This is a series of posts for home sellers.

When you put a home up for sale these days, you're facing stiff competition. In most parts of the country, buyers are faced with huge numbers of homes for sale. Before asking strangers to trade hundreds of thousands of their hard-earned dollars for your little palace, make all the little repairs you've always meant to do but never had the time for.

These 10 basic repairs will help prepare your house for a buyer's white-glove inspection:

1. Repair sagging screen doors and other entry red flags.

The entrance to your home is the key to first impressions. Make sure everything at the entrance is in working order. If the screen door is sagging, you'll probably have to install a new one, as aging aluminum parts often become too bent or broken to repair. But first, try replacing any missing or corroded hinge screws and tightening the rest.

A fresh coast of paint on the front door goes miles. Forest green, navy blue and black can be great door colors. The front door need not match the exterior colors of your house and trim, only look good alongside them.

2. Spiff up the roof.

Missing shingles and hanging gutters broadcast a loud, scary signal to potential buyers. You want the house to look as presentable and non problematic as possible. Get a roofer to replace any missing or broken shingles or roofing tiles. Moss growing on the roof signals neglect, so it's important to get it cleaned off. Ask a roofing expert to remove moss or to recommend someone who can. Roofing professionals may suggest treating the surface of your roof with a chemical to kill moss or they may recommend installing zinc strips on the roof ridge. Water running over the zinc washes minute amounts of zinc carbonate over the roof, killing algae and moss. When hiring someone to work on your roof, it's crucial to check their recommendations. Amateurs can damage your roof with the careless use of a high-pressure power washer.