Getting ready to sell?  Want some tips?

Here are the 5 best things you can do for less than $1,000.

1.     Hire a professional house cleaner and window washer.

A recent national study revealed that the single biggest “turn off” to prospective home buyers was . . . dirt.  Simply . . . dirt.

2.     Commission a wood destroying pest inspection.

You don’t have to correct everything that shows up in the report, but just knowing what the issues are–and how much it is going to cost to fix them–is going to save you money down the line.  Why?  When the buyers discover the pest damage–and they will–they will try to adjust the price or get a concession from you at the highest possible level.  Wouldn’t you?  If you were the buyer?  Wouldn’t you try to protect yourself by making sure the concession was more than enough to cover all possible costs of repair?  Seller, you need to demonstrate how much it’s really going to cost so that you can negotiate from the strength of knowledge.

3.    Improve the curb appeal of your home.

Get a truckload of tan bark and a bunch of flowers (preferably yellow flowers says CJ, Mistress of Feng Shui).  Prune and trim those shrubs.  Rake and mow.

4.     Spruce up the area immediately around your front door.

Picture this:  the buyers’ agent is on the front porch fiddling with the lockbox, then trying to make the key work in the deadbolt.  This episode takes, maybe, 30 seconds or 60 seconds.  What are the buyers doing?  Standing there, waiting, looking around, looking around very closely, absorbing that critical first impression.  Please, buy a new welcome mat, new house numbers, maybe a new door latch, sweep the porch, eliminate the cobwebs and dirt dobber nest, clean up the porch light.  Make this area sparkle!  Get some healthy plants out there!  Some “stagers” suggest you paint the front door.  Me?  I think that’s a bit of a cliche’, but if the front door is really shabby, a coat of gloss may be your quickest, cheapest fix-up.

5.     Rent a storage locker.

I bet you didn’t see this one coming.  Look, you are going to have to pack anyway, aren’t you?  Now, before you go on the market, is the best time.  You need to de-clutter your home, simplify it, give it cleaner lines, neutralize and de-personalize it.  All those knicknacks?  Into the locker!  Three hundred family photos on the walls, on the buffet, on the dresser?  Into the locker.  Velvet Elvis from your trip to Vegas?  Into the locker!  Imelda’s nine thousand pairs of  shoes?  Into the locker!

Let me say this one more time, so you really hear it:

You need to de-clutter your home.

All of these items together should cost about $1,000.

In a coming blog, I will discuss the sensitive topic of de-personalizing your home as you prepare it for sale.  See you then.