Preparing Your Home for Sale

The first thing you need to do is stop thinking of your home as a home and start thinking about it as a commodity that you want to sell. You must detach yourself emotionally from your home and be brutally honest about how it should look in order to sell
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Property condition and appearance are very important in the sale of a home. Buyers will discount the house if it needs work, if they buy it at all. In general, for every dollar of repair needed, a buyer will deduct two or more dollars from the price.

Paint is the least expensive improvement you can make to a home. It makes everything look and feel new. A neutral decor might be boring to you, but it is a safe bet from a resale point of view. So hire a good painter to do a good job, and neutralize and refresh the house, inside and out.

The way your house looks from the street is called "curb appeal". Make sure that potential buyers' first impression is a good one. Fix the front gate, clean the sidewalk, edge the lawn, cut dead branches from trees.

Go ahead and remove excess personal possessions and furniture. Crowded rooms seem smaller, so eliminate furniture and treasures wherever possible.

Countertops in the kitchen and baths should be clear of almost everything. The easiest way to deal with this is to put kitchen and bathroom essentials and cleaning supplies into plastic bins that can be stored in cabinets or linen closets.

Go through the house and look at it through a buyer's eyes. Fix leaky faucets, clean the light fixtures, tighten loose doorknobs, clean the spots on the carpet. In general, make the house shine with cleanliness, and make it look as new as possible.