When you are ready to sell your house you’ll want to enlist the help of a Realtor. He or she will provide the professional advice and service you need to make the selling process go smoothly. Showing you ways to make your home as marketable as possible is just one of the many ways your Realtor can help. The first impression that potential buyers have on your house could greatly impact whether your house can sell quick with top dolloars. And we only get ONE first impression. How to well prepare your house for the one and only BEST first impression, here are some tips:

Clean everything in and out of sight

With clipboard in hand, take a tour of your home. Take note of every opportunity to remove clutter and dirt. Rooms, closets and cupboards will appear larger and more inviting when you get rid of unnecessary stuff and tidy up what’s left. Remove bulky or unused furniture and rearrange the rest to make the best use of space.

Most of us are pack rats, so apply the following test to every questionable item: Have I used this in the past six months, or will I need to use it soon? If the answer is no, throw it away, store it elsewhere or sell it in a yard sale.

Be equally aggressive in disposing of dirt. Pay particular attention to the two most important rooms in a buyer’s mind: bathrooms and kitchens. And once you’ve removed all the dirt: keep everything clean, every day. You never know when the person who will ultimately buy your home will visit.

Repair as much as you can

We are only human beings. We are normally attracted to nicely appealing things around us. That's also true for those potential buyers when they see your house. During your home tour identify the things that are broken, cracked, stuck or just plain don’t work anymore. These can include: leaky faucets, holes in window screens, stuck or broken windows, lights that don’t work, doors that squeak or don’t close properly, missing or broken cupboard handles, cracks in the walls and ceilings, and dozens of other “little things” you’ve been meaning to do for years. Now is the time.

Certain items, such as roof or basement leaks, must be repaired, along with any water damage. Electrical or heating system problems must be fixed. Some repairs, however, may not be necessary. Will that hairline crack in the driveway really make or break the sale? How about a chipped floor tile in the entryway? Some buyers will have their own ideas about how to deal with these problems. You may find it easier to adjust your selling price to reflect the cost of these repairs, rather than pay for them yourself.

Depersonalize your home

Your house reflects you. It is decorated to your taste and your sense of style. We treasure every single happiness and joy in our life and we keep a lot of things around to remind us the beautiful memories. But when it comes to showing your home for sale, those potential buyers might not find that 20 trophies which your children got from various hockey tournaments since 8-year-old appealing, instead, the trophies probably took a lot of space in the 2nd bedroom while being showcased and made the room look rather crowded and small. Grit your teeth and store all personal items (framed family photos, trophies, etc.) out of the way.

If you have brightly coloured accent walls or heavily patterned wallpaper, consider repainting or wallpapering these areas with light, neutral colours that enhance a room’s size and make it more flexible to receive any kind of furniture. Remove area rugs, light fixtures and other items that buyers might find too difficult to imagine in “their home”, even if you were not intending to include these in the sale.

Beautify the house and yard

Peeling, dry paint is relatively easy to fix or replace and can make all the difference in your home’s appearance. If your carpet or other floor covering is in really bad shape, consider replacing it. The same holds true for badly tattered window coverings such as drapes and blinds.

Outside the house, weed the flower beds, remove dead tree branches, keep your lawn well-mowed and edged, trim the hedges, rake the leaves, sweep the sidewalks, fix and paint the deck or fence, plant a few flowers and do anything else you can think of to enhance your home’s curb appeal.

It may sound like a lot of effort, but if you do it right, along with the assistance of a Realtor, you will sell your current house quickly which brings you to your next dream home closer and faster.