The real estate market in Arizona has been so strong for so long that many properties were virtually marketing themselves.

But as this unprecedented strength has weakened and the number of days on the market has lengthened to more typical levels, homeowners must become more creative in marketing their properties.

Savvy homeowners are using professional home staging services to ensure a home not only looks its best but well cared for, too.

By showcasing the home’s possibilities, staging helps create both a visual and emotional appeal with prospective buyers. Today’s prospective buyers are busy people who want homes that reflect their upscale lifestyles. This means a home that is beautifully accessorized and decorated, with rooms that feature well arranged, fashionable and properly-scaled furniture.

While professional home staging is somewhat new to the Valley, it is rapidly making its way into homeowners’ marketing plans and budgets to effectively help market their properties so they not only sell faster, but at the best possible price. 

Staging the home for its market debut enhances the opportunity to captivate prospective buyers from the initial traffic, and helps move the property more quickly. In a slowing market, most buyers expect stale, minimally appealing properties to come at quite a discount to the original listing price.

While homeowners might think that home staging is only for luxury homes, it is also financially beneficial for properties in the $250,000 to $500,000 range, and it is always important to stage vacant homes. Staging can give a property a “WOW’ factor that a vacant home, no matter how nice, just doesn’t provide.

Staging warms and beautifully fills the void of empty rooms, helping buyers immediately see how to use space in today’s desirable, but often challenging, open floor plans.

Home buyers want to feel like they are truly moving up and home staging shows how a particular home can make their dream a reality by making it easy for them to see themselves living there.

Trained to evaluate both a property’s weak and strong points, the home stager will accentuate the strong points while minimizing its weak points.

Effective staging makes rooms look larger and will help de-emphasize imperfections like unusual floor plans, dark rooms or poor views that can be deal-killers.

In addition to having your home professionally staged, curb appeal is very important to entice buyers to come in.

Things that will enhance your home’s curb appeal include a well manicured landscape, a clean and uncluttered front entry, yard and patio(s), clean windows and doors, and a fresh “welcome” mat.

(Editor’s Note: Bonnie Lewis is a managing partner of Enhanced to Sell, LLC, a professional home staging firm that stages vacant homes. Her business is located in Fountain Hills. Her business Web site is www.enhancedtosell.com. To reach her by telephone, call (480) 837-2845.)