Home Remodeling Tips to Sell Your Home Faster

In any market, one of the things I'm constantly asked is how best to improve the way a property looks to potential buyers. It's even more essential in this market when you must do anything and everything you can to sell your property at any price. So here are a few of the tips I consider with my clients to help make a property sell quicker and for more money:

1) PAINT -- Inside or outside, fresh paint is most important to me (and it must not be sloppy). Here's a link to A Primer on Exterior Painting. And here's a link to some suggestions on Interior Color Choices.

2) ODORS -- You may not think of this because you may have lived there long enough that you don't smell the odor. So must definitely get an outside opinion on this one. But I know from first-hand experience that it's extremely difficult to sell a house that people want to leave as fast as possible to get a breath of fresh air.

3) CURB APPEAL -- Anybody's whose watched HGTV has this one drilled into their brain. But what exactly does curb appeal mean. Here's a few tricks (summarized from a recent Realtor magazine article):

• Add Splashes of Color -- "It's best to use one or two colors and repeat them," according to Landscape designer Michael Glassman.


• Size Trees and Shrubs to Scale -- Don't block windows, doors and other architectural features of the home. And while you may love a dense canopy of trees, many buyers worry about maintenance.


• Maintain a Perfect Lawn -- Nobody wants to buy a home AND a project lawn.


• Light Up the Outside -- Have you ever noticed how almost every home looks better at night? A few well-placed lights (but not too bright) can work wonders.


• Let them Hear the Water -- A water feature really puts buyers in a relaxing mood when they're at the house, and more likely to want to come back -- permanently.


• Use Decorative Architectural Elements -- Examples include: new mailbox, planted window boxes, a low fence wraped in vines, a few well placed colors.

4) REDUCE CLUTTER -- Chances are if you're selling your house before you've moved out, you're going to have to alter your lifestyle. That is, if you want to sell quickly and for top dollar. This is because there are many things that almost everyone keeps in their home for everyday life that make a home less attractive to most buyers. This is going to mean removing personal photos, removing some of your favorite art, eliminating some furniture, even reducing what's in your clostes and more.

OK, those are my Top 4, but there's so many things you can do to so here's links to even more tips:

• HGTV's 10 Best-Kept Secrets for Selling Your Home


• 6 Affordable Staging Tips


• A Whole Bunch of Ideas from Other Realtors


• Design*Sponge Before and After


• Excellent Local Interior Designer #1


• Excellent Local Interior Designer #2