<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" While politicians debate whether or not we&amp;#039;re in a recession--and the Fed bails out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--the real estate market continues its long, agonizing downward slide.  Times are tough, even in historically hot real estate markets such as Las Vegas, San Francisco, Phoenix and Miami, where homes used to sell in a matter of days--often at well above asking price. Nowadays, houses stay on the market for weeks, even months, without selling.  And, unfortunately, it&amp;#039;s the same everywhere: There&amp;#039;s a huge--and growing--inventory of homes on the market with low prices, but few people are buying. So while the recession debate continues inside the D.C. beltway, there&amp;#039;s no dispute that it&amp;#039;s a tough time to sell a home.  Tough, but not impossible.  To sell a home in today&amp;#039;s downtrodden market, you have to be willing to invest some time and sweat in prepping your place for sale. Long gone are the days of simply calling a realtor and waiting for buyers to outbid each other. So get proactive, and take these steps toward attracting serious buyers.    RELATED STORIES * EARLIER: 15 Ways to Boost Your Home&amp;#039;s Outdoor Curb Appeal  * DIY GUY: 10 Strategies for Selling Your Home to the Highest Bidder  * PLUS: 15 Places to Watch on DIY Home Inspector Checklist  1. Enhance the Curb Appeal  First impressions are never more important than when trying to sell a home. Put yourself in the shoes of a prospective buyer. Stand near the street and look with an objective eye at your house, yard, driveway and gardens. Make note of all items that need to be fixed, painted, cleaned or removed.  How important is curb appeal? Very, according to Dan Dunleavy, founder of FixtoFlip.com. He says that most people pass judgment on your house within the first 30 seconds. And that&amp;#039;s before ever setting foot inside! So follow these six quick and easy tips: Fertilize the lawn and cut it. Trim the edges along all sidewalks and other paved surfaces. Remove leaves and fallen debris, such as twigs, pine cones and seed pods. Trim shrubs and hedges, and remove dead limbs from trees. Fill flowerbeds with fresh mulch and plant brightly colored flowers.  Apply a fresh coat of sealer to worn asphalt driveways, and power-wash concrete driveways.  Clear the front and side yards of all extraneous stuff, such as bicycles, lawnmowers, garden tools, wheelbarrows and your brother-in-law.  Inspect your home&amp;#039;s exterior for things that need to be fixed or replaced, such as ripped window screens, sagging gutters, broken balusters or peeling paint.  Pay particular attention to the obvious, highly noticeable areas. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve seen buyers turned off simply because the front door was dirty and scuffed up,&amp;quot; says Amy Willaby, a Re/Max real estate agent in Dallas.  The same advice applies to outdoor structures not attached to the house. Crooked gates need repair--as do sagging fences, frost-heaved stone steps or cracked concrete walks.   RELATED STORIES * EARLIER: 15 Ways to Boost Your Home&amp;#039;s Outdoor Curb Appeal  * DIY GUY: 10 Strategies for Selling Your Home to the Highest Bidder  * PLUS: 15 Places to Watch on DIY Home Inspector Checklist  2. Beautify the Interior  The instant that prospective buyers enter your home, they should be taken by the understated elegance of the interior--not assaulted by loud colors and eye-spinning patterns.  So paint your walls in soft, neutral colors, and remove wallpaper with bright colors or overly elaborate patterns. Lose the threadbare rugs, refinish worn hardwood floors, and install new light switch and wall outlet cover plates.  While you&amp;#039;re at it, clean the windows and window sills. Just before a showing, open all drapes and blinds to emit as much daylight as possible. It&amp;#039;s also advisable to turn on all lights and lamps to give your home a bright, lived-in look.    RELATED STORIES * EARLIER: 15 Ways to Boost Your Home&amp;#039;s Outdoor Curb Appeal  * DIY GUY: 10 Strategies for Selling Your Home to the Highest Bidder  * PLUS: 15 Places to Watch on DIY Home Inspector Checklist   3. Clear Out the Clutter  What&amp;#039;s really imperative is that the next owner of your home sees the true potential of each room. But that&amp;#039;s not possible when rooms are showing off an overabundance of furniture, books, toys, knickknacks and other belongings. Plus, rooms appear smaller and darker when overfilled. Remember, no homebuyer has ever said, &amp;quot;We love the house, but the rooms are too big and bright.&amp;quot;  So kill the mess. Start by removing one or two pieces of furniture from each room. Thin out items from all closets, shelves and tabletops. Then remove family photos, portraits and other personal effects. You want homebuyers to see the house as theirs, not yours. Most real estate agents recommend that sellers remove (or at least conceal) up to 50 percent of the stuff from each room. If you end up removing a lot of stuff, rent a self-storage space to hold the items until the property has sold.  You might also consider hiring a professional home stager to prep your home for sale. Stagers will thin out much of your stuff, rearrange furniture and add room accessories, such as rugs, paintings and pillows.  Staged, de-cluttered rooms may appear sterile to you, but buyers won&amp;#039;t think so. Barb Schwarz, founder of StagedHomes.com , points out that you&amp;#039;re not trying to sell your things--you&amp;#039;re selling the space. And buyers cannot visualize interior spaces when there is too much stuff in the way.    RELATED STORIES * EARLIER: 15 Ways to Boost Your Home&amp;#039;s Outdoor Curb Appeal  * DIY GUY: 10 Strategies for Selling Your Home to the Highest Bidder  * PLUS: 15 Places to Watch on DIY Home Inspector Checklist  4. Inspect Your Kitchen and Bathrooms  Interested homebuyers might accept a badly painted bedroom or a dining room with dingy paneling, but few will give serious consideration to a home with a kitchen or bathroom that&amp;#039;s dirty and in disrepair.  Start by cleaning all kitchen appliances--inside and out--and remove or replace any that aren&amp;#039;t fully operational or that are seriously outdated. What do I mean by outdated? If your blender could have been a prize on &amp;quot;Let&amp;#039;s Make A Deal,&amp;quot; chuck it.  Wash dirt and grease from the cabinets and range hood. Scrub the sink clean and polish the faucet. And never allow a buyer see the sink filled with dirty dishes. If the refrigerator is hidden behind a hodgepodge of photos, calendars and school projects, clean it off.  Candace Hutchison, owner of Home Detailing in Louisville, suggests clearing everything from the countertops to help maximize the space, and removing all items stored or displayed above the cabinets. She also says that sellers should consider installing new door handles and drawer pulls on the cabinets, which is a quick and relatively inexpensive way to upgrade the look of a kitchen.  In the bath, scrub all surfaces spotless, including the floors, walls, vanity, sink, toilet, tub and shower. Organize linen closets and hang a new shower curtain liner. Fix leaky faucets, clean stained tile grout, and check to be sure that all toilets flush properly. Clear the vanity top of all small bottles, cups and toiletries.  Hutchison recommends putting out thick, luxurious towels, and replacing a small mirror with a larger one to give the illusion of more space. She also suggests installing new faucets and making sure you clean smudges and water spots from shower doors.   RELATED STORIES * EARLIER: 15 Ways to Boost Your Home&amp;#039;s Outdoor Curb Appeal  * DIY GUY: 10 Strategies for Selling Your Home to the Highest Bidder  * PLUS: 15 Places to Watch on DIY Home Inspector Checklist  5. Hire a Home Inspector  Once, not all that long ago, a seller never would&amp;#039;ve even considered hiring home inspector. That was the responsibility of the buyer, not the seller. But desperate times call for desperate--but wise--measures.  In this tough-to-sell climate, having your home inspected prior to putting it on the market is a very smart strategy. First, the inspection will reveal trouble spots, giving you the opportunity to fix them before listing the home.  Plus, being able to show a recent inspection report to prospective buyers will be proof-positive that the home is in good shape. Most buyers will still want to hire their own inspector, but at least you&amp;#039;ll have the peace of mind in knowing that there&amp;#039;s little chance of something major popping up.  Believe me, you don&amp;#039;t want to find out as the closing draws near that the furnace is shot or the mudsill is rotted. Those sorts of surprises can lead to two possible outcomes, and both are bad. The buyers will either demand a price reduction to cover the cost of making the necessary repairs, or they&amp;#039;ll withdraw their offer and ask for the return of the deposit.    RELATED STORIES * EARLIER: 15 Ways to Boost Your Home&amp;#039;s Outdoor Curb Appeal  * DIY GUY: 10 Strategies for Selling Your Home to the Highest Bidder  * PLUS: 15 Places to Watch on DIY Home Inspector Checklist              "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to/a12078/4273722/>