The old saying goes that "you only have one chance to make a first impression." This maxim is particularly important if you're consider hosting an open house for your luxury home where you're likely to make hundreds of first impressions on the same day. Your best chance for projecting the first impression you want is by staging your home appropriately.

Here are some tips to help you dazzle potential home buyers the first time they set foot in your home:

Suds and Scrubs

A luxury home buyer is willing to pay a premium price for a premium home. This means the home should look and feel more spacious and of a higher quality than traditional homes. Some realtors suggest staging your home like it's five-star hotel. If you've ever stayed in a five-star hotel you know how important it is for everything to look new and shiny.

A subtle way to make your luxury home sparkle during your open house is pay attention to subtle details. Consider using a basic solution of 1 part bleach, 6 parts water, and 1 part lemon juice to clean the following areas of your luxury home.

• Bathroom: tile grout lines (shower, floor, ect), toilet seal, window sill, sink edges, faucet seals.
• Kitchen: tile grout lines, sink/counter edges, backsplash surfaces, and baseboards.

For stubborn stains and bigger problems, you may need to repeat this process several times.

Let There Be Light

How a potential buyer sees your home is largely contingent on the lighting used in and around it. Lighting can help you accentuate your luxury home's best features and help mask its least appealing blemishes.

Because luxury homes are designed to feel elegant and spacious, using subtler lighting techniques can maximize your lighting efforts. Consider the following lighting techniques.

• Lighted Landscape: Few things look more dramatic than a lighted landscape. Positioning solar-powered, LED lanterns near your luxury home's most striking landscaping features can make these features literally shine to potential home buyers at night. They also make for great accent photos to display online.
• Sheer Curtains: Natural light illuminates more naturally than any other lighting option. Walking into a naturally lit room can make it feel more spacious and open. However, potential home buyers are likely to covet their privacy as well. Using sheer curtains can help you utilize natural light, while still conveying the sense of privacy your potential home buyer will want.
• Soft Bulbs: To mask features of your luxury home that you may not want potential buyers to focus on, you should consider installing "soft" light bulbs. These bulbs come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wattages. It's worth experimenting with a few types to give each room the light effect you desire.

Personally Impersonal

When a potential home buyer attends an open house, it's important to allow them to "escape" into the experience. Essentially, you want them to imagine their future in your luxury home. To achieve this end, you must provide decorations that seem personal, but are still impersonal enough to feel like they could belong to each potential buyer.

• Art: Luxury and art are a natural match. Placing a work of art in each room will make it look "lived in" but not owned. Choosing tasteful photographs and landscape images connected to the local area can resonate with your potential buyers.
• Accessories: Living accessories can also make a home feel lived in but not owned. Placing a table setting on your dining room table or magazines on your coffee table are subtle ways to make your home feel like a home, not a hotel.

If you're about to put your luxury home on the market, take the time to make your open houses spectacular.