Home for sale? Give it a facelift

HOUSE doctor Ann Maurice popularised the trend in the US and UK and now le home-staging has spread to France with more immobiliers offering sellers the chance to repackage their house to make it more saleable.

With the housing market frozen over the past 18 months, Paris-based specialist Sylvie Aubin says home-staging is the way to sell your house quickly and well.

Buyers work very much on "love at first sight" and anything that does not give that buzz can cost a sale.

She says anyone can do the work needed to make their house more sellable - but they need to be able to take a step back and see how an outsider sees their property.

That means getting rid of all the precious knick-knacks, perhaps toning down colour schemes, emptying the over-furnished living room to give the impression of more space and, more to the point, create a living area that does not scare off buyers.

Yasmine Médicis of the website monhomestaging.com says the first three minutes in the house is the vital time for a buyer - and a seller.

She sets out to seduce buyers and to excite them into visualising themselves living in their new home.

Now more and more agents are calling in home-staging experts as a way to refresh a house that has been slow on the market.

An initial consultation costs around €250, subsequent prices depend on the work.

But if a house has had many visits from prospective buyers but still does not sell then Dordogne agent Isabelle Zanette says it is either too expensive or there are other problems such as electricity, doors or the heating. In that case she tries to persuade the seller to do some work to get rid of the problem.