I thought I might throw out a few of my favorite tips for preparing a home for sale.  In my experience, home owners go a little crazy when it comes to preparing their house.  There are many relatively cheap things that you can do to make your house more attractive.  I thought I might share a few at a time.  Here are a few of my favorites.  

1.  REDUCE THE CLUTTER - Easily the single most common thing I see that detracts from a home is clutter.  A buyer wants to be able to picture themselves in the home not trip over your belongings.  You are going to be moving anyway, so spend the month leading up to bringing the house on the market boxing up everything you will not need in the next six months and put it in storage.  You can even sacrifice the garage and put all your boxes in there.  The rule of thumb is less is more.

2.  DEPERSONALIZE THE HOME - Again, a buyer wants to see themselves in the home.  Take everything off the fridge and take down all the personal photos.  It decreases the clutter and depersonalizes at the same time. 

3.  INCREASE THE WATTAGE IN THE LIGHT FIXTURES - Simple, cheap and effective.  More light makes a room look larger and cleaner.  Light bulbs cost almost nothing compared to the effect on the home.

4.  HAVE THE HOME PROFESSIONALLY CLEANED - If you have never had your home cleaned you will not understand the value of this.  For less then $200, you can have your home scrubbed from top to bottom.  You won't believe the difference.  In fact, if you can have them come back every two weeks of the listing, even better.

5.  PAINT THE FRONT DOOR - Seems simple, but youare trying to evoke an emotional response in the buyer.  I can't tell you how many times a buyer has seen a really nice front door on an otherwise ugly home and keeps talking about how nice the door was for hours.  First impressions are key and the think in their mind as they enter your home is the front door.

More tips next week.