just as home inspectors have become the trusted standard to use in evaluating the worthiness of the purchase price; accredited home staging professionals are becoming the standard that realtors look to for moving homes on the market.

National statistics show that a home that has been staged by a professional will generate sales quicker than homes shown without staging. Most realtors are aware of these stats and will often resort to a professional home staging enterprise to turn the properties they list. Additionally, many home stagers today were once realtors or had a real estate license and found that they were more suited to the home staging business. These former realtors took home staging courses and obtained their credentials as certified home staging professionals for a very specific reason. It is a very lucrative business with a high demand in the real estate market.

Almost every profession has some level of accreditation available for those individuals who have attained a level of expertise in their field. Being certified as a home staging professional, like being certified as a benefits specialist or as an aesthetician, says you have the skills and abilities required to be able to perform the requirements of the job. If you had to hire someone for a job, and they were both offering you the same rate, who would you select? The one with certification as a home staging professional or the one without? Most realtors will turn to the certified professional before seeking anyone else.

If you are currently doing well in your home staging business, perhaps you don’t require the additional boost to client generation that certification can bring. You might want to consider obtaining your credentials as a certified stager to bolster your already successful business. If you’re just starting out or need to increase your client base significantly, obtaining home staging certification is probably your best option.

Why is home staging such a great career? Home stagers are in very high demand. You can earn $75 to over $100 per hour and keep 100% of your earnings. Start up costs are very low. There is no experience necessary. And you can work full time or part time. Start your own home staging business today!

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Step One: De-personalize
This is the first important step to stage your home. When a prospective buyer enters your home they want to try to see themselves possibly living there and not evidence of your current family living there. One way to do this is to remove all family photos. Many people like to look at photos displayed in the room and by doing so, they forget to look at the room itself. When thinking back of your property, they may not remember your property well enough to want to buy it but they may remember what your family photos looked like.

Step Two: De-Clutter
Many people tend to accumulate and live among many things in their homes. One of the most crucial steps to home staging is to de-clutter your home. All of your kitchen and bathroom counters should be clear of anything other than maybe one decorative piece. This makes the counter space looks larger and more open. Also, clear most of the table surfaces or mantels of knickknacks. In addition to removing the smaller items, you must remove some larger pieces of furniture as well. Most people have more furniture in their house that is suitable to stage a home. By removing extra tables and using just your smaller chairs or loveseats it will make your space look a lot bigger. This will make the buyer think they are getting a lot for their money.

Step Three: Clean
Many prospective buyers are amazed to look at a home that is filled with dust and cobwebs and stained bathtubs. This is a huge reason for someone to not buy a home. After all of the depersonalizing and de-cluttering is done, do a deep cleaning and scrubbing of your home. If your walls are scuffed and dirty, a fresh coat of paint may be in order. A clean house is a more appealing house.

Step Four: Curb Appeal
The last step in staging your home for sale is to clean up the front and outside of your home. Trim all trees and bushes and plant some pretty flowers by the entrance. Maybe paint your front door with a vibrant color. This will make the buyers want to go in your house and to buy from their La Mesa real estate agent or El Cajon real estate agent.

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These 15 Action Steps will help you to prepare your home and yourself:

1. Find your legal papers, such as the deed, insurance, mortgage documents, etc.
2. Call a title company and ask for a complementary title report to check for discrepancies that may be present.
3. Check your credit rating.
4. Speak to your bank about pre-approval whether you need a mortgage or not.
5. Have a look at other homes in your neighbourhood that are up for sale – how does your home compare?
6. Do an honest, reality check – make a list of areas that need upgrading, both minor and major.
7. Determine your budget for fixing and redesigning.
8. Consult with a professional who can advise you on the areas that will bring a real return for the money you will spend fixing.
9. Hire a staging consultant to prepare your home (statistics show that staged homes sell faster and for a higher price).
10. Hire a home inspector.
11. Check with family and friends for referrals, re a Real Estate Salesperson.
12. Interview at least three salespersons, then choose the one you find most compatible.
13. Be sure to ask for specific steps that will be taken to market your property.
14. Don’t sign a long term contract, make it three or four months, which will give you wiggle room.
15. Pay it forward, make a list of services available in your area for the new owner.

Prospective home buyers may not understand how much work went into preparing your home to make it as inviting as it now appears, but they feel comfortable and at home – so much so, that they are willing to purchase it. It pays to be proactive.

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As you could guess I obviously couldn’t keep up with the subscriptions. I never had time to read them so finally one day, I made a list of every magazine I was receiving and started cancelling them as the subscriptions expired. I can proudly say I’m a recovering magazine subscriber and only have two active subscriptions.

So, what did I do with all these publications? I actually used a lot of them for staging. Some of the higher end ones like Architectural Digest, Town & Country, and San Francisco were used as coffee table displays or in offices, and Wine Spectator was sometimes used in the kitchen, dining or bar areas.

We actually used quite a few of the magazines as art to stage bedrooms. Let me describe some examples.

You can easily tear fashion magazine covers off and place them in a frame and voila…instant art for the bedroom! Your selection can be tailored to showcase either a male or female room.

We also occasionally purchased magazines specifically for staging purposes like Cosmo Girl and Teen People to create custom frames in a teen-age girl’s room but bedrooms are by no means the only rooms you can use magazines as professional staging props.

A yoga room may be shown to advantage by using a Women’s Health magazine attractively displayed in a basket with rolled towels and a small spray of artificial flowers or there are more specific yoga magazines available for use also.

However, just as you can use a cookbook in a kitchen to build a theme, you can also create an excellent visual staging prop using a home style or gourmet cooking magazine. I can personally attest to the wide range available.

BONUS TIP: If you need to find a photo to place in a picture frame for a bedside table, desk or bookcase, flip through magazines for prop wedding, kids or pet photos. This way, you preserve your own privacy by not having to use personal photos for this purpose.

You just never know where you can find inspiration – take a look around, there are a lot of inexpensive options available.

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As one kitchen example for the counter space you can display a pasta cookbook and carry the theme along with decorative oil bottles or a bottle of olive oil with a more traditional Italian packaging. You may also chose to include a pasta dish towel, and a pasta bowl filled with faux tomatoes, onions, garlic and dried pasta.

A more professional and polished look will use the pasta theme throughout the kitchen area. For the bar area you will need to set out bowls of tri-colored corkscrew pasta and add a faux red tomato in the center. These colors really pop against countertops. To refine this setting, I would add a colorful placemat under each bowl to complete the look.

As a bonus tip for you: if you have a small kitchen you wish to showcase for the real estate market in order to create the illusion of more space you can move the refrigerator out and decorate that area.

For another kitchen example, you can use a dessert cookbook and create a combination coffee and baking theme. For wall decoration the use of prints and art that have different types of coffee themes like latte and espresso will beautifully decorate the area and further carry your theme.

For the counter space display a glass canister filled with biscotti and a large metal mixing bowl filled with baking tools such as a rolling pin, wooden mixing spoons, a spatula and boxes of cookies.

Another or alternative counter display idea could be to create a coffee tray using espresso cups and saucers, a French press filled with coffee beans, a jar of coffee condiments like vanilla, cinnamon, and chocolate, and two wrapped biscotti, all placed on top of a dish towel. A couple of loose ivy leaves will add beautiful color. On both display ideas use a basket of greenery to fill space to add more texture and color.

These are not expensive or difficult counterscapes to create, but the theme makes it a lot more fun and interesting. There are plenty of cookbooks with possible themes available…enjoy the creative process.

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Here are some of the questions you are probably asking yourself:

* Take it off the market for awhile?
* Lower your price?
* List with another broker?
* Fix it up, and then relist it at a higher price?
* Pay to fix it up and leave it at the same price?

Several choices but which if any would be right for you? Of course it depends on your circumstances, but you should be aware that houses that sit on the market for a long period of time fall into two categories:

Stale: Having your house on the market for a long time puts it in a negative light; most people viewing it will believe that it has serious problems and that’s why it has not sold. Perception is not always reality, but the buyer looking at it again, after a few months will not know that.

Desperate: Some folk would take this opportunity to make you a low-ball offer, because they rationalize that by now you must be desperate to sell and they could get your house for a bargain basement price.

Suggestions to help you sell your home for a fair price:

* Delist – Remove your home from the market
* Re-evaluate – Is your home fairly priced
* Compare – yours to the competition
* Clean – entire house including windows and doors
* Fix – anything that needs fixing
* De-clutter – store unnecessary items

To get your house in pristine condition you may need to hire a professional stager or re-designer, who will not have any emotional blinders and will therefore see your house in a totally different light and easily prepare it to attract a wider range of buyers.

Here are some more suggestions to help you achieve the look and feel to get your home sold quickly:

Refresh – Maybe you only need to refreshyour home. The easiest and least expensive way to re-fresh your house would be with paint, light (fabric) curtains, and more lighting from different areas and sources.

Redesign – Discover how furniture placement, accessories, paintings and the strategic placement of objects can totally change a space and turn your house into your buyer’s dream home.

Renovate – If you want to renovate parts of your home, do not waste money on upgrades that will not give you a high return on your money, time and work. Find out which makeover projects will double the return on your money and which renovations you do not need to make.

After you get your house in a buyer – friendly condition, then and only then should you do the following:

Re-List – Put your house back on the market using a new agent or broker, this time list for only 3 to 4 months. A new listing with a different agent will attract more buyers.

Post pictures – Post good pictures of the changes that have been done. This will give you that extra edge that you need to get your house sold quickly.

Reap – The benefits of doing it right. Using a stager or re-designer will cost less than making a reduction on the price of your house.

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Here are the top 5 things to tell your sellers.

1. YOU DON’T LIVE IN YOUR HOME THE SAME WAY YOU SELL YOUR HOME – Many of the items that you showcase for the home you live in may need to be eliminated when your home is being shown to potential buyers. This does not mean that those items are not beautiful or important. It just means that they may be a deterrent to a buyer.

2. SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE – While you may need places for 6 family members to sit and watch television, having several extra chairs in a room may make it appear smaller. Therefore you may need to remove some of the extra furniture in a room.

3. YOU HOME MUST BE CLEAN – It is important for your home to be clean when you begin to bring in buyers. If you cannot do a thorough cleaning yourself, you may want to hire a professional cleaning company. Everything should be as clean as possible, including windows, ceiling fans, exhaust fans, floors, carpets, grout etc.

4. YOU ARE SETTING A “STAGE” – You want your home to be cozy, colorful & inviting. It’s the little things you do like adding decorative soaps in the bathroom, setting the dining room for a romantic dinner, or lighting candles. (only if someone will be there to blow them out!) These are some of the things that will make your house feel like a HOME.

5. MOVING DAY IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER… START PACKING NOW! Many closets and cupboards are full of extra items. Start packing up those items now and put them in the storage, or in your garage. You want each closet, cupboard & countertop to appear spacious and uncluttered.

In addition to these 5 areas, there are some other very simple things a homeowner can do to add appeal to their home. Paint the front door and buy a new welcome mat. Pack away those worn tattered towels in the bath and replace with some new ones. Remove all personal photos from the home, especially from the refrigerator. Remove everything from the closet floors. Be sure the windows are sparkling clean.

Lastly, on the day of a showing open all blinds so the home is bright. Play some soft music. Turn on at least 1 light every room, including the closets, so there is a soft, warm glow throughout the home. If you must place air fresheners in every room be sure they are the same fragrance. Vacuum & dust before the showing if possible, so everything feels clean. If homeowners will just spend a little time preparing their homes for sale they will be amazed at the positive feedback they will receive. Hopefully, their extra time and effort will be reflected in a quicker sale and a large profit.

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