• Pretend that you’re getting your home ready for a magazine spread. Get rid of clutter, get rid of dirty or outdated furniture, and put away your personal belongings. Take down family photos, and put away laundry. Remove traces of kids and animals. • Shelter the pets. Th is is important. Even if you’re the most meticulous pet owner in the world, advertising to potential buyers that you have birds in a cage, a free- roaming guinea pig, or a bedroom dedicated to a family of rare Siamese cats will turn people away. Pets can create odors that stick around, and since you’ll be working hard to make their odors disappear, you want to avoid calling any attention to your furry friends. You need to do more than just hide them from the photos, however ; fin d somewhere to shelter them when buyers come for a showing. • Accessorize your home. A few home accessories with colors that pop will go a long way. For example, bright sofa pillows or a healthy green plant, or a vase of colorful fl owers strategically placed in each room. • Light it up. Are your pictures too dark or washed out? Not enough natural light coming from the windows? Add some ligh t fixt ures or lamps to lighten things up. Bright LED lamps in the corners or o ff-c amera can give the perfect boost to a dark room. • Hire a stager. If you don’t want to tackle a staging job on your own, you can hire a professional stager to rearrange your existing furniture or bring in some accessories and rented pieces. When you’re interviewin g diff erent stagers for the job, check up on rates per room. You might decide to photograph only certain rooms in the house (remember 57
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