Skip the Fake Lemons in a Bowl

I've been in a lot of houses. Some staged by professionals, some staged by sellers who watched a lot of HGTV in 2008, some not staged at all. The houses that show best are not the ones with the most stuff. They're the ones where the seller had the discipline to take stuff away.

What buyers actually look at

Buyers spend more time looking at the floor than the centerpiece on the dining table. They look at the walls, the windows, the trim. They look at how clean it smells. They notice when the lightbulbs in the kitchen don't all match temperature — cool white in two cans, warm in three, the result looks broken. They don't notice the fake lemons.

The five things that actually move buyers

• Declutter past the point where you think you've gone too far. Then take out one more thing. Your house should feel underfurnished, not lived-in.
• Paint the front door. A fresh, slightly bold color on the door is the single highest-ROI thing you can do in a weekend.
• Replace dated overhead light fixtures, especially the one in the entry and the one over the kitchen island. The 2003 brass dome is louder than you think.
• Match your bulbs. All warm or all cool, never both. This costs $40 and changes how every photo turns out.
• Steam clean the carpets, even if they look fine. Smell is the sense that gets remembered.

What not to bother with

Don't replace your kitchen counters. Don't replace your appliances unless one is broken. Don't paint every room a different accent color. Don't put throw pillows on a chair nobody sits in. Don't get the inflatable Santa out for the holiday showings. If you have a feature wall in chevron, paint over it before the photographer arrives.

Staging is not a magic trick. It's just respect for the buyer's attention. Give them less to look at and they'll look at the right things.