If you’re looking to sell your home, and get the selling price you want without having it on the market for months on end, there are some simple, easy-to-implement secrets which most people, most real estate agents, most home stagers miss altogether.

They may seem like basic ideas, simple, obvious things, but when they’re neglected, that spells trouble for your sale. So I’ve put together a brief list to help remind you of these things before you show a buyer a less-than-perfect property.

1. Knick-knacks - We all have them, whether it’s souvenir spoons, fridge magnets, glass fishes, whatever. Think about how they portray you and your home – 214 empty whiskey bottles will not help the sale in most cases. Also consider religious implications and possibly offensive items – it’s best to play it safe here.
2. The fridge - If it’s like my fridge, there are magnets, notes, reminders, anything I can put up there. But when I sell a home, they go in a drawer – your buyer won’t want to see this kind of clutter anywhere. Of course their fridge is exactly the same, but it’s still a black mark against your property in their minds anyway.
3. Pictures and paintings - Family photos should be stored out of sight, this way it will be ‘mentally easier’ for the buyer to imagine their own pictures up on the wall. But avoid having completely bare walls, invest in some inexpensive generic art to hang up there.
4. The laundry - It’s so easy for the laundry to become a dumping ground for clothes and other stuff you don’t have another place for, and then to be the last and most annoying place to clean up. But a buyer will notice, so you can’t hide it. A few appropriate items can be left in there, as long as everything’s arranged neatly. No dirty laundry though!
5. Garage - You might prefer to keep piles of stuff in the garage, with the car outside, but again, it’s clutter that will turn a buyer off, and it makes the garage look smaller as well. Have a garage sale, donate stuff to charity, and you can show your buyers around a neatly arranged garage instead of rushing past it.
6. The pantry - Again, too much clutter and unrelated stuff will make your pantry look smaller than it is, and space here is vital for most people. Try to strike a balance between having too much in there, and not having enough. Maybe you can cut back on grocery shopping until the day after the inspection.
7. Closets - Here once again, people need to see that there’s lots of storage space available. This goes for all storage spaces in your home. It’s likely you have clothes and shoes you’ll never wear again, sort these into a pile and sell or donate them. » Read more: 7 Often Missed Yet Powerful Home Staging Secrets

It’s all well and good for a home stager to make a house look pretty, but a good home stager needs to know the market. Now I don’t mean that they need to know it inside and out: after all, that’s an agent’s expertise. They should, however, have an understanding of what’s going on the in the areas that they serve. Is it an up and coming trendy area? What are the asking prices of similar homes in the neighbourhood? Is there a visible trend to who’s buying in that area? Is the house they’re staging sitting amongst a sea of rebuilds?

A home stager worth any value, needs to consider these points before they even go in and do a consultation. Why? The answer is obvious; you don’t show up at a hoedown in a tuxedo! There is no need to ‘over stage’ a property. Staging is not just making a house look pretty; it’s got to be relevant to the buyer. If the neighbourhood is full of totally remodeled homes, then you can’t recommend to a homeowner that they replace the carpet or the kitchen countertop. Chances are that the buyer will be going in and doing a remodel and these changes just aren’t going to cut it. It would be wasted money, so you need to show the home in a way that shows it’s best features and hints at what it could become. » Read more: Home Staging – A Good Home Stager Should Know the Market

The increasing popularity of home staging cannot be gainsaid. More people today are recognizing its benefits in appreciating the value of properties, and it has, in fact, developed into an industry. It has created careers and business opportunities for many, and several accreditation agencies have been set up to provide training, workshops, and courses. Being educated with the principles through a home staging class is furthered with the advances in the information technology as manifested in Internet and laptop computers.

Those who are starting off with a keen interest can begin a journey of self-education. Accumulating various resources, such as books, magazines, and other media, can increase one’s knowledge on home staging. The Internet is a very rich source of information, presented in different formats, i.e., text, audio streaming, and video feeds. At some point, however, the information has to be tested through small projects, and there will come a time when the training has to go up a notch higher. » Read more: Options for Those Interested in a Home Staging Class