Staging a Home means maximizing your sale price. As the housing market cools, it's more important than ever to pull out all the stops...10 tips for getting top dollar.

Home staging is the act of preparing a private residence prior to going up for sale in the real estate marketplace. The goal of staging is to sell a home quickly, and for the most money possible by making a home appealing to the highest number of potential buyers.

Staging focuses on improving a property to make it appeal to the largest number of buyers by transforming it into a welcoming, appealing, and attractive product for sale. Many people believe that staging raises the value of a property by way of reducing the home's flaws, depersonalizing, de-cluttering, cleaning, improving condition items, and landscaping.

For vacant homes, staging furniture is used to create a living space the buyer can "see" themselves living in. Properly executed staging leads the eye to attractive features while minimizing flaws.

There are several ways to boost the value of your home (replacing the Kitchen appliances, remodeling the bathrooms etc) but for sellers, there's only one way to maximize their investment that will not be costly, will be done in just a few days and won’t involve copious amounts of dust and contractor bills. It's called staging -- that is, sprucing up your home in a number of small ways -- and it's getting more and more popular as the housing market cools and sellers try and set their homes apart.

Living in the home is different than marketing a house for sale and you have to think of your home a product. Staged homes also sell faster, according to Schwarz -- an average of seven days compared to 45 days for un-staged homes. "Staging is not decorating," said Barb Schwartz, founder of Associated Staging Professionals and author of "Home Staging: The Winning Way to Sell Your House for More Money." "Decorating is personalizing. Staging is de-personalizing."