Clearly, I can’t say enough about staging! It’s one of the easiest ways you can get an edge on selling your home.

Nancy Buck, from It Pays to Stage, is one of my favorite local stagers who has worked with my listings. She was recently featured in CIN Weekly in a great article about staging tips. The pictures are from a listing of mine on which Buck worked her magic.

“Presentation is absolutely everything,” Buck says. “A lot of buyers don”t have very much imagination, and it”s really important to present your home in the very best possible light, and staging really accomplishes that. It helps people to better visualize and see the features of the home.”Nancy is a great resource for anyone who wants help in staging their home. She also has a stash of furniture and accessories.

“Most of work that I do is just working with what people have,” Buck says, “Occasionally there might be some things that would be helpful to purchase. For instance, in the bathroom, I call it show towels – just kind of more of the upscale, fancy towels that you don”t really use for your daily use … Small things like that can just kind of help complement the overall look.”
Nancy outlines three Cs of staging

• CLEAN: Buck says the listing needs to be “toothbrush clean.” She recommends hiring someone to come in and give it a good cleaning, then you can keep up the cleanliness after that.
• CLUTTER: It’s best to remove unnecessary furniture and an excess of accessories. You also want to focus on de-personalizing your home. “You really want to put the focus on the house, not on your kids and grandkids and pictures of dogs and medals and trophies and college diplomas hanging on the walls,” Buck says. “It doesn”t really help sell the house.”
• COLOR: Buck recommends staying away from white walls. But colors should be neutral and not too personal.

Related...

• April 22, 2010 -- The AmyBSells Team Pleases Another Client
• March 3, 2010 -- DIY Staging Checklist
• October 23, 2008 -- Four Staging Challenges
• May 23, 2008 -- Cincinnati Homearama 2008 – Long Cove