If staging conjures images of an actual stage set, for a play or a movie set, you are not too far from the mark. When you are selling your home, the home needs to appeal to a mass audience (as many potential buyers as possible). Ironically, what we often feel makes a house a home is our personal taste and items that set our house apart from other homes. Our personal preferences and pictures and collections do, indeed, make a house our home. In fact, without those items your home would be just a plain house again. Staging is a way to assist you in returning your home to a “house-state,” where other people can envision their personal taste making the house into their new home.

A staged home, though stripped of overly personal belongings, and clutter, should still feel inviting and warm. Consider the designers in the hotel industry; the rooms in a good hotel should not feel stark or foreboding but rather warm and welcoming. In fact, they are designed to feel like you can “come-on-in” and make this your new living space (even if only for a single day or night).

The reason it is often necessary to hire a stager is that it can be incredibly challenging to convert your home back into a house. Over the years you develop emotional connections to the spaces in your home. A stager will be able take an impartial view of the spaces in the house. She will set the furniture in such a way to enhance the architectural features of the home and minimize any areas that may be a turn-off to potential buyers.

In essence, a staged home is a home that has been carefully designed to appeal to your “audience,” the buyer.