Your home might be beautiful. Maybe it is immaculate, stylishly appointed to suit your tastes or highly upgraded with the finest materials and features. Perhaps it is all of these things. But, unless you are one in a thousand, it is not “staged.”

Staging a home for sale is not a new concept, but it is a practice that has gained steam with our more challenging market. I see many home sellers confuse staging with decorating and consequently resisting the process and the recommendations of the staging professional. But the reality is that the moment you commit to marketing your home for sale, you need to commit to transforming your home into a place that potential buyers can easily picture as their home. This means that you need to be prepared to emotionally detach.

According to the National Association of Realtors, for every $100 invested in staging, the potential return is $400. Compare that to the average price reduction in metro Atlanta, which is 8-10% from the original list price. So an average home with a $350,000 original list price will be reduced by $28,000 to $35,000 in order to sell. Staging can save you from a costly price reduction. A staged home will sell for 17% more on average than a non-staged home, and 95% of staged homes sell in 11 days or less. That is statistically 88% faster than non-staged homes.

Let your home speak to buyers

Your home speaks to you, but what is it saying to your potential buyers? Most sellers we encounter tend to take the staging process personally, and this is precisely the point. Our homes are personal, yet how we live is not how we sell. Our homes represent who we are; they are life-sized memory books of our travels, they trumpet our likes, our dislikes and our beliefs. They showcase our stuff — all that stuff we have accumulated over time that speaks to us. The goal of staging is to make the home speak to everyone else, in a compelling and positive way.

You are proud of your figurine collection. Each piece acquired over time has a special meaning, but to your buyer, it is a collection of your things which serves only to draw his attention away from the main event. Likewise the personal photos, the too-tall centerpiece, the overstuffed china cabinet and the bookcase filled with National Geographic magazines dating back to the Paleozoic Era — these are all treasures to be sure, but they serve only to sidetrack a buyer from the task at hand.

Buyers tend to label the homes they see, as do real estate agents. So, you can either be the “house with the beautiful arched doorways” or the “house with the Elvis throw rug and a bunch of office furniture where the dining room should be.” Both evoke emotional reactions, but unless the buyer is one who spends his annual vacations at Graceland, you will be far better served by eliminating distractions.

Clutter may suggest your home doesn’t measure up

Most of us, if honest, will admit that our daily lives involve a certain amount of clutter. The little stack of mail and car keys and loose change next to the telephone, the “junk drawer” which has been busy propagating the species while no one was looking, and a bathroom with enough toiletries on display to groom the entire population of Northern Ireland are all examples. OK, I’m talking about my home here, but we all have our own flavors of clutter.

True, clutter is just another perpetrator of distraction. More importantly, though, your clutter may be sending a message that you don’t have enough space. My own kitchen countertop is, at this moment, permanent home to a toaster oven, a coffee pot, a butcher block of knives, a canister of utensils and a bowl of random items of fruit origin, the latter living out their golden years in a decorative bowl. This arrangement (except for the brown bananas) is so very functional for me, but to another person it might suggest I lack the cabinet space to properly store these everyday items. And, if I’m hoping that this other person will buy my home, I need to clean up my act.

Don’t shoot the stager

The real estate market in Atlanta is competitive and sellers should always be looking for ways to gain an edge over the competition. One way to beat the competition is to stage your home for sale. The primary goal of staging is not to transform your home into the eighth wonder of the world. For most of us, this simply isn’t realistic. Rather, the best stagers will work with what you have, rearranging and reallocating all of your belongings, in order to present the property in its best light. Sometimes this means reallocating some of those belongings to the garage. We aim to improve the flow of your home, to eliminate clutter, and to make your home appear bigger and brighter. A professional home stager is an expert in the art of preparing homes for sale. And, because most buyers now begin their home searches online, having your home professionally staged appropriately can be crucial toward that first step of attracting an interested buyer.

Selling a house involves marketing, merchandising, psychology and design. A house that “shows” well and is priced well will sell, and sell quickly.  And timing can be everything. First impressions count, especially from the moment a potential buyer pulls up the photos of your home online. When a house first goes on the market, it usually receives a lot of interest from real estate agents and the buying public. That’s the time to strike. Once that first wave of interest passes, time can become an enemy for a seller.

Too often the tendency is take the process personally, but you shouldn’t. Staging is not a do-it-yourself sport, and only a third party specialist can bring the neutrality and objectivity needed to accomplish the goal. You may interpret the message that your favorite painting would look much better above the fireplace — in your neighbor’s house — as an indictment on your style and tastes. OK, maybe it is, but most likely it is not. Rather, it is our attempt to ensure that your appointments don’t upstage the home itself. That’s our job.

Even simple, inexpensive staging can result in big bumps to your sale price.

• Painting: New paint can mask home odors while insanely brightening a room
• Carpeting: New carpet — even low-grade carpet — can make a room look clean, well taken care of, and inviting
• Decluttering: Removing “junk” from kitchen counters [including all of the aforementioned items on my counter], rooms, closets, and cabinets adds immediate appeal and gives the illusion of more space

You should also make repairs or replace items in your home which are broken, worn out, or in obvious need of an update. For example, electrical outlet covers are inexpensive and should be replaced wherever needed; as should doorstops and door handles which appear to be old.Remember, home buyers will be looking at the little things in your home and, if those items are neglected, the buyer will wonder what else is in disrepair. Consider re-caulking your kitchens and bathrooms, too. Bright caulk gives the appearance of cleanliness, which can help to sell your home.

Make no mistake — professional staging will be an inconvenience. Your daily routine will be turned on it’s side, at least temporarily. And it can be unsettling as you watch your life rearranged to suit the tastes of others. But if selling your home in the shortest amount of time and for the most money is your goal, it is precisely those “others” who should be your focus.