Improving the Real Estate Value of Your Home

Selling your home is a bittersweet affair. While you may be excited about moving to a new residence, your current abode has served as a place where many nice memories were made. You look back fondly on the days you threw parties, witnessed small children engage in food fights, shooed your pets when they tried sharpening their claws on the precious wooden fixtures, and a host of other events.

Over time you may have slackened off in maintaining your house, while Mother Nature subjected it to many harsh weathers. Physically, the house has changed and so has its real estate value. Now that you plan on selling it, it's time to spruce it up in order to attract a buyer as well as allow you to command a good price.

Here are several suggestions you can follow for preparing your house:

• Start getting rid of useless clutter. These are items that have zero resale or sentimental value. If you find anything that is worth donating to charity - old toys, books and clothes - then pack them up and send them over to people in need.

• Inspect each room in the house for cracks, leaks and similar defects. Their severity will impact your home's real estate value, so document everything that you see on a notepad.

• Write down a solution for each defect. Does it need just a quick coat of paint? Is new plumbing the only answer? You won't be able to justify a high price tag if the house's defects require lots of professional intervention.

• Do minor repairs you can easily handle. If you have tools available at home, you should have no trouble performing repairs that don't require a professional's attention. Some examples are fixing leaky faucets, replacing light bulbs, and repainting your child's bubble gum pink bedroom wall into a neutral shade that's easier on the eyes, like beige or pale yellow. These little changes can still do wonders for real estate value.

• Organize your daily living staples into one or two cabinets. Then, keep the rest of the closets and cabinets in the house empty for potential buyers to inspect. When trying to sell your home, expect prospects to snoop around a bit to see how organized and well-maintained the house is. Chances are, they will check every nook and cranny, down to the hinges. Giving them empty cabinets and closets to inspect will allow them to see the quality of the house while imagining how their own things would look stored inside them.

• Always keep the house and outer surroundings clean and tidy for spur-of-the-moment buyer visits. Don't throw your house's real estate value down the drain by letting the potential buyer see your unmentionables drying outside or lined up in the bathroom. This would be very embarrassing for both parties!

• Keep your refrigerator clean and presentable. You wouldn't want a prospect to catch a whiff of week-old Chinese takeaway or that unsealed tub of Caesar salad dressing sitting in your fridge as you open the door to proffer him a soda. There are people who judge others based on the cleanliness and contents of this particular appliance. Never give them the impression that you're a slob.

Good luck in selling your home and may you build more happy memories in your next one!