Three people in your home for 3 hours, and when they come out, they say your house is worth 10 percent more! A practice designed to bring higher sale prices for homes is becoming increasingly popular in our area. It is called Staging.

The most important investment most of us will ever make is our home. So how would you like to make your house more beautiful while spending zero dollars? Most people stage their homes before selling it - in hopes of enticing prospective buyers. But you can also use these tips on your own home.

Josepha Gayer/Prudential Fox & Roach: "When I walked into this house, I thought ,”Oh my God. This house is a mess.'" But real estate agent Josepha Gayer agreed to put the house on the market anyway - as long as the owner was willing to try something called staging. "Staging is preparing your home for sale." Kate Hart/Staging Professional: "Simply what that means is you want to detail your home the way you would detail your car." Kate Hart is an accredited staging professional and the home desperately needs her help. The dining room table looks like it's set for a garage sale not dinner for two. There's no room to relax in the family room. And the foyer doesn't exactly make for a grand entrance. "We want the buyer to walk in here and go wow."

Normally Kate works with a team of three people and spends about eight hours staging a home. But today, as a certified trainer for stagedhomes.com, she has the help of about 70 students. "Hi, nice to meet you." But here's the hard part. The stagers have just three hours and zero dollars to give the house a makeover. "Where's my vase? I had a vase over here I was saving." "This should be covered or uncovered?" "What about one of these?" "Leave the valances up there and use this end at the bed. And wrap the pillows altogether with this." Just by rearranging some things, getting rid of others, and finding new uses for old items, the stagers magically transform the hovel into a home. "Okay team. We have one hour before we have to finish this house. One hour to go." Let's learn the basic C's: color, clutter, and cleanliness. "And when I mean clean, I mean Q-tip clean. You want your home to sparkle." Clutter can be distracting to a potential buyer. And color? "You want your home to convey a feeling that it's clean, it's crisp, and it’s neutral." The ultimate trick to staging a house for sale? Depersonalize. Get rid of personal memorabilia like family portraits. Also, bring the outside in. Get creative with flowers and greenery for a fresh feel. Watch the video for the final results.

First the foyer... "And we gave this room a grander, more formal, more luxurious look." Next the dining room. Notice the greenery that cascades down. What that does is it draws the eye down to notice the mantle, the fireplace. A mirror is also moved to the dining room. Adding a mirror is going to give any room a lighter, more elegant, and a brighter look. Next the living room. We naturally read rooms from left to right so highlight the right-hand corner of any room. Also, create rhythm and balance when placing books and accents. Their placement shouldn't be too uniform. "Kate, I don't even recognize the master bedroom." "I know it's amazing isn't it." "You moved the bed, took the curtains down." "We took away all the mismatched bedding." Take a look at the before and after pictures of the family room. These are from the same boy's bedroom. And the breakfast area has some life now. Those red accents, by the way - are folders from Cort Furniture Rental! "What do you think?" "I think it's gorgeous." "The owner may not want to leave. Ha ha."

According to Stagedhomes.com, homes that are staged sell at 7 to 10 percent above list price and here in Philadelphia, Kate says they sell within a week! Expect a stager to charge you about a thousand-dollars to do your entire home in a day. You can also hire a stager for a consultation. That's where he or she will go through your home and tell you what should do to improve it. That'll cost you about three-hundred-dollars. Open window treatments to let in natural light. Use the rule of 3's when placing decorations. A triangular shape often works well. And when introducing color, do so in three different places of the room. Place objects so they are high, medium, and low from left to right - drawing the eye to part of the room you want to highlight. Use the placement of books and decorations to add rhythm and balance. Do not place items too uniformly. Get creative!