As seen in January's issue of RE/MAX Alliance's Economic Outlook. Click here to view issue.

Highlight your home’s strengths and appeal to the greatest possible group of prospective buyers with these home staging tips. Start with saying bye bye to clutter and depersonalizing your home. Of course your home reflects your personality, style and taste, however it is about creating a blank canvas that is ready for a new home buyer to visualize their dream space. One of the major contributors to home clutter is too much furniture. When I am staging a home to be prepared for market I often whisk away half of the owner’s furniture. This way the home looks much larger. So take a hard look at your furniture groupings. Is everything pushed against the walls? Try to furnish your space by floating furniture away from walls. Reposition sofas and chairs into cozy conversational groups, and place pieces so that the traffic flow in a room is obvious. Not only will this make the space more user friendly, but it will open up the room and make it seem larger.