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Are you putting your house on the market to sell? If so, make sure you’ve done everything you can to present your property in a way that will appeal to the broadest range of buyers possible.

Staging your home can allow you to highlight the best features of your home so that you can get it sold quicker. Even if you live in a tough housing market, staging your house could give you an advantage over other homeowners in the area. Keep the following things in mind as you spruce up the place.

• At a minimum you must clean up your property and make obvious repairs. Potential home buyers will automatically be turned off by a house that is dirty, cluttered, and smelly. If the cleaning job is bigger than you can handle on your own, invest a few hundred bucks in hiring a cleaning service. Also take time to repair all those little things you’ve been meaning to get around to that visitors to your home  will notice.
• Staging your home doesn’t require purchasing a lot of new furniture and accessories. You probably have an adequate amount of furnishings in your home that can be rearranged to make the place more appealing. Yes, there may be times when small purchases are necessary, but don’t go overboard. If you have too much furniture and knick knacks cluttering up a room, put some of them in storage.
• Giving walls a fresh coat of paint can do wonders for jazzing up your home. Avoid really bold, loud colors that might detract from other features in the home. Stick with a more neutral palate.
• Put away personal photos, knick knacks, collectibles and other items.  You want potential buyers to visualize themselves moving into the home, not focus on your personal tastes.
• Arrange rooms in such a way that they appear larger and more open than they are. Using natural light from windows to give rooms a brighter appearance is helpful, so take down heavy draperies or old blinds that make rooms appear dark.

It’s important to look at your home with a critical eye. Go outside and examine the exterior to see what areas need changing. Do whatever you can to give home buyers a reason to make a bid on your property.

In an effort to boost sales of its REO properties, Fannie Mae said it would help pay for closing costs for qualified home buyers. Home buyers will receive up to 3.5% of the sales price for closing costs on a property they will live in as their primary residence. The aid can also go towards a home warranty, if necessary.

What’s interesting about this deal plan is that real estate agents and brokers can also qualify for a bonus. Selling agents representing owner-occupants can receive a $1,500 bonus.

The incentive program is for properties listed on www.HomePath.com, Fannie Mae’s REO Web site. The deal is good for offers submitted on or after Sept. 23, 2010, and that close by Dec. 31, 2010. To qualify for the program, the home sale must close within 60 days of the offer being accepted.

The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University recently released its State of the National Housing 2010 report and found that 40.3 million households spend more than 30% of their incomes on housing in 2008, and 18.6 million spend more than half their incomes on housing. 

The report also found that one in seven homeowners owed more on their mortgages than their homes were worth.  While the government has tried to stem the tide of foreclosures and assist some homeowners, many people who are underwater on mortgages loans have not been helped for a variety of reasons. According to the report:

As of April 2010,  HAMP [Home Affordable Modification Program] had made 1.5 million offers that resulted in 637,000 currently active rial modifications and about 295,000 permanent ones. But even among those households able to qualify for this reduction in payments, the Treasury Department estimates that 40 percent will re-default.

Despite problems in the housing market, demand for housing rose in 2010, helped by many first-time home buyers claiming the governments tax credit 45% of home sales were to first-time buyers. Some repeat home buyers also took advantage of an expanded tax credit to purchase homes.

The housing report states that the housing recover is still at risk: 

In addition to the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit program, which may have temporarily jacked up home sales, the market faces threats from the severe overhang of vacant units, still high unemployment, and record numbers of owners with homes worth less than the amount owed on their mortgages.

You can read more about the housing report here.