Are you selling your home? You may want to consider staging it to attract buyers and allow them to imagine it being their home.

“Buyers can only imagine what they see, not what it’s going to be,” says Barb Schwarz, a broker who now focuses entirely on staging homes with her International Association of Home Staging Professionals. “If you don’t clean the carpet or don’t take down the flocked wallpaper or the teenager’s walls are painted bright purple, the buyer can’t envision it any other way.”

Staging a home can make the biggest difference in your selling process. Investing in staging can actually bring better returns on a home in the long-run!

Curb Appeal isn’t just a catchy phrase created to boost landscapers’ income. It’s a crucial first impression that can make buyers either wary of stopping to look or else eager to step inside. Make sure that your lawn and garden look great, trash cans and bikes are put away, house numbers are attractive and easy to see, the front door is spectacular (because you’ve replaced or painted it and perhaps updated the hardware), and you have attractive potted plants by the door.

First Impressions come the minute a potential buyer steps inside your home. Coats on a rack, shoes underneath and keys and other doodads in a dish on a console table may show that you’re a fabulous organizer, but this look is not the way to sell a home. Put the coats and shoes in a closet, the keys in your purse and a vase of flowers on the table.

Time To Clean! Or hire a cleaning crew to come regularly while your home is on the market, or at least for a one-time super-cleaning. Don’t skip windows (inside and out), behind the toilet, bathroom grout, under sinks. Actually move your furniture to vacuum behind and under it.

Rearranging Is Key. Arrange your furnishings to frame — not obscure — views, fireplaces and other architectural details. Put tall objects (furniture, vases, paintings or plants) against tall walls. Highlight, don’t block, the traffic flow. Grab a couple of sturdy friends and play with different ways to arrange your furniture. Pay attention to your friends’ opinions.