A few simple things can make a big impact with potential buyers.
I get asked about staging pretty frequently. With the caveat that each property is unique, there are some good basic rules of staging you need to consider when getting ready to sell your house. Getting rid of your stuff.
Put away personal photos, religious or political images/posters. Anything that makes your house yours should be put away when you're not home. You want the buyer to imprint their own idea of what their life will be like in the home, and that's hard to do when looking at Mr & Mrs Seller's beautiful and distracting wedding photos.
Clutter Kills. Take away everything you can so that the space feels bigger (renting a storage unit can help if you're selling b/c you need more space) organize what must stay, including the pantry and your closets. The buyer will open every door in the house and if the closets are packed tight and unkempt they will assume the house does not have enough storage space
Take good advice regarding color choices.
Neutral is always best.
From paint, to flooring, to counters, to furniture (yes the brightly colored side chair is distracting) have an outside opinion from someone you trust, someone who does not look at the house every day. Someone like your Realtor :)
The way we live in a home is not the way we sell it for top dollar.
Most home sellers expect to clean the house and make it neat for the photos. To truly stage a house to sell you must keep the property in that condition every day.
All clothes off the floor, beds made, dishes put away, mail neatly stacked etc. This is hard to do, even harder with small children, but it makes a huge difference to the potential buyer when their first impression of the property is a positive one with it in A+ condition.
