Looks mean a lot, and one way to make a home market ready is to highlight its best features. You can make a good start be decluttering every room, kitchen to closet, and basement to attic. While you don’t want to make a home look empty, you do want to make it look spacious, so removing possessions such as knickknacks and perhaps a few pieces of furniture will open up the space. Many people forget what their house looked like back when they first moved in, and before they began to furnish and decorate it.

To declutter a kitchen for example, the counters must be completely cleared, with extra items stored in cupboards. If this creates a logjam in the cabinets, extra pots, pans, dishes and small appliances need to be boxed up and stored, preferably off-site. By Limiting the amount of items in cupboards, prospective buyers will be reassured that the cabinets and cupboards offer plenty of space for their needs.

The same holds true for closets. They need to be only half-full rather than crammed full. By boxing up and storing clothes, shoes and other items and storing them elsewhere, the closets will echo the feeling of spaciousness that will be displayed throughout the house.

The concept of removing a favorite recliner of floor lamp from  a home may seem foreign, but an overabundance of tables, lamps, chairs and couches take up the floor space. Empty space allows buyers to visualize how they could fill it.

In living, dining and family rooms, the window treatments should be minimal, furniture and knickknacks should be reduced, and photos and protraits of family and friends should be put away. It’s easier for buyers to imagine themselves in a house when its owners and their family members aren’t in view in frames on the walls or tables.

Once some of the clutter has been relegated to boxes or bins, the temptation is strong to head right downstairs, or to the garage or attic and pack them away. Sadly, it’s a temptation that must be resisted. Storage space needs to be obvious, not hidden underneath all those boxes. Again, buyers need to be able to picture themselves in the home.

If you really look at it, staging is not that hard or expensive, many but I do see homeowners that have a hard time being objective with their own home since they have lived there for years. If you get in this mode, you can be pulling thousand out of your own bank account at closing, and with the real estate market the way it is, you are going to need to pull out all the stops.

If you take a look at homes that are “model” homes for Boise area builders, you will see how much better it feels inside the home and how their staging effects the feel of the home. They obviously think that the benefits outweighs the cost, because it does almost every time.

Basic Home Staging Rules

#1 – Clean. In the real estate market, your home has got to be clean and sparkling! The is your first staging step. The best way to do this is to hire a good cleaning crew. Even if the crew comes in every week or two, it is probably a good way to go. Make sure your windows are clean too.

#2 – Fix. Do you have leak or cracked tile? These problems will give the buyer a bad impression of your house right off the bat. Make sure to get these things fixed. Have you thought about getting a pre-listing inspection from a licensed real estate inspector?

#3 – Get rid of Clutter. When staging, Live by the “50% Rule” which requires that you get rid of clutter by at least half. This can be tough! Even though some of our clutter brings back memories and gives comfort, it does not sell homes! In the Boise market, clutter makes homes seem much smaller and unorganized and it can cost you thousands too.

#4 – Neutral, Neutral. Neutral colors help you sell and I see this everyday in my Boise market. If you are in New York city, it might be a bit different or more liberal, but it is a fact that you need to appeal to the most buyers you can. Neutral colors and decor make it more likely that someone will pay more for your Boise home.

#5 – Get rid of the “personal”. When staging, get rid of things that most real estate buyers don’t relate to. For example, religious and political items may turn off entire groups of potential buyers. I have seen someone walk away from their perfect home because it had an elk head mounted in the family room. They must have been a vegetarian.:)

A good comparison tool for your house is to visit some model homes and try to match their styles, configurations, colors, and feel. Most of them will be a great tool for you to copy. Don’t reinvent the wheel, look at what real estate buyers are purchasing and duplicate it. Use the MLS as a guide and a resource.

Make your house worth thousands and thousands more just by spending a bit of time and money upfront. You could even get a pre-offer inspection. We can save that topic for another time. Happy staging, and happy home selling!

Ben Janke is a Idaho real estate broker that has written free real estate guides that you can access by clicking the following link Boise Real Estate