Reader Question: My wife and I would like to put our house on the market. We’ll be asking around $140,000 for it, so do you think we should consider professionally staging the home?

 It would make a lot of sense if you were talking about a million-dollar house, but with a less expensive home like that I’d just make sure it’s really clean and neat and nice — especially the front area with the sidewalk and bushes. We’re talking curb appeal here. Make sure the front door, trim and porch area are all cleaned or painted, too.

There shouldn’t be any bad smells in the house, and everything inside should be crisp and clean as well. You can stage it yourself with a few pieces of nice furniture and such, if you have it available. And try this old realtor’s trick to make things a bit more homey: Put few drops of vanilla extract on an eye of the stove while it’s heated. It will make the whole house smell like you’ve been baking cookies.