If you are thinking about putting your lakefront home on the market, you may be looking for ways to help your lake home sell faster and for more money. Staging your home is the act of setting your home up so that it looks larger than it may actually be and makes the home more visually appealing to buyers.

To be really effective, you should look at both the interior and the exterior of your lake home. Here are three tips to get you started with the interior of your lake home:

1. Remove unneeded items. By removing unneeded items you can make your home feel larger than it may actually be. Remove things that you do not have to have like furniture, seasonal decorations, seasonal clothing, and other housewares that you can live without for a short period of time. You can either store these items in a garage or portable storage building.

2. Organize your cabinets and closets- After you have packed up the dishes and clothing you don’t have to have right now, coordinate your remaining dishes and clothing by color and type. Why you ask? Organized cabinets and closets appear larger. Spacious closets and cabinets really help sell a home.

3. Make your lakefront home look like a show model. You want to make the interior match the surroundings so potential buyers can imagine themselves and their belongings occupying the space in your house. Things like pictures of boats, the lake, boat ores, and other signs related to the lake can be placed where personal photos used to be. Clear off kitchen counters as much as possible ” hide all those counter top appliances you don’t use, and place out some decorated canisters or put miscellaneous small items or fruit in some attractive baskets or glass vases.

First impressions are important. Imagine yourself as a potential buyer who is seeing your lake home for the first time. What would you change? Would you buy your home all over again? Is there something you would change?

You may have to make a small investment in staging your home’s interior, but you’ll recoup your investment when your home sells. By staging your home properly, you’ll shorten the period of time your home is on the market and get most if not all of your asking price.

Hubert Miles is the founder of Waterfront Houses USA, an online advertising service that provides Lakefront Homes For Sale and Lake Homes For Sale available in the US and Canada.

So you are considering selling your lake house. It may be scary in these tough economic times and you may need to consider staging your lake house to make your home more appealing to prospective buyers and to get the price you desire. Staging your house is the act of setting up your house in such a manner that it is appealing to potential buyers.

It is very effective to stage both the inside and outside of your lakefront house. These are 3 tips to make the exterior more appealing:

1. Go stand on the street to see what clients see when driving up to the house. Be aware that any negative impressions they get outside the house (landscaping not maintained or non-existent, peeling paint, etc.) is just going to make them think that the house itself has not been well taken care of. So even if you have spent the time and money to fix up the interior, it would all be wasted if the clients get a bad first impression as they drive up to the house.

2. While the Realtor is trying to open the lock box to get the key, the potential buyer is evaluating the area around the front entry of the home. Does the area show that the owners have keep the home clean? Are the plants around the entry dead or overgrown? When they look in the corners will they see spider webs or hornet nests? Take the time to clean this area and make sure if reflects nicely on the rest of the lake house.

It will pay dividends to make the effort to clean and make the surrounding area look nice. Why not go ahead and put a fresh coat of paint on any furniture or accessories.

3. Don’t forget the backyard. While that might not be part of the potential buyers first impression experience, if the lake is visible from the house it will certainly make a lasting impression. Pull up weeds, water plants, do some sweeping or raking and maybe even purchase new furniture or accessories (plant pots, bird houses, etc.). If a dock is present, has it been cared for? Are there weak or missing boards that need to be replaced?

Another tip that should not be overlooked is to think of yourself as the prospective buyer that is seeing your lakefront house for the very first time. If there are things that you would like changed, it is likely that others will feel the same way. Try to make your house look the best.

You may have to make a small investment in staging your home’s exterior, but you’ll recoup your investment when your lake house sells. By staging your house properly, you’ll shorten the period of time your home is on the market and get most if not all of your asking price.

Hubert Miles is the founder of Waterfront Houses USA, an internet marketing service that provides Lakefront Houses For Sale and Lake Houses For Sale available in the US and Canada.