Do you want to sell your home at a premium price now?

If you want to sell it fast, and for more money, you need to stagethat is, you need to package your home in a way that emphasizes its strengths, downplays its weaknesses, and immediately appeals to prospective buyers. According to 91% of realtors, home staging is the way to go.

But you dont need to pay a professional thousands of dollars to give your home a strategic makeover. In Home Staging That Works, youll learn all the secrets, tricks, and techniques of the trade.

Staging is all about making a spectacular first impression on a buyer, and staging expert Starr C. Osborne gives you step-by-step, room-by-room instructions on what to do, keep, toss, fix, paint, replace, avoid, update, show, hide, highlight, and more. First, she teaches you how to see what a buyer sees. (Beware: that buyer will probably notice more about your house in 30 seconds than youve noticed in the last two years.) Then, she shows you how to make your home look big, bright, warm, and welcomingin short, everything the buyer has been looking for.

In Home Staging That Works, youll learn how to:

Focus on your potential buyers tastes (not your own).

Create curb appeal.

Drive Internet interest with photos that flatter your home.

De-clutter and pre-pack at the same time.

Clean and repair your home without spending a fortune.

Keep your home sale-readywithout being afraid to live in it.

Packed with bulleted must-do lists, real-home examples, and 65 photosmany before and afterto illustrate the dramatic difference staging makes, Home Staging That Works demonstrates how easy and rewarding it can be to redesign your home for the ideal buyer.

Starr C. Osborne is owner and founder of Tailored Transitions, one of the nations premier home staging, interior design, and moving-management companies. Visit her website at www.tailoredtransitions.com and her blog and tweets at StagingStarr.

Pragmatic advice that any and every home seller needs to memorize and follow. --Booklist

Want to sell your home at a premium pricenow? Never mind simply tidying up: an amazing 91% of real estate professionals say professional staging is the way to go. But sure enough, hiring a staging consultant will cost you. Thankfully, you can now get all the secrets and techniques the pros dont want you to know, from one of Americas most successful staging experts.

Home Staging That Works shows you how to turn any home into a showpiece that buyers will be fighting over. With specific recommendations on what to do, keep, chuck, fix, paint, replace, avoid, update, show, hide, highlight, and more, youll learn how to:

Focus on your potential buyers tastes (not your own) Create curb appeal Drive Internet interest with photos that flatter your home De-clutter and pre-pack at the same time Clean and repair your home without spending a fortune Keep your home sale-readywithout being afraid to live in it

Complete with photographs of real-life before-and-after transformations, Home Staging That Works offers strategies for each room in your home, as well as conceptual approaches to bring the parts together beautifully. Your home is a magical place waiting for the right buyer to fall in love. Make the match happen with Home Staging That Works!

STARR C. OSBORNE (Philadelphia, PA) is owner and founder of Tailored Transitions, Philadelphias premiere home staging, moving-management, and design company.

FEATURES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: STAGING FOR THE RIGHT AUDIENCE

What Is Staging?

Out with the You: Disengaging from Your Home

Saying Good-Bye to Your Home

Five Ways to Say Good-Bye

In with the New: Figuring Out Your Target Market

Looking at the Overall Statistics

Asking the Pros: Interviewing Realtors

Understanding the Generations

Baby Boomers

What Boomers Want

Generation Jones

What Jonesers Want

Generation X

What Gen Xers Want

Generation Y

What Gen Yers Want

Media Influence on the Generations

Deciding on Your Target Generation

Determining Your Market by the Time Youve Spent in Your Home

The Next Step: Creating a Great First Impression

CHAPTER TWO: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The First Look: Attracting Internet Shoppers

The Drive-By: Making the Most of a Buyers Second Look

Staging the Exterior

The Approach: Driveways and Walks

The Front Yard

Creating a Staged Garden

The Faade: Looking Good

The Front Door

Other Outside Entry Ideas

The Inside Entry: Creating a Sense of Welcome

Begin with Your Hall Closet

Provide Seating if Possible

Unclutter the Space

Make Use of Mirrors

Work with Color

Impressing Your Target Buyer

If Time and Money Are Short

The Next Step: Creating Space

CHAPTER THREE: CREATING SPACE

Taking the You Out of Your Home

Prepacking

Why Not Show Your Home Empty?

If Uncluttering Seems Utterly Overwhelming

When Couples Differ in Uncluttering Ability

Help Children Unclutter

A Silver Lining to the Staging Process

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Everything You Need to Know About Boxes

What Boxes to Use

Supplies for Packing

Out with the Personal and Possibly Contentious

Removing Objects with Possibly Contentious Affiliations

Removing All Photographs and Portraits

Deciding What Furniture and Rugs to Remove

Removing Freestanding Bookcases and Entertainment Centers

Removing Rugs That Are Too Stained or Too Small for the Space

Removing Selected Furniture and Rugs

Clearing the Decks and the Depths: Advanced Uncluttering

Uncluttering All Lateral Surfaces

Tackling Closets and Drawers

Clearing Hallways

Uncluttering Mudrooms and Vestibules

Uncluttering the Kitchen

Uncluttering Bathrooms

Your Home Office

Uncluttering the Dining Room and Living Room

Uncluttering Bookcases

Uncluttering Bedrooms

Uncluttering Guest Rooms, Sewing Rooms, and Multipurpose Rooms

Uncluttering the Laundry Area

Managing Pets and Their Paraphernalia

Uncluttering Porches and Patios

Uncluttering Basements, Garages, and Outbuildings

Revisiting Your Clutter Hot Spots

Double-Checking Your Uncluttering Through a Camera Lens

Recognizing What You Have Accomplished

If Time and Money Are Short

The Next Step: Fixing and Cleaning

CHAPTER FOUR: WHAT TO FIX AND HOW TO CLEAN

How Do You Know What to Fix?

Do a Walk-Through with an Observant Outsider

Get a Preinspection

Why You Cant Just Ignore Whats Broken

Commonly Needed Repairs

Yards and Gardens

Gutters and Downspouts

Roofs

Air-Conditioning Condensers and Trash Cans

Driveways and Walkways

Decks, Terraces, and Fences

Windows from the Outside

terior Wall and Trim Paint

Interior Walls and Ceilings

Overhead Lighting and Ceiling Fans

Windows from the Inside

Staircases

Wall-to-Wall Carpeting

Flooring

Doors and Doorways

Kitchens

Bathrooms

Clean Is What Sells

Yards and Gardens

Roofs and Exterior Walls

Windows

Interior Walls and Ceilings

Overhead Lighting and Ceiling Fans

Floors and Carpets

Kitchens

Bathrooms

Laundry Rooms

Fireplaces, Radiators, and Other Heat-Related Objects

Basements, Attics, Garages, and Outbuildings

If Time and Money Are Short

The Next Step: Setting the Stage

CHAPTER FIVE: SETTING THE STAGE

Deciding Each Rooms Purpose

Targeting Room Usage to Your Most Likely Buyers

Creating Vignettes That Charm Your Buyers

Avoiding Multipurpose Rooms When Possible

Thinking About Flow

Finding Each Rooms Architectural Focus

Using Color

Complementary Colors

Warm versus Cool Colors

Moods Associated with Particular Colors

Color as a Generational Cue

Generational Preferences for Color and Design Aesthetics

Identifying and Remedying Each Rooms Hierarchy of Colors

Creating Balance

Avoiding Heavily Imbalanced Room Usage

Balancing the Style Throughout Your Home

Balancing the Furniture Within Each Room

Choosing Artwork to Suit Your Buyers

Using Mirrors to Enhance Spaces

Balancing the Light and Dark in Each Room

Staging the Key Rooms in Your Home

Styling the Kitchen and Dining Room to Sell

Styling the Living Room to Sell

Styling Bedrooms to Sell

Styling Childrens Rooms to Sell

Styling Guest Rooms to Sell

Styling the Home Office to Sell

Styling Bathrooms to Sell

Going Back over Your Home as a Whole

If Time and Money Are Short

The Next Step: Presenting Your Home to Buyers

CHAPTER SIX: PRESENTING YOUR HOME TO BUYERS

Using the Power of the Cameras Eye

Taking Another Walk-Through with a Camera

Staying Involved if Someone Else Takes Your Photos

If You Have Just Two Weeks to Do It All

Keeping Your Home Presentable While Youre Showing It

INDEX