If you’re looking for ideas on how to sell your home, then start by thinking about how to make your home attractive to buyers. In this post, we’ll talk about how to do that without driving yourself nuts. A few very simple changes can mean the difference between thousands of dollars in your home’s ultimate sale price.

Give yourself a bath. Your home has been through a lot—this past winter was enough in itself. If you’re trying to sell, wash the outside of your home of the grit and grunge that has accumulated on the outside of it. Reports claim that doing this can mean up to $15,000 in the final sale price of a home. 

To wash your home, hire a professional or spend a weekend doing it yourself. A power washer is your friend, and spend extra time cleaning grit out of the windows and cobwebs from the various nooks and crannies. Homeowners will inspect everything, and seeing dirt on the undersides will make them question whether they have to spend a lot of time and money cleaning the non-obvious parts themselves.

Hiring someone versus doing it yourself? That can mean the difference between a few weeks. A professional crew will have you cleaned up in a weekend or a bit more. It may be worth the extra bucks. Remember, your time is worth money too. 

Make sure there’s a good roof over your head. On the topic of how to sell a home, appraisers and buyers zero in on the roof, which is a high-ticket item for good reason. Check to see if you notice any missing, curled-up, or damaged shingles on your roof and have them replaced. This holds especially true if your neighbors have cared for their own – in comparison, yours will look tired and badly cared for.

If your roof is in good condition, you’d still do well to consider a good power wash. Don’t do this yourself—we can’t emphasize this enough times. A professional is not only equipped with the safety knowledge to protect himself during a roof cleaning, but also knows the right tools and techniques to use to get the roof clean without damaging the shingles. It will cost you a few hundred bucks – but the look could add or retain thousands of dollars for your home sale price.

A little garden goes a long way. When a buyer approaches your home, seeing a well-manicured yard increases the curb appeal in a big way. Strip out the tired hedges or messy bushes with some leafy plants that burst with green. Replace the mulch with fresh stuff, and go for the dark red-brown shade which looks rich and fertile. Get rid of weeds and unsightly vines creeping up the walls of the house, and stick a few potted plants on the porch or stairs leading up to the home. If you don’t have the time, money or energy to do all of these things, then do as many as you can – a little goes a long way in the look of a yard area. If your neighbors have well manicured front yards and you don't, you stick out like a sore thumb to a buyer, who wonders what else they will find that needs to be fixed up in your home.

We’ll continue this theme in our next post, so stay tuned. In the meantime, check out this post for more information on how to sell (and buy) a home.