Here are some tips and things to consider when you’re getting ready to sell your home.

Pack up and/or throw out half of everything in the house.

This does several things. First, you’ve made your house more presentable to a buyer; the less you have in the house, the more the buyer can picture his or her own things there. Second, it forces you to evaluate your possessions and help you prioritize what’s important. Finally, you’ll be half packed!

Clean everything. Twice.

Even though you think you’ve cleaned everything, chances are, you haven’t. Clean again. Buyers are like my wife: they’ll look everywhere.

Put away all pictures and personal items.

Buyers want to try to picture themselves in the home, and personal items detract from that. Try to make the home as neutral as possible. This includes clearing everything off of the refrigerator door, even if you think the magnets on there are neutral.

Put away small valuables.

Well, you just never know when someone might have sticky fingers.

Get an inspection.

This is a preventative measure which uncovers any nasty surprises that the buyer’s inspector (make no mistake, the buyer will have an inspector go over your house) might find and allows you to address them first. It also shows the buyer that you have taken the initiative and are serious about selling.

Fix any problems you can from the inspection, and see if you can get another inspection report issued.

We did this, and the inspector was nice enough to come back and is re-issuing the inspection report at no charge. The fewer the issues that a buyer can try to use as leverage in negotiating the sale, the better.