You want me to do what?

That's the response of many sellers in the New Orleans area to the suggestion to stage their home before selling. Home staging is extremely popular in many other metropolitan areas of the United States but is relatively unknown here.  With so much competition from other homes in the real estate market, you need to make yours shine BEFORE the "For Sale" sign is ever staked into the front yard.  This is where staging comes into play.

What is home staging?

Home staging is the art of preparing your home to make it look the best it can before putting it the market to be sold.  I love to watch all of those shows on HGTV...Designed to Sell, Sell this House and others.  I've learned to set a beautiful table, rearrange the furniture to bring the room a different focus and to add or remove accessories to give a room a certain feel.  This is staging, pure and simple. 

As a home owner, when you have made the decision to put your home on the market, shouldn't it be putting its best face forward?  Before you go to work in the morning, you most likely take a shower, brush your teeth and put on clean clothes.  You may even add some jewelry before you walk out of the door.  Staging is doing those things for your home.  Statistically, staged homes sell for about 6% more in less time than a home that has not been staged.  If that's not worth the time and effort, I don't know what is.

How can I stage my own home?

There are a few professional stagers in the New Orleans area, but if you are a do-it-yourself kind of person, the first item on the list to tackle is to declutter.  

Decluttering is getting rid of the things that you no longer love, need or use. 

That pile of newspapers and magazines?  Recycle them if your area offers this service.  If not, throw them away.  Those clothes in the closet you haven't worn for over a year?  Games the kids no longer play?  Donate them to charity or hold a garage sale.  Those tired and dusty silk flower arrangements?  Out they go.

Be ruthless!  My rule of thumb is "Do I want to pay someone to move this for me?"  If not, it needs to be recycled, donated or just plain tossed out.

Decluttering doesn't apply to just the inside of your home either.  The garage should not be a catch all that looks like a tornado just went through it and the yard should be neat and clean.  As much as you may love your collection of garden gnomes, they need to be packed to wait for their next home.

As you start this decluttering process, begin packing away the non essential items in each room.  Personal pictures and books, those appliances on the kitchen counter that you rarely use, that stack of CDs and DVDs in the family room.  All of these need to be boxed up and stored neatly in the garage, attic or a storage facility.  Remove and pack as many personal items as you can without making the rooms look stark and bare.

Take a good look at the amount of furniture in each room.  You want every room in your house to feel open, clean, warm and inviting and to have a specific purpose.  Bedrooms are for sleeping, dining rooms are for eating, family rooms and dens are for relaxing and entertaining.  Your exercise equipment does not belong in the bedroom or the family room!  If you don't have the space for a real home gym, then the equipment needs to be sold, donated or stored. 

I'll be posting more tips for you soon, but there are several books about home staging available online or in your local bookstore to get you in the right mind set.  Two of my favorites are Home Staging The Winning Way to Sell Your House for More Money and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Staging Your Home to Sell.   

Put your creativity to work, use your imagination and get your house staged and ready to sell!

Lisa Heindel, Realtor®, your West Bank Real Estate Specialist

(504) 616-6262  cell

(504) 362-1823 x319 office