When you first put your home on the market it may seem counterintuitive for you to have to think like a buyer, but that is just what you need to do. Even if you can't have the upperhand (being the buyer) you can still do a few simple things to make your home more beautiful. The tips below are pretty much universally pleasing to the senses. They will almost guarantee you sell your home fast and at the price YOU want.Clear The Clutter!Think of what you do before you have guests over to your house for the first time. You sweep, mop, do laundry, and so on. Why? You want to make a great first impression, of course. The same applies to selling your home. The easiest first step you can take is to get rid of all the clutter you have lying around the house. This applies to the small stuff as well as the large. Small eye sores like excess papers, mail, dishes, and large “stuff” like furniture that makes a room feel cramped, clothes overflowing from closets and/or drawers, or an excessive amount of toys in a child room can make a potential buyer feel very uncomfortable right from the start. Buyers want to picture themselves in a home that is organized and neat, not one that is overrun by clutter. If you are looking for a place to store all your stuff without any hassle, I would recommend using a portable container. A lot of companies will bring a storage unit to you and take it away for you- door to door. PODS and PackRat are two such companies.Apply A Fresh Coat of Paint Over time, our walls get banged and bruised due to normal everyday life. Such scars include, skid marks from chairs and tables, couches and ottomans, strollers and artwork and all the other things we lean against our walls. These can leave some unsightly marks and in some cases, they can leave holes and dents. In order to give your home the best possible first impression, I recommend giving your interior walls a fresh coat of paint.  Choose a color that is neutral like white or light grey; something that isn't going to be distracting. You want to create a feeling of ease and calmness in your rooms. You don't want to turn off a potential buyer by having your home look like a box of crayons! If you're stuck on what colors to pick, www.benjaminmoore.com has a helpful color viewer that you can use to “paint your own room online.” Create Curb Appeal With LandscapingMy first two tips for beautifying your home can be done “DIY” style over the course of a weekend. My #3 tip to create curb appeal via landscaping may require a professional. If you are new to gardening, or don't know what landscaping is, it may be wise to hire a local professional who can help get you started with basic ideas about what should be planted depending on conditions in your area and around your home. Landscaping can include a combination of large and small plants as well as more ornamental items like sculptures or boulders. If conditions are right in your area, you may even consider xeriscaping the property. This look is low maintenance because most of the types of plants that fit into a xeriscaped landscape don't require much water. This can be a big selling point for potential buyers who are thinking about saving money on utility bills and who are earth-conscious and do not want to use supplemental water from irrigation.If you want to keep it simple and do it yourself, you certainly can. Some obvious tips on simple curb maintenance would be to make sure your grass stays green by watering it regularly, and by keeping the area around your house tidy by picking up any trash or tree branches that may have fallen. Planting a few colorful annuals in beds and trimming back hedges and trees will make a big difference as well. All of these things will make a huge visual impression on a potential buyer when they see the beauty of your home for the first time. Home Staging According to Wikipedia, “u.s. research (based on surveys of real-estate agents) states that home staging can reduce a listing's time on the market by one third to half, and could fetch as much as 10-15% more than an empty home or a home not properly staged.”[1]
You may be wondering what is home staging and how can it help me sell my home?  Home staging can be as simple as following a few recommendations from your agent about how to properly clean up and spruce up your home, or it can be a more elaborate ordeal.Let's say you are selling a rental home. Once the renters leave, the place will be completely empty. This is where home stagers can come in handy (for a fee of course). Home-stagers will come in and literally reinvent the place if need be. They will create a feeling of spaciousness, cleanliness and best of all they will make people want to buy it! There are many reasons why you may consider hiring a home stager, owning a rental property is just one example. If you have the extra cash and you don't want to deal with cleaning and re-designing your rooms, a home stager may just be a life saver for you.Lighting DesignLighting is something that is often overlooked by sellers, but of course it shouldn't be! Lighting can change the mood of a room instantly. Simply open the blinds or curtains and see what a difference the natural light makes. A wise seller would never post pictures of their listing with all the curtains drawn, this makes the space look dark, small and undefined.Natural light is a great way to enhance all your lovely treasures around the room or the artwork on the walls. If the room is not lit properly, everything in it becomes blurred and indistinguishable, especially in pictures.If the home does not get good natural lighting, then you may need to think about enhancing the environment with some lighting design. Again, if you have everything you need already, this can be done simply by you and your family. For more detailed design, have a lighting professional either stage or redo the lighting fixtures in the home. Think of how attractive an energy-efficient retrofitted home will be to a buyer who is looking to save on electricity costs! You may be able to update to a “Green” home by just changing out all your lightbulbs to LED or similar energy efficient bulbs. I hope all these tips help you feel more confident about selling your home or can help put you on the right track in getting your home ready. With a little time and/or money your home will make a great first impression.