The answer could be home staging, which sounds theatrical but, according to the experts in this new and growing service, it takes all the drama out of selling a property. Since arriving here 18 months ago, interior designer Manny O'Hara, who works with House and Garden Presentation Services, says that the company's home staging business has been growing at a phenomenal rate. So what's the process, who avails of the service and, crucially, will it be money well spent?

Basically, a team of designers professionally style and present a property to appeal to a broad spectrum of buyers. The property can be anything from a grotty, rentedout apartment curling at the edges to a period mansion that looks too unfashionably past its sell by date. Involved in the face-lift is a little more than just a nip tuck - home staging can be some or all of the following: major de-cluttering, transporting unsightly household goods to storage elsewhere, re-decorating the entire house, and hiring new furniture and accessories.

Costs start at around the Euro2,500 mark.

"The benefit to the homeowner is based on two factors; the first is selling your home quickly; the second is achieving your maximum sale price.

"We recently staged two homes, one of which in Dalkey sold for a whopping 30% more than the vendors' highest expectation and one in Raheny which sold for 17% more - and which sold on the first viewing day. This last property - and this is particularly relevant given the current market - had been on the market for nine months previously with no general interest.

"Our most successful project to date was in south Co Dublin, where our vendors invested Euro7,000 on staging, but sold their home on auction day for Euro482,000 more than the reserve price."

O'Hara previously worked in this area of the property market in her native Australia for 10 years - a country where she says home staging is very much the norm, and practically insisted on by auctioneers. Here, while the demand for the service is growing, it's a split of 25% of enquiries from sellers unprompted, as against 75% of business from sellers who have been advised to stage their home by their auctioneer.

What are the common mistakes sellers generally make regarding presentation of their homes when putting them on the market? "Once they have made the decision to move, they are reluctant to invest any more money into the property, as mentally they have already moved and think - naturally - why spend more money on the property as they are not going to receive the benefit from it?

"Wrong. I often advise that selling your home is a bit like selling your car (your second biggest asset). When you think of selling your car, you would always ensure it was clean, devoid of clutter, driving well and looking its best.

So when you go to sell your house, why wouldn't you do the same? Presentation is of the utmost importance in a levelling market. A 'wow' factor needs to be created to tempt buyers into purchasing the cleaner, trendier home as opposed to the one that has very little appeal."

Staging takes roughly one week for the average family home, less for an apartment, and it's usually best if the owners, or at least their pets, move out during that time so work can be done.

"Our most difficult project to date was a home that had a family of 12, with four pets.

The task was to de-clutter, paint, carpet and re-furnish throughout. After two weeks of inconvenience to the family the house was transformed to showhouse standard and sold within the first month of viewing. In that instance, the family remained in the home - however the pets were sent on a seven-week vacation!"

For further information contact Manny O'Hara at House and Garden Presentation Services 01-2011 712; www. homewise. ie