I have a new listing that came on the market yesterday in Largo/Upper Marlboro. What strikes me about this property is that the seller had a plan that didn't start yesterday -- she started 2 years ago.

She's owned the property for a while and has been smart about using some of the equity that she's built up -- she has used it to upgrade and maintain the property.

The house was built in 1985, so one of the first things she did was put on a new roof and add gutter guards to the gutters. She did the bigger things first and the more cosmetic things as she got closer to being ready to sell. Did a little maintenance on the sump pump, replaced the kitchen floor, updated the bathrooms and so forth early on. Just before going on the market, she put in new carpeting and painted.

Outside, she had the yard cleaned up long enough ago so that it doesn't look scalped now. Minor pruning and edging just makes it look better, not de-nuded.

Sometimes you can't plan ahead -- your boss may spring a relocation on you, or you may have other pressing reasons to sell that just weren't in the life-plan that you had envisioned.

So plan ahead now, start working on those projects that have gotten away from you -- you may be glad you did.

(C) Susan Pruden.