From PropertyTalk.com Community Wiki

Staging Your Home For Sale

Home staging is the act of preparing and presenting a residential property prior to going up for sale. The goal of staging your property is to sell quickly, and for the most money possible by attracting the most amount of potential buyers. Home staging focuses on improving a property to make it appeal to the largest amount of buyers by transforming it into a welcoming, appealing, and attractive home for sale.

Home staging often raises the value of a property by way of minimising the focus on the home's flaws, and the result of staging is a depersonalized, decluttered, and clean environment in the home and it's outer areas. Often furniture is borrowed or rented to create a living space the buyer could "see" themselves in. Properly executed staging leads the eye to attractive features while minimizing flaws, and provides a positive emotion from potential buyers during the open home viewing.

Home Stagers say their role is to show off a property's assets not hide or cover up defects. As a potential buyer caveat emptor (Buyer beware) is key when viewing professionally staged properties. Look beyond the presentation, and find the flaws.