Some tips to sell a home fast

A few basic elements can make the difference between a quick home sale and a frustrating ordeal. Be smart to do some work up front to make sure your house sells fast. That's particularly important these days as some of the hottest real-estate markets show signs of cooling and homes start to linger on the market longer than their sellers expected.

Here are some tips:
Finish the "honey do" list.
Just about every homeowner has a string of little repairs that never quite get done. Now's the time. Fix the screens, oil that squeak, patch the cracks, paint the trim.

Get inspected.
A pre-sale inspection can help in two ways. Professional inspections can identify problems that could thwart a sale in time to fix them. And if there are no major problems, he said, an inspection can publicize that fact to skittish buyers.
Pack up the clutter.

Too much stuff makes rooms look smaller and focuses buyers' attention on your possessions rather than the home you're trying to sell. That's why many professional stagers recommend removing as much as a third of your things to better show off rooms and closets. Since you're going to have to pack it up anyway, do it now. Buyers "can't imagine themselves living there if they can't see the space."
Depersonalize and neutralize.

The first items that should go in those packing boxes: family photos, collections and just about anything else that says "you”. Buyers have a hard enough time envisioning how their stuff will look on your walls. By neutralizing your decor, you can help give them the blank canvas they need to imagine your house as theirs.

Clean like a fiend. Clean your faucets and fixtures, scour fingerprints from all the switch plates, shine windows until they're spotless and vacuum up every last dog hair from the baseboards. Stage the rooms. Stand in the doorway to find each room's focal point, and use furniture placement to highlight that. The back of your sofa shouldn't block the view of the fireplace, for example, and the dining room table shouldn't be sharing space with a stair climber.
Kick up the curb appeal. Most people will start their search for a home on the Internet. If your house's Internet photo doesn't 'wow!' them, they might never call for a showing. That's why your front landscaping needs to be in perfect condition. Clean up the leaves, plant some fall flowers, trim the bushes and trees, and really manicure your lawn.

Pick the right publicist. If you're working with an agent, you'll want one who can really sell. That means somebody who knows your neighborhood intimately and who's enthusiastic about your home.
If you're going to try to sell your home yourself, make sure you're up for the job. Hawking a home, especially in a slowing market, can be hard work.
Set the right price. In frenzied markets, sellers who put outrageous price tags on their homes sometimes are rewarded. As markets cool, however, a too-high asking price can lead to a home being shunned by agents and buyers. Your goal should be a fair price -- something that's reasonable given the price of other homes in your area.
"Buyers who are actively searching for a fairly-priced home, will pounce on what they perceive is fair value."

Adatped from: http://waldo.villagesoup.com/