We sold our home just recently and it hadn't even gone on the market yet. A couple had caught wind that our home was possibly going on the market in the near future and they wanted to take a look. We didn't know them at all. They knocked, we let them in and they purchased our home the next day, pretty much turn key. We had every intention of painting and staging. It didn't take any of that to sell. I guess what I'm saying is think about what it would take for you to go in and look at a perspective new home for you, would you be able to look past pics hanging on the wall or someone else's decor taste? Enjoy this process of selling and moving and chances are the person buying your home may have their own idea of changes they'd love to implement. Best of luck :)

As suggested us the 3m hooks. Or there is a product called monkey hooks that put a tiny hole in the wall that wouldn't need much to touch it up. Keep pics to a min tho. More important tho is to remove any/all personal items i.e. photos, anything that reads "personal". Clear counter tops as much as possible. Clean out closets and have the home looking spic and span.

Have you talked with a local Realtor yet to determine your market? Not all homes sell before they are put on the market. That would indicate a sellers market with few available homes.

Homes that are staged sell for more (generally).

Do as Kerri Ann suggests above, use the command hooks to put back artwork. I am assuming your artwork is not offensive. I'm a Realtor and most of the artwork I see is suitable when selling...very occasionally it isn't and has to be removed. You can be more sparse with your artwork, but empty walls don't work well when selling.

The most effective preparations you can do include:

1) Repairs

2) Deep cleaning and editing of 'stuff'. Clean out your closets. Remove items from the property that do not convey, thinking of chandeliers or something else that normally is included. Replace with a less expensive chandelier if you are taking your chandelier.

3) Fresh paint

4) Landscaping. Make the front door area very inviting.

5) Lighting.

You want your home to be fresh, super clean, spacious, light, and not cluttered and to smell good :)

Depends upon your market. When house hunting ( which I have been currently), I pay absolutely no attention to the decor . Maybe I’m the exception, but my focus is on location, floor plan & the “feel” I get the minute I walk in the door. Seems like with every house I’ve purchased over the years .... I knew within five or ten minutes after walking in the front door that I would buy it.

Aim for one large picture per room. Pack up the small things.

Our realtor excelled at staging. He spent hours in our house moving furniture around and editing our things, and then hours more taking photos for the listing. Had us remove and pack up a lot of furniture and decor. We didn't take down all the artwork but we did edit, following his keen eye. Less is more when it comes to staging, but you also don't want empty rooms and bare walls.

You definitely want to remove any artwork that is potentially controversial (religious/spiritual themes, humorous, political, nudes no matter how artistic, etc). Remove all family photos, diplomas, and anything that points too heavily to who you are (example: when house hunting we visited this home that had tons of musical instruments and artwork around musical themes; we couldn't help ourselves from wondering about the occupants, and it was highly distracting. Yes the occupants were famous musicians; it wasn't too difficult to figure that out).

Some other tips we learned:

1. No more than three items on the mantel

2. Remove the leaf from your DR table and edit down the chairs (just four). No tablecloth or runner.

3. Remove all floor lamps -- they don't show well in staging photos. The eye gets "stuck" on them.

4. Remove excess end tables and superfluous furniture.

5. If the flooring is nice, consider removing or editing down area rugs to show them off. We wound up rolling up most of our area rugs except the one in the LR and the two in the kid's bedrooms, as their flooring wasn't so nice.

6. When you take photos for your listing, make sure the photos are showing off the bones of the house and not your furniture and artwork. So many listings make this mistake!

7. Remove any magnets or other clutter on the fridge.

8. Clear kitchen counters of EVERYTHING -- no appliances, no dish soap, etc.

9. Remove any hanging dish clothes.

10. If your bedrooms are small, remove the nightstands. (a nuisance while selling but it visually makes a big difference).

11. Clear up any cord clutter. Or just unplug everything and tape the plugs behind the electronics.

12. Clear all horizontal surfaces -- DR table, console tables, dressers, office desk, etc.

13. If you've got a ton of plants, move most of them outdoors if the weather allows and group them together.

14. Add back something alive in each room - a healthy plant, a bowl of fruit, a fresh flower arrangement.

15. Clear out 2/3rds of all cabinets and closets. People do open doors and this will make the storage spaces seem generous.

16. Open up all the window shades and turn on all the lights.

17. No bath mat in the bathroom.

18. Edit down your bookshelves. Pack away any books that may be controversial.

19. Keep up with your laundry during showings: no full or overflowing hampers.

20. If you've got coat hooks in the entry way/mud room, put away the coats, or at most, leave just one coat hanging.

^Good ideas. Your Realtor should bring in a professional photographer - that's what I do, at my expense. It makes a huge difference in your marketing and listing photos.

Thanks everyone! I definitely am not planning for my home to sell prior to it being listed. Our market is healthy, but not that healthy! :) Applepieorder, that is what I am thinking as well. That room has a bunch of little framed objects, it is an office and my husband is former Navy so it has those plaques, decorative USNA sword, etc. I am thinking get rid of the small stuff and just have one larger piece in the room. I really just didn't want to put a bunch of new holes in the freshly painted walls. I do need to paint because there are some small drywall issues that would be unacceptable to listing (a piece of furniture rubbed against the wall).

Jennifer M, kidding but not, can I just set my house on fire instead, LOL?

@Christy, think of it as pre-packing for your move :)

We have hung artwork but I have purchased 20 or so small containers from Michaels and have them filled with paint for every room, so when we start to pack it will be easy to spackle and touch up the holes.

Jennifer - that is a very useful list with many items that are never mentioned when getting ready to sell a home.

new holes are pretty easy to patch and fill. i'd patch all of the existing holes, paint, and then re-hang a few items, judiciously.

we have a lot of art in our home, but i know its not for everyone. actually, i really wouldnt mind buying bare walls as then i'd know they werent hiding anything, and i'm sort of offended by 'boring' art and wonder what sort of people could bear to live with such mindless stuff on their walls. : )

Less is always more with respect to furnishings when staging a home for sale. . . as far as art, it totally depends on what you have going on in the room. If the room is well staged, clutter free and art would ENHANCE it, definitely re hang. The only way art will "enhance" is if it's quality art. If a seller hangs art on the wall which is random, ill placed or looks cheap, then it's best to leave the walls empty. But beautiful art which relates to the vibe of the home, is always a good thing.

I’m listing my house in the next week or so, ahhhhhh!

I had to recarpet the entire upstairs, so we moved most of the furniture to the new house and are leaving it unfurnished upstairs. The realtor told us that would be fine, as long as we stage the main floor.

I asked her about taking a leaf out of the dining room table and scaling it down to 4 chairs. She said that people want to see that a large table will fit so to have at least 6 chairs. Maybe it’s a regional thing.

I was debating going to a local nursery and picking up some houseplants, I will go ahead and do that this week.

No one mentioned closing the toilet lids; one of my pet peeves in photos!

My husband is a Real Estate Photographer. Always get professional photos done. One thing that can come across funny in photos is when there are throws everywhere. Also make sure your closets are neat and hangers are straight.

Not only throws, but people forget to put away the little soaps dispensers etc and it really shows up in photos, but not so much IRL.

I agree about the photos. I'm always surprised when I see toilet seats up or bath towels not looking perfectly hung on the bar, or anything out of whack to be honest. I forgot the worst: the bed not being made! Really people? This is your chance to make the best first impression on something REALLY important. I have to blame their Realtor for this as well to not be coaching them on the right way to have things set up. Decor is decor and sometimes you don't have the time or money to make it look like a model home, but you can straighten it up and clean it out as much as possible. I'm looking forward to filling up a POD or similar in preparation for listing.

Anette - the dining table thing may have been house-specific. Our last home was small with open floor plan. Taking out a leaf and two chairs made the space look roomier and improved flow. By all means if you have a large DR then a large DR table shows it off to better advantage I should think.

Staging is not furnishing. They are two entirely different concepts. I agree that having a home squeaky clean and organized is one of the best most cost effective methods a homeowner can do before putting their home on the market. However, staging is meant to evoke an immediate emotion. Everyone will have an emotion when looking at your home....staging makes it a positive emotion. I'm not a stager. I hire professional staging companies. I am a Realtor and have seen it work numerous times. In fast moving low inventory markets vacant homes sell, but staged homes sell for more (usually).

Remove anything of a personal nature.

Closets…weed them out. My pet peeve is opening a closet door and smelling an unappealing odor. So, only freshly laundered clothing. No sneakers, etc...

Pare down, but don’t wind up with the house looking like the owners skipped town.

To give you an idea of the power of staging, we were in a hot low inventory market. We were selling our duplex, same time the neighbors were selling as well. Two similar duplex condos of same age and condition -- their unit was considered the more desirable as it had slightly more sq footage with somewhat more desirable layout too.

They had a painter come in and paint all the walls a standard "builder's white" and did no other staging. The builder's white was so awful... it made the place look like a rental unit, though it was not ... it had beautiful cabs and countertops, beautiful hardwood flooring, gorgeous trim, etc -- arguably nicer than our unit, but that dang builder's white paint color just ruined it, in the listing photos and in person.

Meanwhile our condo had a riot of rich paint colors on all the walls, a cohesive plan but different colors in each room. And dreaded pink pickled cabinets. And pink marble baths. And white painted trim. We thought we'd have to re-paint all the walls since it was ... pretty unique.... but our realtor said no, and helped us stage the place instead.

End result: We sold faster than our neighbors, and for substantially more $ per sq foot. And I truly credit this to the staging.

^Yes, this is what I experience. The fee to stage is nominal compared to the end result.

Annette, Generally a buyer would need to see that the dining room could seat at least 6 comfortably, so I would absolutely go ahead and put that leaf and those chairs back. Do a beautiful new tableset, or don't do it all. Better to have the table empty than to have an unappealing setting on it. At the least, instead of a houseplant (if that is what you were going to do on the table), get a bunch of white tulips, place them in a clear glass vase, and you can be done. Keep it fresh. Good Luck!