My wife and I both have been involved in the purchase of three homes and the sale of two. There are a few things we have found to be very helpful, when trying to sell a house. The first and most is the price; you don’t want to price your home to high, and for your sake you never want to price it to low. You see if you price it to high, it will most likely just sit on the market while everyone else trying to sell their home will actually be making a sale. Your selling agent can assist you in selecting a positive number in order to sell your home, just don’t make the mistake of letting them over price it, this is where they make their commission and some tend to price a home to high, just to receive a larger commission. In order to come up with a good selling price I suggest using the comps the agent will present to you, and I would also look at what homes are selling for in your area. Things you will want to consider, how long did the house down the street sit on the market, how aggressive was the market at the time of sale, also check on homes that are still on the market in your area, look to see how long they have been on the market and of course again how aggressive is the market at that time.

> The second thing is how you present your home to a potential customer. Don’t ever let an agent tell you that a home is never sold through an open house; we actually sold two homes through an open house and you want as much exposure as possible. Hosting an open house, advertisement, and word of mouth are the only ways to get exposure to your home, and if you take one of these out of the equation, you lose the chance of a sale. Now comes the open house but, in order to attract a buyer you must stage your home. This means getting rid of all the clutters from pictures lying out to knick-knacks, you want everything to flow through the house. What my wife and I did was imagine you’ve never walked through the house at all, then try to picture how you would place your furniture in order to create a place of Zen, if need be you may have to remove some of your furniture in order to accomplish this. The whole idea is to create an illusion by making the smallest room look even bigger. Like I said you may have to replace some of the furniture with smaller items or simply remove it completely. Another helpful hint is to bake cookies, this works we did it, and you would not believe the response! It’s almost as if the buyer has put themselves in the house already. Now last but not least is making sure the house is spotless, not only the inside but the outside also. This means getting rid of over grown shrubs and weeds by manicuring the yard and planting some color in those flower beds. I know it seems like a lot to do, but you want to be able to get as much for your home as possible don’t you? Well I hope this helps you in the sale of your home.