How to Quickly Get A Home Ready to Sell

If you need to sell your home quickly and have little time or money to get it ready, you may be tempted to just throw it on the market and hope that everything turns out OK. However, there is no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water. Even if you can't do everything you would like to, here are a few things you can do quickly to get your home ready to sell in record time.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Improve your curb appeal. Mow and trim the lawn. Prune your bushes and put down colored mulch of you have blank spots in your front garden area. Clear off any debris from the front porch. Repaint or even replace your front door if it looks worn. Clean the cobwebs from your outside light fixture, put in a new bulb if it is burnt out. Sweep down your driveway and walkways.

2. Clean your home. Pay particular attention to your bathrooms and kitchens. They are usually the areas that get the dirtiest and are the areas that homebuyers pay the most attention to. Use a magic eraser to get rid of scuffs, smudges, pencil marks and finger prints from your walls.

3. Remove the clutter. Every counter in your home should be completely clear of personal effects. This includes your kitchen counters, bathroom counters, fireplace, and any other nook or cranny that can be found in your home. As a neighbor, friend or family member if you can use their garage to store some of your personal items. Remove everything from your home that your don't need to use on a daily basis. This includes winter coasts in your coat closet, boxes of christmas decorations, children's toys, etc. Make your home as neutral as possible.

4. Touch up. If you had more time, you might repaint several or all of the rooms in your home. Since you are in a time crunch, you might only have time to repaint the worst walls. For the walls that are left, use caulk and touch up paint to cover up nail holes or minor blemishes. If you have time, at least repaint the trim in each of your rooms. You will be surprised at how much this will brighten up a room.

5. Fix it. In the current recession, there are many former construction workers and builders who have little to no work. See if you can find one who will be willing to work as a handyman for a reasonable price. Have him fix as much as possible. Loose doorknobs, dripping faucets, broken drawers, may seem like small things to worry about when fixing a home, but they add up quickly in a home-buyer's mind.

Resources

• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Staging your Home to Sell (Paperback)