First you need to make a serious commitment to the move. Selling a home requires a change in lifestyle. Your house needs to be transformed from its typical daily use to a show home that is ready to be seen by prospective buyers.

First you need to pay attention to any serious problems with the home that will require repair prior to sale. A real estate professional should be contacted early in the process to advise you on how to go about evaluating your home and the need for any repairs. Making those repairs in the late winter or early spring will put you on schedule for a summer move. Your home will be inspected by the buyers, as a seller you may want to discover problems right away by hiring your own professional home inspector. Consult with your attorney and real estate professional regarding the advisability of a home inspection as they usually impose disclosure requirements on you at the time of sale. If you do obtain a general home inspection, they will probably look at the roof, attic, foundation, basement, garage, drainage, electrical, plumbing, heating, cooling, walls, floors, fireplaces, chimneys, windows and doors.

If problems are discovered, your inspection report will act as a to do list. Evaluate the list with your real estate professional and then contact those who can make the needed repairs.

Once your home is in sound condition, you will also need to evaluate it with the help of your real estate professional from an aesthetic standpoint. Painting your home is a relatively expensive and effective thing you can do to improve the appearance of your home. Before painting, however, you may want to consider some other options for making your home more salable. New floor coverings may be recommended to improve your home's appearance. Remember to stay with common, neutral colors when painting and recovering floors. Avoid bright or unusual colors, as they will tend to turn off a certain percentage of buyers.

It is also important to reduce clutter and remove even common household items before showing your home. Excess or unwanted furniture, wall hangings and knickknacks should be sold, donated, stored or thrown out. Reducing clutter often presents lifestyle challenges while your home is up for sale. Items that most of us take for granted on a daily basis like wall calendars, family pictures, and electric shavers should not be on display when your home is for sale. Many sellers keep a suitcase that goes with them in the car when the house is being shown.

Selling your home may seem challenging and even intimidating at first. By working with your real estate professional, however, you can find ways to prepare your home so that it shows well, attracts good offers and sells as quickly as possible. If the challenge of preparing your home starts to test your patience, it is always a good idea to balance your time preparing to sell with time spent preparing to look at your new home. Preparing yourself financially, evaluating new neighborhoods or communities and viewing available properties is a reward that should keep you motivated. Visualize yourself in your new home enjoying the benefits of the new lifestyle it will afford.