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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.

It’s been tough for many homeowners to sell their properties as the housing market has struggled. But there are plenty of homes being sold in communities all across the country. If you’re scratching your head trying to figure out why your neighbor just sold her house at current market value but you can’t get anyone to even take a look at yours, here are some tips that just may help.

1. Clean up your mess. Some people seem to think that all it takes to sell a home is to put up a for sale sign and hold an open house. The fact is that you’ve got to go above and beyond what the next homeowner is doing to sell a home. There shouldn’t be a lot of dirt and clutter in a home that is being shown to prospective buyers. If cleaning isn’t your thing, hire a maid service.
2. Do the smell test. No one  wants to buy a home if it has unpleasant odors.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to open houses and been immediately turned off by the strong smell of cat urine, mildew,  smoke or other odors. In addition to cleaning, open up some windows and air out the place before house hunters are scheduled to arrive.
3. Pay attention to curb appeal. Peeling paint, overgrown weeds, rusty car parts, busted windows, and junk cluttering up the lawn can keep people from even stopping to look at your home. Even if you get folks looking at a home that is an eyesore, they’re probably going to bid way below the asking price. Fix up your place so home buyers won’t feel overwhelmed by all of the work that needs to be done around the place.
4. Get your family members to leave during showings. When we were house hunting a few years back I remember going to a property where the homeowner’s adult kids seemed resentful about the home being up for sale. Not only were they glaring at all the house hunters, but one guy was even asleep in one of the bedrooms and refused to get up! Make other plans when potential buyers come for a look.

It’s not impossible to sell a house in this market. But you’ll definitely need to be on your game to drum up some real interest from buyers. Consider throwing in an incentive, such as paying closing costs or offering a big-screen TV or new appliances.

If you are having trouble making your house payment and wondering what your options are, here they are in a nutshell:

1. Loan Modification
2. Short Sale
3. Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure
4. Foreclosure

Loan Modification

When attempting to get your lender to modify the original terms of your loan,  you may want to hire a lawyer or law firm to help you get it modified – but it is possible to get your loan modified without the help of a lawyer thanks in part to the Making Home Affordable program. The loan modification process is long, complicated and many people end up frustrated and moving on to one of the other options (short sale, deed-in-lieu or foreclosure) because they were unable to get their loan modified.

Short Sale

A short sale usually occurs after trying to get your loan modified and not being able to do so. If you are attempting to short sell your home, you may want to hire a lawyer to help you review the final paperwork because of various state’s anti-deficiency statutes – or in other words, the laws of your state as to whether or not the lender can come after you for the difference. I have heard many stories recently of lenders “slipping in” a promissory note expecting the person short selling their home to pay it and many homeowners agree to sign it – even though they are not legally required to do so.

Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure

If you are unable to short sell your home, you may be able to negotiate a Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure with your lender.  A Deed-in-Lieu is basically where you agree to vacate the property and leave it broom swept clean and the lender agrees to take over the property. The difference between Deed-in-Lieu and Foreclosure is that with a DIL, once you hand the property over to the lender, they will stop reporting negative items on your credit. I always recommend hiring a lawyer to help you if you get to this stage.

Foreclosure

The final possibility is Foreclosure. Each state has different foreclosure laws, so if you are going through foreclosure, I reccommend that you hire an experienced attorney who can help you know your rights throughout the process.

Because after all, there is nothing more expensive in life than cheap legal advice.

Justin McHood is a loan officer living in the Phoenix, Arizona area. You can find Justin on Facebook, Twitter, ActiveRain or LinkedIn and he is happy to answer any mortgage-related questions that you may have.