Selling a home is so much more than listing it with a good agent and hoping for the best. One of the best things that a Louisville home seller can do to make sure that his house sells fast and for the best price is to “stage” it properly. Once thought of as an unnecessary “extra,” something only interior designers and real estate experts knew much about, home staging is now a must for anyone who wants to make top dollar. Even making a few simple changes—some that cost absolutely nothing—will make a world of difference when it comes time for the open house.

Don’t forget about the outside
Too often, people focus all of their attention inside a home and do nothing to the outside of the house. But when you are selling Louisville real estate a home’s exterior is the first impression that any would-be home buyer will notice. Perhaps the cheapest way to make that first impression a good one is to tackle the weeds. Get rid of all weeds as well as anything that is dead or simply unattractive, and remember that “simple” is often better than overgrown and complicated. Also, keep in mind that the outdoors is the new indoors. People today often see their deck or porch outside as another living room. Make sure the outdoor areas of your house not only make people feel welcome but also tempt them to put up their feet and relax a while.

Put aside the personal
We love to decorate our homes with pictures of our families and friends and display other knick-knacks and personal items that mean so much to us. But when a house is on the market, it’s best to box up those items and decorate instead with a small number of more impersonal accents. Prospective buyers have a hard time picturing themselves in a home that clearly belongs to someone else. The other important step in depersonalizing a home is evaluating the color scheme. You might love having bright pink or deep purple on the walls, but such loud colors appeal only to a limited number of personal tastes. For $20 bucks, you can pick up a gallon of paint in a clean, neutral shade which will appeal to a whole lot more prospective buyers.

Furniture: less is more
Evaluate the furnishings in your home to see if how many you have and the way they are positioned actually help or hurt your chances at a successful sale. Many people try to stuff too many pieces of furniture in a room. Maybe you like to have two couches, a love seat, two chairs and a recliner in your family room because you need lots of seating for all the entertaining you frequently do. That’s fine when your house is not on the market, but when it’s for sale, all of these pieces can make even a large room look small. Consider leaving just the couch and loveseat while the house is listed and arrange them to allow for an easy, smooth traffic pattern through the room. This will help buyers be able to appreciate the real size of the room and picture their own furniture in it.

It doesn’t take loads of money to stage a house for the best possible sale. Some simple fixes—that cost little or no money—can help increase the likelihood of a sale, reduce your home’s time on the market or even help justify the sale price. You can even consider it getting a jump-start on the moving process!

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Black Friday is now a distant memory, Santa can no longer be found at Mall St. Matthews and all the holiday decorations have been put away for another year. That can only mean one thing – the birth of a new year is upon us.  And that means it’s time once again to make New Year’s resolutions.  We could promise anew actually to use our gym membership this year or we could try yet again to swear off chocolate or ice cream. But perhaps a better pledge for 2012 might be to get our homes in Louisville ready for winter. That’s a resolution that will not only bring us comfort during the coldest months of the year, but it may also be something we can accomplish more successfully than the latest fad diet or strenuous exercise program.

Since Louisville winters usually bring a few snow storms with average temperatures in the 20s during January and February, making sure that your house is ready to keep you warm should be a top priority. January is not too late to make some simple changes or modifications that will produce results you will benefit from before spring rolls in. Here are a few winter home maintenance tips that will keep you toasty and save you money as well!

1. Change out your furnace filters and inspect the insulation around the crawlspace and attic.  Make sure that the seals around plumbing, lighting fixtures and the attic door are tight to keep air from escaping.
2.  If you have double-paned windows, you’re in great shape.  These help keep the heat in and the cold out.  If you don’t have this kind of window though, there are still things you can do to help.  Replacing the screens with storm windows will go a long way in keeping your house warm.  If purchasing storm windows isn’t in the budget this year, then get a plastic film sheet kit from a home improvement or hardware store.  This will only last one season, but it’s an inexpensive fix that works.
3.  If unusually cold temperatures are in the forecast, let your cold and hot water faucets drip during the night to keep the pipes from freezing.
4. Even though it’s winter, don’t forget about the yard!  Trim branches of trees and shrubs to make sure they aren’t too close to the house.  Ice-covered limbs – like those we saw during the January 2010 ice storm – can cause a lot of damage when they fall onto the roofs or against the sides of our homes in Louisville.

Even though the holiday festivities are over, there’s still quite a lot that can be done to make this winter the best ever.  And by turning some basic winter home maintenance activities into our New Year’s resolution this year, we’re likely to be far more successful than we were getting into our old skinny jeans or developing rock hard abs like we tried to do in the past.   Plus, we’ll save some money and have the satisfaction of knowing our families will be warmer in their homes in Louisville this year.