Before you list: move out, paint, stage, then photograph

Getting a home ready to sell goes faster and costs less when the steps happen in the right order. You can’t paint around boxes or stage around a moving truck, and the photos you take on day one are how buyers see the home online for as long as it’s listed.

1. Walk the home and make a plan

Brett walks the home with you and writes a prep plan for that house: what to fix, what to refresh, what to stage, and what to skip.

2. Move out if you can, or edit down

A vacant home is the easiest to paint, stage, and show. If you’re staying until it sells, an occupied home can show well too, once each room has less in it. Clear counters and shelves, take out extra furniture, and pack anything personal.

If you’re buying your next home at the same time, moving out first can mean carrying two homes for a while. That cost is worth weighing against the easier sale.

3. Fix what an inspector will flag

The repairs that matter most are the ones that come up in a buyer’s inspection: water getting in, roof problems, an old or unsafe furnace or water heater, electrical safety items, and anything structural. Fixing them before you list keeps them from turning into a renegotiation after you’re under contract.

Gather records of past work too, like a new roof, a sewer line repair, or a furnace replacement. Buyers and their inspectors trust a home more when the paperwork is ready.

4. Paint and clean

A light refresh is usually enough. Fresh paint in neutral colors, small repairs, and a deep clean inside and out make the home look cared for in person and in photos.

5. Stage the rooms that need it

Staging means arranging furniture and decor so buyers can picture living there. In the National Association of Realtors’ 2025 staging survey, 83% of buyers’ agents said staging made it easier for buyers to picture the home as theirs. 29% of sellers’ agents said it raised offers by 1% to 10%, though most didn’t report a change in offers. The rooms staged most often are the living room, the primary bedroom, the dining room, and the kitchen.

Vacant homes usually need full staging. Occupied homes often just need furniture edited and moved. You hire and pay the stager directly.

6. Photograph last

Photos go last, once everything else is done. Brett pays for professional photos and a floor plan on every listing, plus drone photos where they help and video for higher-end or unusual homes. He also covers the yard sign and printed property cards.

7. Coming Soon, then live

In REcolorado, the Denver-area MLS, a home can sit in Coming Soon for up to seven days before it goes live. No one can tour it during that time, and the days-on-market count doesn’t start until it’s live. Brett uses that week to build interest with a sign rider, his email list, and Instagram, so buyers are ready on day one. There’s an open house the first weekend.

After it’s live, you get a written update from Brett every Monday, and the two of you review the price together at two weeks.

Two real timelines

These are recent examples, not promises. Every home is different.

Home	Timeline
Occupied home in good shape	About 10 days from signing to live
Vacant condo that needed paint and staging	About three weeks from the first call to launch

For the condo, painting started first, and the stager walked through the same day. The furniture came out a week later, staging went in about a week after that, and the price was set five days before launch.

One Denver sale, start to finish

Before listing one home in Denver, the sellers added a basement egress window, had it cleaned inside and out, cut down the furniture, and gathered the records of past work. It went under contract the day after it went live, over the asking price.

Then the buyer backed out after the inspection. Brett had a structural engineer’s letter that same day, and the home went back on the market with the letter up front. A second contract came within two weeks, and it closed above the asking price.

What to skip

Big remodels rarely pay for themselves right before a sale. In Zonda’s 2025 Cost vs Value report for the Mountain region, a midrange major kitchen remodel returned about 49% of its cost at resale, and an upscale one about 35%. Smaller, visible fixes did better. A new garage door returned more than twice its cost. If something is dated but works, a buyer will usually price it in, and you keep your cash.