Getting Your Home Ready to List: 5 Smart Staging Tips for a Speedier Sale

Your home is your most important, and most expensive, asset - one that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. When it comes time to sell, making your home look its best could mean the difference between a fast and profitable sale and a money-losing proposition.

Getting your home ready to list is not rocket science, but it does take proper planning. If you want your home to sell quickly and for top dollar, a little staging goes a long way. Here are five smart tips to help you stage your home the right way.

#1 Attend a Few Open Houses

If you want to know what buyers are looking for, start by checking out local properties through their eyes. Attending a few open houses will give you a feel for the amenities and upgrades modern home shoppers crave, so you can work on making the property look its best.

In addition to attending some open houses, you can do your homework on the internet, reading real estate blogs, checking out home improvement sites and learning about what buyers are looking for.

#2 Check Out Recently Sold Properties

The next time you drive through the neighborhood, keep an eye out for all the sold signs. Houses that sell quickly often have some important things in common, including factors you can see without getting out of your car.

Take a good look around and note the landscaping and other curb appeal upgrades that helped those properties sell so fast. You can then mimic those same curb appeal enhancements, increasing your odds of a quick sale.

#3 Help Potential Buyers See Themselves in Your Home

If you want your home to sell quickly, start by appealing to the widest possible audience of buyers. It is important for potential buyers to see themselves in your space, and the easier you make it, the more successful you could be.

It may be painful now, but removing photographs, mementoes and other personal items could speed the sale and boost your profits. You can always put those family photos up in your new home - after the sale of your current property has been closed.

#4 Get an Impartial Opinion

It can be hard to be impartial about the roof over your head. After all, this is the place where you set down roots and started a family. But when it is time to list your home for sale, an impartial opinion is a must.

Whether you call in a real estate expert, talk to a home appraisal company or just ask a neighbor, it is important to solicit, and listen to outside opinions about your home. It pays to think of your soon to be ex-property as an asset - your new house will become your home.

#5 Put on a New Coat of Paint

There are many effective ways to stage your home, and you will get plenty of opinions along the way. But one of the best ways to improve the look of your home is as close as your local paint store.

Unless your entire home has been freshly painted inside and out, repainting the rooms will be a vital part of the staging process. There will be plenty of time for additional staging later - for now grab your drop cloths and paint brushes.

Getting your home ready to list may seem like a complicated process, but it is simpler than you think. A few simple and inexpensive upgrades can help you get your home in sale-shape fast, so you can book a quick and profitable sale.