The Wonders of Fresh Paint
Dollar for dollar, new paint is one of the most cost-effective enhancements you can make to your house. If you do the work yourself, it will cost even less. Not a painting pro? That’s okay. Everybody knows somebody who has done a fair share of painting. This is where your friends show their true colors. Offer a pizza lunch and ask some painting veterans to help you.

Here are some painting tips:

• Choose the right paint. Flat, latex, enamel, gloss, semi-gloss ... you have a lot of choices, and it’s important to make the right ones. For instance, you don’t want to put a gloss-based paint on bedroom walls — it would be too shiny. Bedroom walls should be subdued and calming. Ask the person behind the paint counter for recommendations.

• Lean toward neutral colors. Color preferences are a personal, subjective matter. So the brighter and more dominant the colors in your home, the higher the likelihood you’ll turn off prospective buyers. Play it safe by using softer, more neutral tones.

• Put down lots of plastic, canvas tarps or other protective coverings. Move all the furniture out of the way, either out of the room completely or off to one side. The last thing you want to do is make more work by dripping paint onto the carpet or furniture.

Update the Outdated
Refurbish or replace outdated appliances. This may be a more costly approach, so your willingness to do it will likely depend on the market you’re in. If you’re in a strong seller’s market, you probably won’t have to update appliances and other higher-cost items. If you’re in a buyer’s market, it may be just the thing you need to make your home stand out.

Correct Previous Discrepancies
Do you still have your inspection “hit list” from when you moved in? If so, use it to your advantage. The list is a great tool, because inspectors often check the same areas. Uncorrected “hits” from the first inspection will likely come up again when the buyers hire an inspector.

Safety Inspection
Perform a safety inspection of your entire home. This serves two purposes. First, it gives the buyer’s inspector less things to write down on his list. More importantly, it reduces the likelihood of somebody getting hurt while viewing your home.

Check doorways and stairwells for potential trip hazards. Make sure the driveway and walkway are well lit for visitors. If you’re showing the house in winter, be sure the drive and walkway are dry and free of ice. Also, you’re practically guaranteed to have children in your house during the process, so take an extra look around for child-safety items.

Remove Clutter
Clutter comes in many forms, but it’s never a good thing. It collects near shelves, countertops, drawers, closets, garages, attics, and basements. Clutter can make a house seem smaller than it really is and gives a sense of disorganization. Even though clutter moves out with the seller, many buyers can’t see past it.

Remember, selling a house is about removing as many obstacles—perceived or real—in the buyer’s mind as you have control over. Clutter is definitely something you have control over.

A great way to identify cluttered areas is to have a friend help. Remember the brutally honest friend you used in the curb appeal exercise? Bring them back for a clutter exercise. Have them walk through the house and point out areas where there’s just too much stuff. As the owner of the house, you’re probably to biased too see clutter as easily as an “outsider” can.

You want buyers to visit a house that’s sleek, organized and free-flowing. You want them to see closets that are spacious and tidy, not crammed and cluttered. You want them to see an attic that’s ready for their storage items, not bursting at the seams with yours.

Give unwanted items to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. Put wanted (but not currently needed) items in temporary storage. Remember, the more stuff you remove, the more the buyers will focus on the house when they visit, and not the items within it.

Don’t Forget “Furniture Clutter”
Take another look at the rooms in your house, this time with an eye to the furniture. Most rooms do fine with a few dominant pieces (a couch and chair in the living room, a bed and dresser in the bedroom) combined with one or two small pieces, like tables and lamps.

The more furniture beyond that, the smaller the room will seem. Too much furniture can also interfere with traffic flow. Ever been in a house so heavily furnished that you had to turn sideways to get through doorways? How cramped did the room feel?

If your rooms feel or look cramped to you, they’ll feel even more cramped to a stranger. Everything is exaggerated in the mind of a buyer. Try rearranging the furniture, or moving the smaller pieces into temporary storage.

De-personalize the House
As hard as it might be to accept, you’re not selling your home. You’re selling a house that will become someone else’s home. Because of this, you have to de-personalize the house to a certain extent.

This doesn’t mean you should strip away all signs that somebody lives there. That would be a bit much. It just means you should minimize your personal “signature” on the house to help buyers see it as their prospective home. When a potential buyer sees family photos on the wall or night stand, it interferes with their ability to see themselves in the house.

Special Feature: Room-by-Room Suggestions and Ideas

Kitchen Remove excess appliances (can openers, coffee makers, etc.). If it’s not installed or bolted down, try to put it out of sight when buyers visit. Remove pictures and magnets from refrigerators. Let the sun shine in. Do some extra cleaning. Put a vase of fresh-cut flowers out, preferably near a sunny window. Consider updating the lights, knobs and fixtures. Make sure the area beneath the sink is free from water stains or other signs of leakage. If water is present, check the pipes or have a plumber inspect them. Bedrooms Repaint the walls if necessary; use soft, neutral colors. Arrange the furniture to maximize the spaciousness of the room. Consider putting clothes you don’t need into temporary storage so closets look bigger. Living / Family Room Many of the bedroom suggestions apply here as well. Repaint the walls if necessary, leaning toward the more neutral colors. Reduce the furniture arrangement to a few well-placed items. This will make the room seem larger and will also improve traffic flow. Keep an eye out for areas of high clutter and personal items (like too many family photos on the mantle). Bathrooms Many of the kitchen suggestions apply here too. Remove personal toiletry items (toothbrushes, makeup, etc.). Tuck them away under the sink or in a closet. Clean mirrors and fixtures until they shine. “Bright and spotless” should be your goal when cleaning the bathrooms. Consider updating the lights, knobs and fixtures. Garage Many sellers neglect the garage entirely when preparing their house for sale. But the garage has a bigger impact than most people realize. If you use your garage for general storage – everything from car tires to garden tools – you need to do some serious organizing. Here’s why: A dirty, cluttered garage filled with random items strewn about has a “junkyard” look and feel to it. When buyers see it there’s a chance that, subconsciously or otherwise, they will carry that negative impression with them through the rest of the house. Have a garage sale or make a few runs to the dump. Get rid of everything you don’t need. Group similar items (like garden tools) in a holder or rack that’s made for them. Make your garage a marvel of neatness and usefulness.

Do You Have Pets?
If you have a cat (or cats), be sure to empty litter boxes daily and use a healthy dose of baking soda or other deodorizer. If you have a dog, it’s probably best to keep it outdoors as much as possible (weather permitting, of course).

It’s especially important to keep dogs out of the way when buyers come to visit. Few people fear cats, but some people have an unnatural fear of dogs … a fear of all dogs, regardless of how gentle they might be. The last thing you want is for potential buyers to tour your home while fearfully looking over their shoulders!

Are You a Smoker?
If you’re a smoker, be sure to air out the house well in advance of listing it. Stop smoking indoors before putting your house on market. Some people are repulsed by the smell of smoke in a house, and they may walk away even if everything else about the house is right.

There are also ozone sprays available that can help remove smoke odors without creating a masking odor (an odor on top of an odor).

Special Feature: Home Inspection “Hot Spots”

When selling a house, you can be 99% sure you’ll face a home inspection at some point. While every home inspector will go about his job in a different way, there are certain “hot spots” that any inspector will examine. Therefore, it’s worth your while to examine these areas for yourself, before the home inspection. Electrical Systems A home inspector will examine a house’s electrical panel / circuit breaker for loose connections, signs of overheating, or overrated circuits (circuits that are rated at higher currents than the capacity of their branch circuits). All of these discrepancies are shock hazards and/or fire hazards, so they should be corrected immediately for your safety and the safety of the buyers. The Foundation The inspector will look at the home’s foundation for cracks and other signs of damage. He may examine the foundation from outside of the house, from the basement (if you have one), or from a crawl space (if you have one). Many foundations have minor cracks in them, but what he’s looking for are unusually long or deep cracks that could be significant enough to cause future damage to the home’s structure. The inspector will also look at the grade (slope) around the house to see if water drains away from the foundation or toward it. Grading that slopes toward the foundation is a common discrepancy but not a serious one. It can be easily corrected by adding mulch, soil or sod. The Roof A qualified home inspector will certainly notice cracked or missing shingles, or any other form of deterioration on the roof, and it’s cause for closer inspection. Some inspectors will examine the roof through binoculars first. If it’s in good shape, they’ll likely move on to the next item. If they see anything unusual, they’ll break out the ladder for closer examination. Therefore, it’s a good idea to conduct your own roof inspection to see if minor repairs need to be made ... before the inspector shows up. Mold and Mildew Toxic black mold (stachybotrys chartarum) has been in the news a lot lately. So if a home inspector finds any mildew or mold, even the harmless kind, the buyers will likely assume the worst. Search your entire house for signs of mildew and mold. Pay particular attention to vents, basements, or any place that’s prone to moisture. Remove it when you find it, and fix the source of the problem to keep it from returning. Wet Basements (and other moisture-related problems) Moisture can lead to mildew and mold, but it can also be a sign of larger plumbing problems. Plumbing problems scare buyers, because plumbing is usually not a simple fix. If serious problems exist and you don’t want to repair them, you might consider lowering the price to account for the problem, or giving the buyers an allowance to make repairs after closing.