Make your house more desirable to buyers

1217979_v-house This is a really challenging market if you’re looking to sell your home. The market’s no longer full of flippers who will pay ridiculously over price in a rush without even checking to make sure the plumbing works. Fortunately, it’s not that difficult to make your home look much more appealing to potential buyers without spending much at all. Or having contractors tramp through your home.

Ehow has some great tips for cheap and easy ways to make your house more appealing to potential buyers, and I have some more:

Remove dark or dingy draperies and replace them with inexpensive white sheets that flow to the floor. Tuck the ends of the sheets under so it looks like an intentional draping effect. Even irregular or outlet sheets will do the trick, so this is a very cheap option. And the added light will make the place look better – so long as it’s clean.
Clean it hardcore. A top-notch spring cleaning will make any home look one hundred percent better. Scrub everything. You may need to steam clean the carpets, which you can do yourself with a rental machine for less (often times, at least) than you can hire a service to come in and do it.
Carpets need replacing? Before you price new carpet, check the floor below – you may have hardwoods that need little or no cleaning to look fantastic. And even if you do need something, consider area rugs instead of new carpet. Cheap ones can be a bargain in comparison, and there’s no installation.
Check the smell. Invite someone into your home who doesn’t normally visit, and ask them how it smells. As we get used to certain places and their odors, we sometimes stop noticing them, but a new visitor who’s honest with you can tell you if some areas smell like dog or stale cooking or what.
Got stink? Deep cleaning is usually the solution to odors. Replacing fabrics like curtains or carpets is the next step. If it’s your furniture, can you move the stinky piece into the garage for now and replace it with a borrowed or rented piece? Or maybe you can spread your existing furniture around so the stinky piece doesn’t even look like it’s missing.
Remove furniture. You don’t want to make your home look like a bachelor pad with two chairs and a box for a table, but the more furniture you have, the smaller your rooms look to potential buyers. Aim for just enough furniture to make two people comfortable.
Nowhere to put your clutter? Get a portable storage unit to come to your home, pack it with your clutter, and send it off to storage. When you move, have that portable unit sent to the new place. You may even save some money on movers with this trick.