No one can underestimate the value of a positive first impression when it comes to selling your home. Experts in home staging say your home becomes a product the minute you list.

"Don’t wait to properly stage your home after it has been sitting for six months without an offer," says Terry Bertha White, who owns Picture Perfect with her sister, Patricia Bertha Mattingly. "Homes that have been sitting that long have a stigma to them. You need to hit the market looking great."

White says if a potential buyer is interested in your home, he or she might drive by first before making an appointment for a formal showing. If the home is not ready, that call may not come.

"Your house should look warm and inviting from the street," White says. "Holiday decorations should be gone, indoor and outdoor lighting should be on. Stand across the street and compare your home to others on your street. The exterior should be well maintained, landscaped, dry, walks not covered in salt, potted plants at the door."

Meg Schoenecker, staging consultant with Movers and Shakers, says an exterior that is cluttered and overgrown can send a potential buyer to another property. "We work primarily in the Lake Country area and people have large yards with pools, trampolines, sports equipment," Schoenecker says. "Equipment needs to be stored away. If the grass under the trampoline is dead, buyers notice that. Move clutter out of sight, maintain the landscaping. If the doorbell doesn’t work and the porch lights are burned out, fix them. There should be a welcome mat. Clean out the spiderwebs, make your home inviting from the outside to get them in the door."

Once you have them in the door, the professionals say open your senses to what a potential buyer sees. Peggy Kamke of Material Girls Decorating in Cedarburg says the average walk through is 10 to 15 minutes.

"The way you live is not the way you sell," Kamke says. "Stagers work to minimize unfortunate features of the home and play up the great features to the hilt. We have some older homes in Cedarburg that are known for character. We don’t want to remove the home’s personality, but we want to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible. If your home is super country or super contemporary, we work to neutralize that so buyers can see themselves in the home."

Sometimes that can be done with appropriate paint and tasteful accessories, Kamke says. If you’ve been living with cracked bathroom tiles that don’t bother you, now is the time to fix them.

"We see a lot of renovations to older homes that don’t match the style of the home," Kamke says. "Without gutting the room, there are many inexpensive fixes — neutral paint, uniform decorating choices. We worked with a beautiful new home that had dated wallpaper in every room. Sellers need to have that removed or be prepared to reduce their asking price."

Schoenecker says cooking and pet smells coupled with too many personal items are turnoffs to buyers.

"Pets, cooking, smoke — these are things nobody tells you about your own house but buyers notice as soon as they enter," she says. "De-personalize your space of photos, memorabilia, otherwise buyers think you are still attached to the home. Move these to the private areas of the home or store them away. Focus on the public spaces — living room, entry, great rooms."

"Kitchens and bathrooms are big with buyers, but if you turn them off at the door, they don’t even get that far," says Mary Inden with The Gilded Edge in Elm Grove. "Buyers are very critical. As they look at your home they will mentally exaggerate the cost of upgrades and repairs. In this market, buyers can build a new home for the same price you are asking for your lived-in home. If your kitchen is older, you can update the look with new hardware and paint. Don’t pair new granite countertops with an older kitchen. Minimize the flaws."

Inden says she sees a lot of homes on the market with too much dated furniture, too many knick-knacks and too many photos.

"We work with a lot of clients who are selling a home for their elderly parents," Inden says. "Home sellers should be willing to store furniture — nothing is worse than duct tape on the La-Z-Boy. Stagers can work with the pieces you have or rent appropriate pieces that suit the style of the home. Homes that are empty with white walls do not show well either. Home stagers will pick appropriate furniture and accessories."

Home stagers will identify unique characteristics of your home and highlight them to the best advantage.

"We will roll up rugs if your home has great floors or we’ll put rugs down if the floors aren’t in great shape," Schoenecker says. "Sometimes we just relocate what you already have for a big impact. I did a home on Lac LaBelle where the kitchen table and chairs were horrible. We relocated the patio rattan furniture to the kitchen and it looked great. It made all the difference in showing the home."

Mattingly says that some of your homes finer points are often hidden behind window treatments.

"Many homes have outdoors views that are blocked," Mattingly says. "When you are home, you want privacy, but to show your home, you have to wash the windows and emphasize the view. Punch up a room with natural light. We’ve accessorized garden views with a sundial or a birdbath for a sense of depth. It makes a big difference. It is a small amount of effort, but it feels landscaped."

Another mistake home sellers make is to show rooms that have no clear purpose. "We have a lot of younger families in Cedarburg that have turned their dining room into a playroom," Kamke says. "That is fine for lifestyle, but it is not going to fly for sale. Buyers would like to see a proper dining room with a table and chairs."

White says all the alternate-purpose rooms should be returned to their original intent. "If you’ve turned the dining room or a bedroom into a sewing room, it needs to go back," White says. "Whatever you are using your finished basement for — I had a client that had turned hers into a hair salon — it needs to be neutral. You want people to walk into every room and say, ‘This is nice,’ and build on that. Think of it as going to a job interview — you wear a nice professional suit, not your funkiest outfit. That’s how you should approach dressing your home for a showing."

Don’t turn off the charm after the open house, Kamke says. "If you stage for the open house and get a call for a second showing, this is where you really go the extra mile. This is the equivalent of a presidential visit. You are now on the buyer’s short list, so pull out all the stops. Call your stager back for this to make sure everything is picture perfect."