Real estate staging, home staging or simply ‘staging,’ is anything that helps a home become more attractive and appealing to potential buyers. Over the past few decades,this trend has increased in popularity, and home owners have many options for stagingtheir home. Many people hire a professional home stager to bring in art, rugs, furniture, plants and other home accessories to show off the home’s best attributes while it is on themarket. Other home staging services will give homeowners a list of areas where theyshould remove clutter, move furniture and paint walls. For the budget conscious mover,the latter is the most economical option for home staging, and is a more ‘do-it-yourself’approach to home staging.The reason that real estate agents encourage their clients to stage their home is because of the positive impact that staging has on a home’s final selling price. According to reports by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, homes that are staged willsell for approximately 17% more than homes that are not. Most buyers want a home thatappears to be move-in ready, meaning they can visualize their family living in the home.When the walls are crowded with family pictures, and your magic eight ball collection iscovering the living room window sill, it is more difficult for buyers to see themselvesliving in your home. Only a small percentage of people can see past clutter, so helpingthem along through home staging is definitely worth your time.When staging your home, there are three main goals to keep in mind:You want to show off the best features of your home, while minimizing the less desirableelementsMaintaining a neutral color palate and flow from room to room makes your home seemmove-in ready and appealing to potential buyers.Removing clutter from counters, shelves, window sills and on top of furniture will makeyour home seem more spacious.Since not everyone is an interior decorator, staging services can help you attain thesegoals, and relieve the stress of preparing to sell your home.The most important thing that you can do when preparing to sell your home is to removeclutter. If you are methodical with packing up your knick-knacks, you will have a headstart on the daunting task of packing. When removing clutter, it is best go through your home one room at a time. This will allow you to pack similar items together, and giveyou a sense of accomplishment when you can check ‘living room’ off of your list of rooms to clean. Home stagers recommend that you go through each room and clear off tables, dressers, counters and shelves, particularly of hobby related items and personal photographs. You want potential buyers to be able to see themselves in your home, rather than wonder about your hobbies and the collectables in your home. In the kitchen, it isok to leave out your main appliances, including your microwave and toaster (you do livethere after all!) However, you should clear off all other appliances, cookbooks andgadgets to make the kitchen feel more open. Now you are probably wondering: What do I do with all of these boxes of my stuff?Since you have a newly clutter-free home, storing these boxes in your house is not aviable option, and will detract from the hard work that you have done. Taking these
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