The way you will treat the inside of your home will depend on where in the country you live, of course, but consider comfort overall for you are prepping for tours. If your home is bright inside in the summer, it never hurts to give your rooms a fresh coat of paint to make the walls seem brighter and more welcoming.

Try for an even more creative approach by buying a quantity of magnets, stickers, notepads, pencils, pens, key chains and other inexpensive novelty items with your home’s information on them. Give them out freely and enthusiastically. Make them bright and colourful so that people will use them - and hopefully take note of the printed information.

The backlog of inventory currently available across the nation is down to almost an eight month supply of homes, but many experts believe that banks have been holding back a shadow inventory of homes in order to keep the prices of homes for sale from sliding down even further than the levels that they’re at now. However, once the new homes hit the market, it is likely that there could be another slide in prices.

Apart from obvious impairments such as fallen trees, broken windows or railings, there are far more subtle things to look for that may be the root cause of a future problem. Who would have thought the expensive leaky roof repair was the result of a storm that caused shingle damage 3 years earlier?

For decades, it has been the custom to host an open house for homes that you’re helping clients sell, for the purpose of getting buyers to come and tour the property. An open house can be a great opportunity not only to show off a particular home, but also for you, as a Realtor, to network.

Most lenders will have a list of appraisers they trust, so it is in your best interest to play in their ballpark and choose a company they are familiar with. Although you actually pay for the appraisal services, the lender is the one who owns the document, unless they legally release the papers to you. You will receive a copy for your reference.

Spring cleaning stems from traditional early cleaning after the weather starts to warm up and the days become brighter. In many parts of the country, once the days brighten up it is easy to see the cobwebs and dust that the winter gloom has kept hidden in the shadows.

The year 2009 ended on less of an upswing for the real estate market than many people across the country would have liked to see, considering the amount of money that the government has spent to support the housing market; but only time will tell how the end of the year numbers will affect the first quarter of 2010.

New Year's Resolutions are easy to make and harder to keep. In this article, we'll look at some New Year's Real Estate Resolutions that might make 2010 a better year.

Now, consider what a hard choice this is for the potential buyer who sees the pictures of these homes online. Two fairly comparable homes in size, age, and cost, where one home looks like it is pretty much ready to move into and one home that looks like it is going to take weeks to get to the point where it feels like home.