Remember what you were looking for when you bought your home and what you will be looking for when you buy your next home. Economically speaking, we are in a buyers’ market; housing supply is up and values are down. Buyers have many great deals to choose from; competition is fierce. Here are some tips to put your home at the top of the demand list.



If your home is very cluttered, rooms will appear to be smaller and offers will come in slower and lower. If you have boxes packed and piled up in one room, anticipating a move, the buyer will not understand and see past this. Packed boxes need to be stored outside of the home. Go through each room and keep only what you need as long as you’re still living in the home. Clean each room really good and remove items from closets leaving them half-full. If necessary, consider installing closet organizers, but only use half of this space as well. This will give the appearance of closets with plenty of extra storage space.

Clean the carpets and remove worn out scatter rugs. Clean everything, inside and out, including deck and siding, windows, cabinets, floors and walls. Visit your local hardware store and buy the right products to make the job easier, or if you can afford it, hire a professional cleaning company to do the job.

Fresh paint does wonders for a home. Now that it is very clean, remove peeling, faded wall paper, fill cracks, hammer nails that have popped out, repair broken steps, cracked windows and anything else that needs your attention. When choosing paint, use light colors for walls and white for ceilings to make the rooms appear clean, bright and larger in size. Don’t be cheap; use a quality paint that washes well, in case it takes 6 months or more to sell your home. Change all burnt out light bulbs, making sure every room has plenty of light. Open curtains and blinds if showing during the day. A dark room, even when clean, appears to be smaller and less clean.

If you have pets or smokers living in the home, it is important to remove the odors. Have a non-smoker who doesn’t have pets come to your home to be sure all odors are gone. From now until you sell the home, smokers will have to step outside. Some people will recommend using potpourri or other air fresheners, but do not go too heavy on these as buyers will think you’re hiding something. No scent is the right scent to a perspective buyer.

You might consider hiring a handyman service to help with this work. Remember, property values are declining and time is money. A handyman service will be able to complete this work more quickly so you can list, show and sell the home sooner. You are not saving a thing if it takes you 3 months to complete the work in today’s declining market.

So the key to selling your home is light, bright, clean and spacious. If the yard is littered and the home is cluttered you are giving the appearance of overwhelm with a home that is difficult to care for, or one that is not worth the time and effort to maintain. A clean home and yard is an inviting home. First impressions are everything when selling your home. When everything is well maintained you are showing buyers how much you have loved your home.

This article was written by Carl Ravey of HandyPro Handyman Services. HandyPro offers a home seller program, where they do the cosmetic repairs and you don’t pay until you sell your home. Their pre-screened contractors are licensed and bonded, and customer friendly. They guarantee customer satisfaction with quality work and they clean up when the job is complete. . http://www.handypro.com services Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Port Allen, Addis, East Baton Rouge Parish, Zachary, Baker, Ascension Parish, Gonzales, Sorrento, Donaldsonville, Livingston Parish, Denham Springs, Walker, and neighboring cities and communities.