If you think staging is just a rich man's game... you're right! Home staging - aka getting your home into the best possible show shape so as to trigger an emotional response in the prospective buyer - is the proven way to shore up the value of any property offered for sale. Studies have shown that a staged house sells for 20% more than non-staged homes on properties priced over $200,000 and for 10 - 15% more on homes less than $150,000 - according to Tom Scott of Showhomes. So, if you want to get rich with your investment property... or maybe just sell your house for the best possible price, stage it!

To shore up the price of your property for sale (i.e. get rich... or at the very least get what's rightfully yours), take the time to present your property really well. (which is just another way of describing staging!)

Show the buyer how to live in the home. We have an "add water and stir" society; people prefer to have an expert tell them something rather than have to go down a learning curve, make expensive mistakes and not have an optimal experience. Give each room a function, some color and some style. Buyers respond to emotions, and the best way to engage the emotions is with color (hence the existence of painters for as long as there's been mankind!)

Music is usually a great way to ignite emotion, but be careful: more often than not, playing music makes a buyer suspicious that you're covering up the noise of traffic, a highway, a school playground, or the woodcarver -with-buzz-saw next door!

I have explained using all 5 senses to sell a home in a different article, so I won't waste any more time on it here. Let's instead look at some numbers!

If a house costs $255,000. Your first price reduction is going to be at least $5 or 6 thousand, no? For half of that, you could have staged the whole house, or at least the principle rooms, for 3 months! Yes, you would have out of pocket expense on the staging, but what would your carrying costs have been?

Staged homes sell 20 - 30% faster. In your market, how long is the average days on market? Chances are it's at least 60 - 90 days (and getting longer as 2008 progresses) If you can sell you home for a higher price, and not have it sit on the market deteriorating thereby saving untold amounts of money, to say nothing of time and emotional expense, wouldn't you agree, it makes financial sense to stage the home?

Everything that makes financial sense... is a rich man's game. You can play too.