It’s a difficult concept around which to wrap your brain. Your furniture does not convey with the house, but it certainly does depreciate or elevate the perceived value of your house and can hurt or help sell your home.

Of course when you’re living in your house, your furniture is perfect! It’s perfectly arranged to suit you and your life style. However, when you’re selling your house, the furniture and its positioning can have a great impact on the bottom line of your house-sale profits. That’s why it pays to pay special attention to your furniture along with the rugs, art and décor that go with it. Understand that your house is now a product on the market and it has competition. You need to make it shine brighter than the other houses on the market in your area, since these homes are competing against your home for the next buyer.

Getting an objective, professional opinion from a respected Home Stager or a reliable Realtor® is your best option. They will tell you what you need to know. If you choose to keep and use your present furnishings while the house is on the market, they may need cleaning, slip covering or rearranging. You want to keep just enough furniture in a room so a buyer can easily walk around, as well as in and out of, the room with ease.

Additionally, arrange each room to portray one purpose. So you want a living room to look simply like a living room, not a living room/office or a living room/toy room or a living room/trophy room.  Move your extra furniture to an off-site storage location, give it to relatives or donate it to a charity.

Sometimes you can swap furniture from one room to another. I’ve often switched a dining room table with the kitchen table because the table in the kitchen was a better scale and style for the formal living room. I’ve also used extra bedroom dressers as console tables in family rooms, dining rooms and foyers.

In some cases, you may have a room with not enough furniture. In such a situation, borrow an extra piece of furniture from a nearby family member or purchase something. If your current furnishings are outdated or worn, it’s smart to replace one or two pieces, if not the entire room.

It’s easy to start feeling overwhelmed, especially when you don’t have a clear idea of what to keep, rearrange, store or replace. This is why it’s best to bring in a professional stager for a consultation BEFORE you put your house on the market. Stagers are trained to know exactly what every style of home, in every area, and at every price point needs to help sell it quickly.  Whether you need one piece or an entire house of appropriate furnishings, a stager can also bring it in for you and arrange it properly.

So once you have repaired, de-cluttered and cleaned your house in preparation for putting it on the market, remember to address your furniture.  It’s like icing on a cake. If used correctly, your furnishings can actually help sell your home and increase your home-sale profits!

Tracy Kay Griffin is a member of Express Homebuyers Design Team. She was the Series Designer for HGTV’s “Get It Sold,” a Guest Designer for HGTV’s ” My First Place” and the Lead Stager for Washington DC’s premier staging company, Red House Staging & Interiors.

If your home needs more than decluttering, cleaning and a fresh coat of paint to make it ready for sale on the retail market and you don’t have the time, energy or resources to do the work, call Express Homebuyers at (877) 804-5252 today. We’ll make you a fair cash offer on your home, as-is – no repairs necessary.