Home staging is the act of preparing a residence prior to selling it in the real estate marketplace. Staging focuses on improving a property to make it welcoming, appealing, and attractive to the largest cross-section of potential homebuyers. The goal of staging is to sell a home quickly, and for the most money possible. Think of a well-designed hotel room—an attractive and welcoming space void of personal items—anyone can walk right in and feel comfortably at home.

Real estate agents began practicing staging around 1970, and gradually designers and decorators began offering professional staging services. More recently, the trend of do-it-yourself home staging has become widely popular. Staging is viewed by some as a necessary step taken prior to selling a home, and statistics show that it makes a dramatic difference on the amount of days a property is on the market and how much it sells for.

Staging often raises the value of a property by way of repairs, re-decorating and landscaping. Properly executed staging leads the eye to attractive features while minimizing flaws. Since a typical home buyer decides if they are attracted to a home or not in the first few seconds of seeing it, curb appeal is generally viewed as a vital aspect of the staging process. Therefore, curb appeal, the practice of improving a home’s exterior appeal, is used alongside interior improvements.
Some of the changes used to make a home more inviting to potential buyers are:

• De-cluttering
• Depersonalizing
• Updating old or unattractive fixtures
• Painting
• Finishing repairs
• Furniture rearrangement or rental furniture
• Accessorizing
• Landscaping and lighting the exterior

Placing rental furniture and decorative accessories in a vacant home can help buyers realize that the room is actually a lot larger than it would look without furnishings or with poorly placed or cluttered furnishings. Homes containing attractive furniture and accessories sell more quickly than vacant homes or cluttered homes because the potential buyers realize what can actually be done with the place. The ultimate goal is helping buyers imagine what it would be like to live there.

Spaciousness and light also help determine the success of a staged home. Typically, the larger a room appears, the better it will seem to homebuyers. Dark, tight spaces create a poor impression and may prevent the home from selling. Furniture layouts should create an impression of openness and comfort. Non-essential items should be removed to minimize crowding and clutter. Opening curtains and blinds to let in natural light and turning on interior and exterior lights at nighttime are also common staging techniques.

Many believe that wall treatments and flooring should have neutral paint colors and subtle patterns. However in some markets, particularly in the luxury home market, unique fixtures and bold finishes — such as stained deeply colored, textured paints and artisan fixtures — are often considered highly desirable.

Religious items, personal photos, awards, certificates and cultural items are often removed to downplay the presence of current homeowners. This helps potential homebuyers to not only feel more at ease during viewings, but allows them to focus on the property itself while also imagining their own belongings in the space.