Selling a home is always a stressful time, but there are ways you can lessen the amount of time and increase your home's selling price. The process is called home staging, and you can do most of it yourself. It just takes time and a little elbow grease.

First, make sure everything in your home shines--showers, tubs, countertops, ovens, floors, appliances, and anything else that buyers will be looking at as they tour your home. Although they can be a pain, that includes windows and skylights.

Besides being spotless, all the rooms of your home should also be odor-free. That includes the bathroom, the laundry room, and your teenage son's room. Offensive odors are often the first thing potential buyers notice, which means they're also one of the biggest reasons why buyers turn around and look elsewhere.

Get rid of clutter throughout the house. Remove all small appliances from kitchen countertops and organize the pantry. If you have walls that are full of family photos, take the pictures down. What you see as treasured memories are seen by buyers as clutter that detracts from being able to see the wall underneath. Keep all closets neat and box up any excess items you don't use every day. You want your home to appear neat and spacious, and nothing destroys that image faster than clutter.

Clutter can come in many forms, including excess furniture, so if you don't use a particular piece of furniture on a regular basis, it's better to cart it off to a storage place, or give it to your local charity, than to let it sit around and make a room look smaller. Temporary storage units can be your best friends in staging your home for sale, and the amount of money you'll get from a faster sale and higher sales price will more than offset their cost.

Try to look at your house objectively, as if seeing it through a stranger's eyes. Are there things you'd like them to notice, such as your gorgeous hardwood floor? If that floor currently is covered by an area rug, it's time to cart it off to the storage facility and put a coat of wax on the floor to make it look as beautiful as possible.

Staging your home doesn't have to be expensive. In fact, if you do it yourself, you can recoup your time and effort toward staging your home handsomely--in a higher sales price and quicker sale.

Copyright