The most important areas to look at are the kitchen, bathrooms and the outside entrance to your home. You want all these rooms to look updated and homey. You want to welcome the prospective buyer into the home and make them feel like the want to live there. And, most importantly, repair anything that obviously needs to be fixed. No one wants to buy a house that needs repair right off the bat!

The first area your prospective buyer will see is the outside entrance so you must make sure your house has curb appeal. The buyers first impression as he walks up to the house should be warm and inviting. You want them to feel like you take good care of the house so no bare spots of dirt or dead plants! Some color is great and you can buy flowers pretty inexpensively. Don't forget to trim any overgrown bushes and remove anything that is dead. Keep the lawn well manicured. Don't feel bad about spending money on the landscaping as this could very well result in a higher price for your home!

The kitchen is also a key area. Worn counter tops or linoleum will be a big turn off so invest is some new flooring or counters if you can. Also, it is important to have updated appliances. Those 70's look avocado and gold pieces will be a huge turn off to the buyer. Investing in some newer appliances will go a long way towards selling your house for top dollar, but if you simply cannot afford it, try changing the color with some appliance spray paint.

Cabinets are another area that can detract from the kitchen, but can also be expensive to replace. If you have those ugly dark wood cabinets that were popular 30 years ago, try sprucing them up with some light colored paint, new knobs and hinges.

Use the same rules in the bathroom. Fix any leaky faucets and make sure the fixtures, toilet and tub are squeaky clean. If your bathroom is wallpapered in an outdated paper, rip it down and paint in a neutral color.

Your entire home should be clean and in good repair. Remove any clutter and worn items. Take a good look at how the furniture is arranged – does it make the room look too small? If so you might want to remove some pieces. Just changing the position of some pieces can make the room look more inviting.

Doing a little bit of work and investing in some new things for your house can not only help the sale to happen faster, but it can also put more money in your pocket. Just don't fix it up too nice or you might not want to move out!