Setting the Stage to Sell Your Home

Stagers take a property that's sitting on the market and transform it with a little design magic.

Even the most gorgeous home can sit on a market waiting to be sold. The problem may not be the house itself, it may be the impression it makes -- or lack thereof. In some cases, the current owner's tastes turn people off. In the case of an empty house, a buyer may not be able to picture where his own possessions would fit in.

Enter the home stagers. Home staging is not just cleaning up a house or putting on a fresh coat of paint. Stagers can dramatically change the appearance of a home, sometimes completely, to make it look more desirable. Of course, there is a cost involved in bringing in a stager, but once the stagers have completed their task, sellers have been known to receive more than their original asking price.

While stagers work on all parts of a home, two areas that tend to receive the most attention are the family room and living room -- sometimes done together and sometimes done as two separate projects.

"Family rooms need to evoke comfort and have a space for everyone. As stagers, we do that through texture, color, and props in an effort to portray a family-friendly environment," says Ann Marie Van Over of Sizzle Productions, a staging firm in the Chicago area. "What we try to do in a living room is to establish traditions or a way of lifestyle."

In general, staging, despite the associated costs, is a gamble many sellers are willing to take.