SELLERS: Here are some things you can do to make your house stand out

By John Adams, AJC Contributor
Published on: 07/27/08

This summer is a tough time to sell your home. But it's important to recognize that some homes are, in fact, selling. The National Association of Realtors is estimating that more than 5 million homes will change hands this year, and yours can be one of them.

One of the ways to make your home more appealing is to dress it up a little bit. Last week we talked about the importance of your home's condition in the selling process. This week I want to give you some quick and easy ways to make your home stand out from the rest:

• Buy a couple of pots of blooming yellow daisies and place a pot on each side of your front door.
• Paint your handrails and entire front door area to give your entry a fresh, clean look.
• Install a bright brass kick plate at the base of your front door, and attach large brass house numbers to the door or entry area. Also, clean and polish door hardware, or replace, if needed.
• Trim back shrubbery to well below the base of your window frames. It looks better from the street and lets more light into the house.
• Clean out gutters. Make sure gutters drain away from the house by installing splash blocks if needed
• Edge your lawn deeply all the way around. That includes the driveway, street curb, sidewalk and walkway to your front door. It gives your yard a manicured look.
• Seal or repair any cracks in your drive or walkways. If your drive is concrete, have it pressure-washed. If it is asphalt, apply a "black top" preservative coating.
• Upgrade your mailbox and post. Replace what you've got with a 6-inch-by-6-inch cross-post and an oversize new shiny black mailbox. Add shiny brass numbers to the post.
• Make sure the front yard is free of old newspapers and debris, and keep kids' Big Wheels and bicycles out of view of visitors.

Here are some quick improvements for inside your home:

• Walk through every room in your house and see what furniture you can do away with to make that room feel less crowded.
• Store furniture and belongings that you can live without in a storage facility. Empty your closets of everything except the bare essentials for you to live there. Closet floors and shelves should be visible and largely empty.
• Avoid the trap of moving your excess and oversize furniture from your house into your garage. Your garage should be clear of storage items and should not have cars parked in it. An occupied garage looks and feels much smaller than it really is.
• Consider painting the garage floor with floor enamel. Also, look at the new two-step garage flooring kits that create a durable and attractive epoxy finish with a minimum of cost and effort. They are available at home improvement stores.
• If you have any sort of basement, it should be very well lit and smell fresh and dry. Again, remove unnecessary boxes and stored items so the area appears as large as possible. Install plastic sheeting over any exposed dirt to minimize moisture gain, and add a timed exhaust fan.
• De-personalize your house by removing any decorations or items that might generate a negative response from a visitor. I once showed a house where the owner had taken part in the liberation of a town during WWII. Appropriately proud of his service, this owner had the captured Nazi flag displayed on his den wall. Unfortunately, my buyers were put off, and chose to look elsewhere.
• Make sure every light bulb in your house is the maximum safe wattage for that fixture. It is important that your home appear bright and well illuminated.
• In the bath, buy a new shower curtain. And if you have a small mirror over a medicine chest, replace it with a large wall mirror, maybe 36 by 48 inches. It will make the bath look and feel much larger.

These are some of the least expensive ideas that have worked for me over the years. You probably won't want to implement every one of these tips, but just a few can make a positive impact on your potential buyer's experience.