Tips For Preparing Your Home For Sale

You may not be able to finish the basement or remodel the kitchen, but you can improve the market value of your home. It is important to attract as many qualified buyers as possible. In preparing your home for sale, it is important to look at your home through a buyer's eyes. People buy what they see. So look at your home as if you were in a buyer's shoes. Make your home as appealing and uncluttered as the home you would like to buy.

OUTSIDE

• Mow the lawn, trim trees and shrubs away from house. You can't sell a house if you can't see it. Rake leaves, remove dead plants, flowers or shrubs.

• Put away tools, garbage cans, hoses, toys and building materials neatly in the garage.

• Check for broken roof shingles, straight lines on gutters, shutters, windows and siding.

• Clean windows and front door. Paint, if needed.

• Seal or resurface driveway.

• Clear patios or decks of planters, flower pots, charcoal barbecues.

• In the front yard, dress up around shrubs and lamp posts with large quartz stones, railroad ties and pine bark mulch, etc.

• Use bright light bulb in foyer light fixture.

• Turn on all lights in the home in the evening to welcome potential buyers.

• Fill the house with the pleasant aroma of cinnamon or other fresh scent.

• Spotlessly clean woodwork, carpeting and windows throughout the house.

• Clear window ledges of all objects to give a nice glimpse inside and out.

• Repaint walls, if necessary, in neutral color (such as antique white).

LIVING ROOM

• Discard worn furniture and move extra to storage area. Too much furniture makes a room look small.

• Visit a model home to get decorating ideas.

• Clear away all magazines, books and unnecessary objects from furniture throughout the house.

• Take down pictures that hide walls. Patch nail holes and paint.

• Add lamps and lighting if dark.

• Open curtains, blinds, etc.

• Set out fresh flowers.

KITCHEN

• Professionally clean oven and stove.

• Replace broken appliances and repair squeaks, drips or binds in cabinet drawers.

• Clean all appliances, inside and out, until they are spotless. Wax and polish floors.

• Clean refrigerator front of messages, pictures and magnets.

• Clear all magazines, small appliances and cookware from counter tops.

• If it hasn't been used for months, put it away!

FAMILY ROOM

• Clean fireplace.

• Replace carpet if it's a loud color.

• Remove all magazines, toys and worn furnishings that might influence a buyer's feeling about the room.

BATHROOMS

• Remove any unnecessary items from counter tops, tubs and commode. Put as much away as possible, and make each bathroom look like a guest bathroom.

• Sink, commode, bathtub, tile and shower curtain should look immaculate- no soap film or hair.

• Fix leaky faucets, rust stains and faulty plumbing that may squeak or bind.

• Caulk and grout tile. Bleach discolored tile. Replace or remove any wallpaper that isn't "conservative".

• Coordinate towels to one or two colors only.

• Place softer bulbs in bathroom fixtures and scented flower arrangement on vanity top.

MASTER BEDROOM

• This is the second most important room that needs to be appealing in a home (after the kitchen, before the family room and garage).

• Define areas, sleeping, dressing and sitting by furniture arrangement. Try to have bedroom look as simply furnished as possible.

• Be sure all clothes are hanging up, not laying out in room.

• Make closets more appealing by storing off-season clothes elsewhere. Go ahead and pack them up, since you're moving away.

CHILDREN'S BEDROOMS

• Here's a challenge: ask children and teenagers to help by thoroughly cleaning up their rooms, removing all posters, questionable photographs. Low lighting and clutter make bedrooms look smaller or darker than they are.

• Patch and paint walls, if necessary.

• Open curtains.

GARAGE

• The perfect garage contains only cars. But if this is not possible, clean up, fix up, sell or toss out unneeded items.

• Clean and seal cement floor.

• Neatly stack tools and clean up work bench, and tidy up storage shelf areas.

• Clean water heater and change filters.