Sometimes something as simple as where to hang a picture or position furniture properly is not as clear to those living in the space as it is to an outside party. The image of Grandma posed in a brass, ornate frame above the fireplace is lovely—but probably only for the ones related to your grandma.

Chris Lu, Sabal Homes’ senior marketing manager, says people aren’t willing to buy homes now before selling what they’re in due to the looming recession. “It’s something we just identified as an obstacle to sell more houses.”

Sabal now offers a professional home staging option for existing residences when customers purchase and build a Sabal home. Lu feels home staging is an up-and-coming trend in both Calgary and Edmonton, where the builder’s homes are found. “We’re going to help customers feel confident that we’re going to make sure they get top value for their house.” HGTV is a source Lu uses frequently to find upcoming trends and noticed a recent shift of programming from house-flipping to redecorating and staging homes instead.

Yet Cheryl-Anne Priest, owner of Calgary staging company Inviting Spaces says, “The HGTV shows have been extremely misleading.” Her concern is the indication homes will sell over list price as she doesn’t think that’s realistic presently. But she does agree a staged home will likely get a higher sale price than an unstaged property—possibly even the list price.

Another local home stager Karyn Elliott of Crazy House is on the other hand, thankful for the staging TV programs spreading the word about what she does for a living. She says the idea was not familiar to Calgarians in 1999 when she started her business. “The first three years I had to pioneer the whole concept.” Elliott’s business model stemmed from a seeming lack of homeowners’ ability or willingness to fix-up and clean their properties before showing them to the public.

She created five steps in her process of home staging with clients, which include cleaning (closets included), de-personalization (no personal photos), neutralizing (think toned-down paint colours), de-cluttering (a purge and storing of items) and dramatization (the final “wow”). She typically instructs her clients on how to complete the first four steps, but the last one is “the art of it,” and involves knowing where furniture and art should be placed. “If they can get it right, they would have done it themselves already.”

Priest teaches home staging courses in Calgary to break the myths of what it is and isn’t. The biggest eye-opener for many of her students is the advice that there’s more to it than making everything pretty. She also addresses who buyers will likely be and the need to stage for the purchasing market, not the current owner.

“A lot of the people selling are in their 50s, 60s, 70s now (and) they are downsizing,” she says, adding many think the home they’re selling is perfect as-is considering it housed them and five kids for decades. But, she says the key factor they’re not seeing is buyers today are 30-year-olds with active lifestyles and don’t want homes requiring hours of yard work and home maintenance.

One customer of Priest’s, Jim Oldfield, successfully sold his staged property about a year ago in a market full of comparable listings. “There are some things that you’ll be asked to do, some ways to arrange things that are not necessarily the way you live in the house, but at that particular point, you’re selling the house,” he says. “It’s not your house anymore. You want it to be someone else’s house.”

A big supporter of well-done home staging is Christina Hagerty, Calgary real estate associate for Re/Max Realty Professional. “We’re selling a lifestyle,” she says. “We’re selling a home so people can walk in and say ‘you know what, I love that piece’ or ‘I’ve got that couch’ and hence relate to the lifestyle that’s delivered there.”

But if people are being hit from all angles with reasons to save because of economic doom, why would they put more money into a home they don’t plan on living in anymore?

“It should be a really positive experience for the buyer and for the seller,” notes Elliott. She believes everyone wins when a house is staged. Sellers, because they feel proud of the home they’re presenting and money made from the sale, and buyers, because they can just move in and live. Realtors benefit from easier showings and faster sales.

Hagerty’s sales focus is on Calgary’s competitive inner-city condos and she admits that, without question, buyers have a lot of choices right now. “We have to chisel our skills a little bit sharper and make sure that we work on our marketing. And part of marketing is first impressions are everything,” she explains. “The first impression (buyers) feel from the home is pretty much the impression they carry throughout the home.” So, it stands to reason the emphasis on successful staging is huge, as she says it has to reach the end-user.

Bloom Property Stylists fit Hagerty’s staging requirements and she has used them for many of her vacant home listings. Angela Martini, senior partner of Bloom says, “We come in from a buyer’s perspective and look at what are the potential objections.” Anything she and her business partner notice in the space, they expect buyers to see as well. This enables them to stage the home successfully from the pretty stuff and accessories all the way to the use of space and flow. “We try to absolutely make our places look like a show home,” Martini says, adding that’s true regardless of the size or list price of the residence they’re working on. “Really, in any market—if your property stands out, it is going to sell before anyone else’s property.”

So instead of making grandma’s picture the reason your place “stands out,” possibly seek some professional staging help.