• Spruce up your curb appeal. Before potential buyers see your home they see your yard. The first impression starts where the grass meets the pavement. Buyers notice your outside before deciding to set an appointment to look inside. Updating your landscaping can really make a big difference. Making your lawn look neat and attractive is an inexpensive way to add curb appeal.
• Remove any clutter from your yard. Make sure weeds are gone and the lawn has been cut. Adding a few colorful potted plants or flowers can be a nice touch to make your home appear more inviting as well.
• Check your closets and entrance ways. Closets can make a good or bad impression to potential buyers. Everyone wants a spacious closet. If your closet is overflowing to the brim with your personal items buyers will think the space is not big enough. It is crucial to clear out your closets. This includes the bedroom closets, hall closets, and the children's closets.
• Every closet should be clutter-free, neat, and contain only a few items. It is important to have the house cleared out with only the bare essentials.The key is to get your home looking as new as possible.
• Make sure your door is in good shape and add plants or a rug to make a good impression. The entrance way is a positive feature in your home.
• Transform your home to appeal to the masses. Many homeowners have difficulty when it comes to this step. Although you may love the yellow or red colored walls in your home others may not. Remember, you are in the process of selling it is no longer your home.
• Paint rooms with neutral light colors especially in the bedroom and bathroom. You must clear out personal items and trinkets.
• Your personal heirlooms may be special to you but many potential buyers will view it as junk. It detracts from showcasing the home. It is important that buyers focus on the home and not your personal stuff.
• The key to selling your home is to make it as clean and spacious as possible. Your home should be cleaned throughly. The kitchen and bathrooms should be spotless. To give your home a more spacious appearance you should clear out any bulky furniture or items. The more room the potential buyer sees the better they will feel about purchasing your home.
• Highlight your interior features through lighting. Open drapes and invest in powerful light bulbs to give your home sufficient lighting. The illumination of your home will make the design and flooring stand out.

Whether you're working with a real estate agent, or considering going it alone, it's a good idea to talk to people who could be viewed as a potential buyer. If you have friends who are in the market for a new home, ask them what they would and would not like about your house. Put yourself in a potential buyer's shoes and look at some houses yourself. Take note of what you like and what you don't.

Now, take a walk through your house. Lots of potential buyers will tell you that even you may never notice, if you have ugly lights in the house, it's a big turn off. Another no-no: dark rooms. If you have a wall of windows, use them; if you have dark paneling, paint it.

As you walk around, consider what you would not like about your home. Then, make a list. This will serve you well later on.

Fresh paint can make all the difference. Consider painting your whole house, or at least the main rooms. Choose neutral colors that brighten up the room. The idea is to make it look larger and more open. Instead of white, consider a nice creamy color, which also adds warmth. Keep your ceilings white, as most people don't like the feel of rooms with colored ceilings.

Keep the decorations to a minimum. Yes, it's sad, but many potential buyers just cannot see past your really great tie-dyed t-shirt collection. It was fun for you, but if you want to sell, you are going to want to create as much of a blank canvas as possible. Don't expect people to love the flowered wallpaper as much as you do, either. While it probably looks lovely, the person who wants your home may not love big pink roses in their kitchen unless they're in a vase. Keep your family photos to a minimum also, as you're telling a buyer that it's your space and inhibits their ability to see themselves living there.

If you're still living in the home you're trying to sell, which most are, keep your house neat and clean at all times. It looks really bad when someone comes to view your home and there are dishes in the sink and your beds are unmade. As a matter of procedure, any time you leave your house, you should be sure that it's neat and tidy. Make sure to at least spot-clean hard floors and vacuum every other day. Keep dust off the furnishings as well, as it can cause your house to look dirtier than it is. In the event that you've had a really bad couple of days, like your family's sick, or you just haven't had time to keep up the house the way you would like, call your realtor and ask them not to show your house for a couple of days. This will give you time to make sure that when someone does come, you have had time to ensure that all will look nice.

Replace light fixtures and beat up floors. Yes, this may mean carpeting or hard floors, but no buyer in this market is thinking they can change this and this and this. Often, buyers will get financing only for the house, with no extra, so they don't want to have to change too much. Stick with modern light fixtures that go with anything (brushed chrome is good for bathrooms, as it will work with any décor). Don't spend too much money on these things. Look for sales on these items. Remember, it doesn't have to be elaborate and expensive, now, simple and functional sells better. When you're doing your flooring, keep the same rules in mind. Choose products that look good and wear well, without being too expensive. For hard floors, instead of putting in tile, consider vinyl tiles, which are easy to install, easy to clean and come in a wide variety of colors. Stick with a warm neutral without being too light (it shows dirt more). For carpeting, go with something that doesn't show traffic patterns much, but don't go overboard on the extras. You don't have to get extra thick padding and super lush fibers.

Play up the selling points. If your house has a fireplace, make sure to play that up. Clean it out and put candles in it. Make sure that your chimney has been cleaned if you use it and create a warm grouping of furniture around it. Put candles or mirrors on the mantle, to create a cozy, open feeling. If flowers are in season, or before an open house, consider putting a couple of arrangements on the mantle. Flowers add cheer without being overbearing. At most grocery stores, you can buy a bouquet of nice in season flowers for less than $10.

Replace window dressings and shades before people start to view your home. Often, these will stay with the house, so choose neutral colors that can show off the windows. If it's a large window, choose shades or curtains that you can easily open to showcase the view. Window dressings should be an accent, not a showcase.

Keep renovations to a minimum; paint and change hardware instead. Don't remodel your bathroom and kitchen just because it's outdated. Simply choose new hardware (drawer and door handles) and paint your cabinets. Make sure they're all in good working condition, of course, and take doors off and drawers out before you begin. Don't reran until all the paint is dry and take a step back. It's amazing how you can really update a bathroom and kitchen with only a little money.

Don't forget curb appeal. Consider buying some plants that do well with minimal watering or upkeep and look nice. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars on new shrubs; just trim up what you have and use rocks underneath them instead of mulch. You can also really neaten up untidy flowerbeds by getting an edging of some kind. They're easy to insert and usually relatively inexpensive. Make sure to keep your lawn neat and green; most fertilizers now do double duty against weeds and are cost effective. Trim along flower beds, driveways and sidewalks with a weed whacker, as it looks the cleanest.

Okay, now you're ready. Get your appraisal, but be realistic in your price. Don't lowball your home right away, because there will always be a buyer ready to insult you and offer you way less than you wanted, but don't expect too much more than what's realistic either.

Good luck, and happy selling. Who knows, with all the improvements, you may just decide to stay!

Become the buyer: Part I

Before you do anything else, arm yourself with a notepad and pen, and starting at the front gate/building entry, write down anything you see that devalues your property. Your first page will read “Entrance”. Items on this page could be a broken gate, weeds in the garden, rubbish on the sidewalk, lawns needing cutting, edges trimming. Leave a few lines between each entry.

Continue to your front door, and then, using a new page for each room, walk through each room and corridor, and note any chipped paint, walls needing patching, stained carpet, dark rooms, spider webs, dust bunnies. Bathrooms are often the most troublesome areas and you should be honest with yourself if you see moldy grout, soap scum, leaky taps etc.

It is important not to hurry this first step. You need to remind yourself throughout that this is not your much loved home, but one that someone else is trying to sell to you.

Then find some other properties that are on the market. Visit them and note any special touches that the sellers have employed, e.g. fresh, fluffy towels in bathrooms, fresh flowers, nice smells etc. You are bound to pick up inexpensive ideas to employ in your home.

Put together an Action Plan

Be realistic. Without going to considerable expense, it may not be possible in the time available, and with the finances you have, to tackle each "problem area" on your list. If you have a partner or friend to assist you, this is the time to sit down together and decide what is achievable.

Under each "problem area" write down how much time, effort and money it would take to fix it. You will soon be able to identify where to direct your energies. Quite often your main requirements will be garbage bags, cleaning produces, rubber gloves -- and elbow grease.

Transfer this information to a new sheet of paper -- and throw away your first list! You don't need to be distracted by what is not achievable.

Get rid of the clutter

Like most of us you have accumulated lots of what buyers will regard as "junk", and sorting through this can be a huge chore, so make it number one on your list. Work with the attitude that you are actually packing to move out, just how much of it would you take to a new home? Some items you will decide to throw away, other items can go to charities or family members. Why not turn them into cash? Try listing some things on eBay ! Implement a "toss, donate, sell or store" policy.

Your aim is to have clear tables and bench areas, clean everything, and have no personal items on show (we need buyers to think of this as their new home, not yours!). So if you need to, rent a storage unit for the duration of the sale.

Roll up your sleeves!

Its amazing how much easier it is to get jobs done when the clutter has been removed, but don't try to do it all at once. For example, you need to make your home as light, fresh and airy as possible. If you have a dark room with walls in disrepair, it should be your first step to patch them and apply a fresh, neutral, light colored paint, before for instance, having the rugs cleaned.

Work one room at a time, being sure not to move any item back into a room "temporarily" once you have finished it. If it doesn't have a home, it needs to be removed from the house.

Ensure all closets have received the "toss, donate, sell or store" treatment. Buyers can't help themselves, and they will open doors to linen closets and wardrobes.

Finally, clean the house from top to bottom. People can smell "clean" and it will encourage them to stay longer, giving your Realtor time to point out all the fabulous features of your home.

Become the buyer, Part II

When you have checked off everything on your Action Plan, take that walk again. You remember, the walk from out in front of the house. You will be amazed at how things have changed.

And yes, a nice pot of flowers at the entry would look lovely!