Increasingly, we've realized that there is something magical about looking at a house that you may want to buy and make your own. When a home looks right, when it strikes you from the first moment you enter the door, your mind almost inevitably begins to imagine how your belongings, your furniture−indeed, your life−would look in this house.

There are several things that can pop the imaginative bubble in which potential buyers tour a home. If a home looks neat and clean to the point of sterility, for example, it is difficult to imagine living in it. No one wants to live in a hospital ward. A home should look inviting, like comfortable clothing. On the other hand, it shouldn't look messy, dark or full of other people's paraphernalia or memories.

Thus, the best preparation of a home for a showing involves making it bright, spacious, livable, and−for lack of a better word−free of history. Free of the presence of its actual owners. This can be very subtle. Too many photos of family members, for example, simply remind a potential buyer that this is not their home. And the bubble bursts.

And if photos can pop the bubble, the physical presence of those who live in the house can demolish all the potential buyers' imaginings of what it would be like to live there. After the first viewing, perhaps, it can work to make the seller available to answer questions and make suggestions about the house. But before that−do all you can to allow the potential buyers' imaginations to soar... and their buying decisions to firm. For help with your real estate call Beth at 425-450-5208.