So here's a list to consider.  I call it:

Blanche's Best Ever Make-Ready List

Written by Blanche Evans

Are you ready to sell your home? Great! Let's get started with the basics. Your agent can market your home more effectively when it is ready for presentation. Here is a list of things you can do to help bring a quick offer at the price you want.

1. Adjust Your Attitude. You have just put your biggest investment into the hands of a real estate professional, who will successfully market your home for you. Your agent will be dealing with other real estate professionals who will also be marketing your home.

Believe it or not, some sellers actually hamstring their agents by refusing to listen to their advice, especially when it comes to preparing the house for market. Don't you be one of those folks! Your agent has no agenda other than to sell your home, so suggestions she/he makes to put the home in better condition or make the home more visually attractive are simply to broaden the home's appeal to the most buyers.

2. Remember the Rules. You want to sell your home for the most. The buyer wants to buy it for the least. You are at opposite poles and must find a way to meet in the middle for a sale to take place.

Homes are purchased in two price ranges - wholesale or retail, with no exceptions. The less you have done to prepare the home for market, the bigger hit you will take in the sales price. Buyers discount repairs and deficiencies way beyond their actual costs, because of several reasons - they discount according to a psychological "disgust" factor, and they don't necessarily know the true costs of repairs so they will tend to overestimate, and third they see it as the seller's job to make the home ready, so if the buyer has to do repairs, they want to be paid for their time and trouble. Another reason you want to do repairs is that obvious repairs heighten awareness, and buyers will look more critically and suspiciously at the house as a whole.

By the same token, homes that are in good repair give buyers a sense of security, plus they can see themselves "living with" things they don't like more easily. They also think the home is worth closer to what you are asking. Buyers will pay top dollar for well-maintained properties.

3. Move Past the Memories. It may be hard because you have spent years and a lot of money personalizing your home, but that is exactly why your home won't appeal to a majority of buyers. It has your stamp, not theirs.

Regardless of the quality of your tastes, every person is different and has their own unique style. That means your buyer wants a personalized home, too. So it stands to reason that making the home as neutral and clutter-free will make it easier for buyers to imagine themselves living in the home with their own things. You may love orange walls and sunny corners, but your buyer may be an Aubusson rug collector and shun the sun.

Many sellers can't believe that buyers will not view their home with the same appreciation that they do. You have good taste, why shouldn't everyone appreciate what you have done? The reality is that buyers will come in and if they like the home, they will immediately start discussing how they will change it! Keep in mind, if the buyer didn't appreciate the home at its core, they wouldn't make an offer.

It may help you to think of the home as yours no longer. It now belongs to the buyer. The buyer just hasn't paid for it yet. Focus on selling the home as a means to meet your goals and concentrate on moving forward and don't look back. For whatever reason, you are leaving this home to go on to something new.

4.Model Your Home by Moving Out. Renting a temporary storage unit to take care of a lot of the clutter in your home is much cheaper than losing the interest of potential buyers. Remember the buyer needs to be able to see the home, and that means looking around and past your belongings so they can imagine their own things in the house. As soon as you decide to put your home on the market, start cleaning out closets and getting rid of junk. Give yourself a goal - that you will have all the closets and clutter cleaned out three days before it goes into the MLS.

If you can afford it, more than one home has been sold by being "staged." That is when a professional staging service comes in, rearranges your things or brings in furnishings to best accent your home.

You can also begin to store things in boxes in preparation for moving. A buyer will forgive moving boxes more readily than clutter. They can see you are serious about selling and ready to deal. You'll also be glad that much of the work toward moving is already done when you actually do go to contract.

5. Dig In on Details. Get everyone in the house mobilized for a barracks tour. Pretend you are at boot camp, the CO is coming and if everything isn't spic and span, you'll have to clean the latrines with a toothbrush!

Are the windows washed? How will you sell the view of the garden through dirty, fingerprinted glass? Look at your plants. Your Bromeliad is dormant. What are the odds that your buyer is going to understand why you have these dirt-filled containers with sleepy, brown-leafed plants around? You love dogs, but is a buyer going to enjoy stepping through your dog's backyard powder room to see the back of the house? Clean it up. Your children's science experiments on the kitchen window sill must go, especially if they are growing mold or house bugs. Do you like to work on cars or motorcycles? Great, but get those steel carcasses out of the garage and the driveway for the duration.

If you can afford a cleaning service, now is the time. They can come in and shine places you wouldn't think of, and they can save you so much effort that you can put your time and energy toward your other goals - finding a new home or making preparations for the home you have already found. This is a treat you deserve, and will go a long way toward keeping your stamina up as you move to your next home.

6. Clean Out the Closets. Closets and storage are the third most important feature buyers seek in homes after number of bedrooms and baths. In your flurry to clean, don't throw everything into the closets - that is the first place your buyers will look! Instead get the family mobilized again to clean out at least one closet a day. Where to put the stuff? Throw it out, have a garage sale, give it to a charitable organization or put it in your just-rented storage facility.

Pay special attention to:

• Beds - make the beds daily; an unmade bed is like seeing you in your underwear to a buyer
• Pets - sweep pet hair daily, keep dogs bathed, arrange pet care during open houses or showings
• Plants - green or flowering only, trim bad leaves
• Closets and Storage - If you can't see the back of the closet, it's too full; ditto for the pantry
• Built-in drawers - must open freely and easily: again, watch for clutter
• Countertops - keep free of clutter
• Floors - have carpets cleaned; put down protectors; get wood floors refinished; sweep often

Look for easy, inexpensive, and quick ways to improve your home. Make it a family project. Paint does wonders, and gives that clean-slate feeling to the buyer. Paint is the minimum cosmetic improvement that buyers expect, so if you don't have fresh paint, they will assume nothing else has been maintained either.

Put some seasonal flowers to add curb appeal to the front of the house. Change door knobs and cabinet handles if discolored, old or rattling. Put on new deadbolt locks.

In today's competitive environment, the difference between whether a home sells quickly or not is often in how it is first introduced to the market. Your home must be at its best or it will immediately be discounted to "wholesale."

If the REALTORS® who have viewed your home deem it wholesale, overpriced or unshowable, they will stop showing it to their buyers, or you will find that your offers are increasingly lower or do not appear at all. Then you have no choice but to lower your asking price, or remove your home from the market.

One way to keep abreast of buyer's likes and dislikes is to ask for feedback. REALTORS® are busy, but that is no excuse for an agent to enter your home with a buyer and not give your agent honest feedback. Don't take no for an answer. Make your agent get a response from every potential buyer's agent. If the problem is correctable, do it. Then have your agent call that agent back and tell her/him the problem has been corrected and invite them for another look.

By doing your "homework," you can help your REALTOR® market your home more successfully.

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