Simple projects for selling your home

It is important to give your home a good curb appeal, especially if you are planning to sell your home. It is definitely a buyers market and the sellers have to work much harder to sell their home when there are so many options available to the buyer. In this market, the seller has to try make the home as desirable as possible; if you find your home very appealing, so will a prospective buyer. The first impression a buyer gets is from the outside, so work at giving a positive impression from the out side in. You dont want a buyer to take a look from the out side and decide this house is not for them. Certainly, there are external factors that you cannot control, but if you try to make your home the best looking home in your neighborhood, you will have a much better chance of selling it quickly. Even if you are not selling your home, it wont hurt to maintain it as a very desirable home. Here are some tips for improving your home's appeal without putting a big dent your pocket.

• Trim the hedges. Overgrown hedges are very noticeable, and takes away the curb appeal. Spending time to keep the clean up the shrubs is a quick way to improve the look of your home.
• Take care of your lawn by pulling out any unsightly weeds and putting down sod or planting grass seeds in spotty areas where the grass is dead. A well cared for lawn adds to the desirability of a home.
• If your driveway has oil or paint spills, clean it up. You can find chemicals to clean concrete at Home Depot or Lowes.
• Check your mail box to see if it needs to be painted. Spending 15 min painting the mailbox can give a fresh new look.
• Clean your windows. Fix any out of place gutters.
• Do simple landscaping jobs that you can do for yourself. Plant some trees, hang a bird feeder, put new pine straw around trees, etc that will add a little bit of extra touch that shows you have been taking good care of the property.
• Get rid of unnecessary junk that has been collected over the years. Have a garage sale and sell it to some one who finds it more useful than you. If you are going to sell your home, you will have to get rid of these anyway. Why not get rid of them earlier, so you will have more room and your home can be more presentable to a prospective buyer?
• Doing simple home improvement projects can give a fresh new look. Something as simple as changing your kitchen faucet can make a big difference at very little cost. Another idea that might add a new look without much expense is to change to the light fixtures, adding a new chandelier or a ceiling fan.

If you are not the handy man type, home depot offers many Do It Yourself classes to show you how to do simple projects or you can check out many resources on the web. I have summarized the list of good sites I follow. If you know of others, please write a comment or send me an e-mail and I will update this list.

Home and Garden TV
This Old House TV Show
HomeTime.com
DoItYourself.com
DIY Network
Ron Hazelton's HouseCalls
DIYFinds.com
Manage My Home
Better Homes and Garden
Danny Lipford