Christine Rae

Staging your home properly can not only help you sell it, but help you get a good price for it. The effort spent in finding the right accents and accessories can pay dividends in selling time — and you can take new purchases with you! Staging your home for an open house takes things to a new level and you need to prepare carefully to make sure you cover all the bases.

You’re selling your home and using an open house to show it off. You need to stage your home ahead of time, of course, as well as set the price, and take care of all the details that go into an open house. If you can follow the steps in the following list, you can boost your chances for a successful open house: Complete all staging techniques before taking the photographs for your online listing and flyers.

As you prepare your home for sale, you want to stage it as attractively as possible. Consider purchasing some of the items in the following table — realtors purchase these items and use them over and over in the homes they stage. Room or Area Items Front entry Sofa table, silk flowers, mirror to reflect light Living room Throw pillows, rug, lamps, silk trees Family or rec rooms Artwork, throws, game board, rugs, throw pillows Master bedroom Six pillows (four sleeping pillows in shams and two throw pillows), bed skirt, white sheets, plush neutral bedding, silk flowers, table lamps, a throw, and art Kids’ bedrooms or extra bedrooms Neutral and plush bedding, two sleeping pillows in shams and one throw pillow, bed skirt, table lamps, artwork Bathrooms Plush white linens, colored linens as accents, terry cloth shower curtain, large serene art pieces Kitchen Cookbooks, silk flowers, light fixtures, serving dishes Dining room Crystal or silver objects, large art pieces, floral display Laundry room Wicker laundry basket, artwork, laundry tins with scoop Curb appeal New mailbox, light fixtures, welcome mat, shutters Backyard Benches, outdoor urns with silk trees, outdoor rugs You can take most of this nice, new stuff with you when you move!

To get your house in shape for showing it to potential buyers, you make plans to stage it so that it shows off its best features. The staging process involves everything from art on the walls to rugs on the floors. The tips in the following list help you judge sizes and spacing: Area rugs: Use an area rug to ground furniture or delineate a sitting area.

Sometimes, part of the plan of staging your house is to make it look its best for an open house. An open house is always nerve-racking, so before any potential buyer steps foot in your house, make sure you do all the things in the following list so that your house looks its sellable best: If the views are good open all drapes and blinds.