Good home staging ideas are important if you want to sell your home for the best price and in the shortest time period. In fact, home staging has become so commonplace in the real estate world that most people today expect it! If potential buyers go into an empty house or a messy one, they may turn around and leave. Or, at best, have negative thoughts about the place. And either of those is a bad thing.

These are difficult times. The housing market has recently gone through some very unusual situations. Banks and lenders have been slapped around some and in response, are being much more careful about who they give loans to. This alone puts the seller in a much less-than-perfect position. Add to that the economy and the job market and you've got to do everything you can to woo these "potentials" into becoming buyers!

There are several good reasons to learn home staging ideas you can do for free, besides the obvious money you'll save by doing this yourself. Studies show that homes staged sell an average of 50% faster than those not staged! That's half the time! And time is money, whether you're a business person or a someone selling a home. Every week that goes by seems longer than the week before.

And these same studies reveal that buyers will pay up to 20% more for a well staged home! On a $250,000 home, that's $50,000 (fifty thousand dollars) just because your home was neat, clean and well presented. Talk about return for your investment (in time)! Because of this, Realtors® tend to show these staged homes more often than non-staged ones. That makes sense, as their commission is based on the selling price. It could mean a thousand or two dollars to them because of the work YOU did.

Even though nicely arranged furniture and clean rooms do not really affect the value of the home, a few good home staging ideas may lead to a higher appraisal. Appraisers are, after all, only human and will tend to see your staged home in a more favorable light. In other words, if you'll simply learn home staging basic techniques, you might even help the paperwork along!

So, how much time should you invest? Well, that's up to you and depends on the condition of the property, but a few weekends usually does the trick. There are three important things you'll need to keep in mind as you're going through your home implementing your home staging ideas. First, it has to have "curb appeal." This means you will have to work on the front of the home and mow, trim, clean up, paint, fix and do everything you can to make your home as attractive as it can be. From the front curb.

You want the potential buyer to say "Oh, this is nice!" when they drive up. After you have them smiling, keep the warm-fuzzies there by making sure everything is clean, painted (not chipped) and arranged simply with open spaces. Remove all really personal items and make repairs to anything they might see or try and turn on. And make sure there is plenty of light. Floor lamps and table lamps can be bought from the big boxes for under $30!

Finally, walk down your street taking mental notes on how your home "hits" you and walk through the place with a critical eye out for anything a stranger might see as a negative. Put yourself in their shoes. And, for more on home staging ideas and free tips and advice on things you can do yourself for little or no money, go to RemodelQuickTips.com and click on HOME STAGING in the left hand navigator column.