There are a number of tools available to sell a house.

Using a realtor with a proven track record is one. Listing the house at a competitive price is another. Smart marketing helps. But one thing that ties all these together is home staging.

Home staging has been around for some 30 years, having been created by a realtor in California. It is a relatively new business in Arizona.

Nancy Cummings with Feelz Like Home helps owners who are living in their home and trying to sell it. She also works with vacant homes, but there is a difference between staging owner/occupied houses and vacant ones.

“I tell owners living in their houses that are for sale that there are two important things to do: first clean the house from top to bottom and declutter it,” Cummings said.

Cummings said making up your mind to put excess furniture and belongings in storage can help sell a house quicker.

“You don’t want a potential buyer to come in and not be able to see the house as his or her own,” Cummings said. “If a house is filled to with personal items, photos, religious objects, political artifacts, you are doing yourself a disservice. Those are things that tell a potential buyer that this house still belongs to you.”

Bonnie Lewis, who has Enhanced to Sell specializes in staging vacant homes.

“A house may be very beautiful, but without furnishings, it isn’t going to feel very warm,” Lewis said. “Staging shows the possibilities of a home.”

Lewis recommends that sellers hire a professional home stager.

“If you have your home professionally staged just as it goes on the market, you have created your best opportunity to sell it,” she said. “People need to look at staging as an investment and not as a cost.”

Lewis also says that professional stagers are objective about the way a house can look to be sold.

“People really have a hard time with being objective,” she said. “Professionals are not attached to your things or to your house the way you are. They can show the space in the best possible light for selling your home. When we stage a home, it looks like a model.”

Curb appeal is as important as the inside of the home, Cummings says.

“When someone drives by your home, you want them to feel attracted to it with what they see first,” she said. “Having an unkempt yard could mean you have an unkempt house, and your buyer will just keep on driving.”

Lewis has been in the professional staging business for 3 ½ years. She is based in Fountain Hills, but she works throughout the Valley. For more information, call (480) 837-2845, or visit www.enhancedtosell.com.

Cummings has been a home redesigner and recently expanded her services to include home staging. Her business also is in Fountain Hills, and she works with clients here and in the Valley. Cummings can be reached by calling (480) 837-2861, or by visiting www.feelzlikehome.com.