Most of us do not have the luxury of moving out while trying to sell our house.  If you are still living in your home while it’s for sale here on some tips on helping it to show better:

• Leave the house during open houses and showings.  Buyers like to be able to look through the house without someone pointing everything out to them.  With you there they will picture the house as ‘your’ house and not ‘their’ house.  Realtors® are trained to point out all those special items and places for you. 
• Pick up all dirty clothes – no on wants to see them. Check your bedroom floors, bathrooms, and laundry room. 
•  Don’t forget to make the beds.
• Wash all the dirty dishes, or at least put them in the dishwasher.  Clean counter tops create an illusion of more space.
• Having a dusty/dirty house will only make prospective buyers wonder what else might be wrong with the house.  Keep it picked up and dusted.
• Odors from pets, left over food, garbage, smelly foods in refrigerator, and even dirty diapers can permeate your home.  If you’re not sure how your home smells ask a friend to test it out.  Don’t try and mask that smell with a spray, instead bake some cookies just before a showing.  A good idea is to keep some cookie dough in the refrigerator, then just bake a half dozen or so when you know the house is going to be shown.
• If it’s raining leave a mat or towel on the floor near the front door for people to wipe their shoes on (it will help from dragging leaves and gunk through your clean house)
• Put up a sign at the front door asking everyone to remove his or her shoes.  You can even provide a basket of booties for buyers and agents to use.
• Empty Rooms?  Leave them that way…don’t use them as a storage room.
• Be sure to lock down your computer – kids (and even adults) have a tendency to get bored and may try out some games, or Internet searching while your gone.
• Put away all personal information.  Lock up expensive “easy to pocket” items such as jewelry, iPods, etc.  Even lock up your bills, credit cards, bank info that you may normally keep sitting out. (Better yet purchase a small safe and rent a safe-deposit box for these items).  Don’t leave money sitting around.
• Turn all your lights on.  People want to buy light, bright homes. It may cost you a couple of extra $$ to do this but a dark house won’t sell.