Staging your home is really important in today's market where buyer's have more inventory than ever to choose from.  Here are some helpful tips on preparing your home to sell:

1.  Give your home some curb appeal by adding some colorful flowers in the yard, a wreath on the door or even a new front door (if it's within your budget).  If the shutters on your home are worn you may want to think about repainting them.  Be sure to keep the grass cut, an untidy yard connotates a seller in distress.  Remember that the exterior of your home is the first thing that people see and you want to make a good first impression! 

2. Declutter, declutter, declutter - be sure to clear out any boxes in rooms, and paperwork from counters and desks and remove unnecessary clutter from your kitchen counters.  Also, try not to make the room appear more cluttered than necessary with oversized furniture or too much furniture, sometimes this can make a room appear much smaller than it actually is.

3. Depersonalize your home by removing any pictures so that the buyer can envision themselves in the home.

4.  Add some home design touches to your house, a vase hear, a nice picture there, or setting the table in the dining room or in the kitchen with placements, napkins and napkin rings, can create big differences.

5.  Let the light shine through!  Buyer's like homes there are full of light.  Open up those blinds and curtains during showings and turn on all the lights.  If you have dark curtains up, think about changing those curtains to a lighter version or putting up valances for the time being. There are ways of doing this even if you're on a shoestring budget.

6.  Keep carpet vacuumed.

7.  Keep dishes out of the sink.  No one wants to see dirty dishes in the sink when they're looking for a new home or smell odors from yesterday's meal.

8.  Place plug ins in rooms that are relaxing similar to the strategies that hotels are now using in their lobbies.  By placing pleasant scents in a home, you've reached at least one of the buyer's senses.

9.  Be sure to touchup any marks on the wall.  You would be surprised at what a difference that makes.

10. Be sure to make any repairs to your home that you know need to be done prior to listing your home. 

11. Change your filter in your furnace and find out when was the last time it was serviced.  You'll be glad you did after the home inspection comes through with the buyer.  If the home inspector sees rust in the coils that's an indication that your unit may not have been serviced in awhile.