Getting your home ready to sell

Home prep is where sellers waste the most money in the shortest time. The instinct is to fix everything. The math says fix the right five things and ignore the rest. Here they are.

The five that pay back

1. Paint. Interior walls in a neutral warm white. Nothing returns more per dollar. Budget 3 to 6 dollars per square foot for a professional job.
2. Deep clean. Windows inside and out, grout, oven, baseboards, ceiling fans. A one-time 400 to 800 dollar service is a rounding error against list price.
3. Declutter and depersonalize. Rent a storage unit for two months and move half your stuff. Buyers cannot see the house through your life.
4. Curb appeal. Fresh mulch, trimmed hedges, a clean front door, a working porch light. First impression sets the ceiling on every offer.
5. One dated fixture per room. Replace the loudest 1980s ceiling fan, the brass bathroom faucet, the popcorn-orange kitchen light. Do not renovate. Just remove the eye magnets.

The projects that almost never pay back

• Full kitchen remodel before listing. You will get back 60 to 70 cents on the dollar at best.
• Adding square footage. Great for you if you stay, terrible if you sell in the next two years.
• Swimming pool. In most climates, a wash or a negative.
• High-end appliances the neighborhood does not carry. A 12,000 dollar range in a 400,000 dollar house is 12,000 dollars gone.
• Anything trendy. If it will look dated in five years, it is already dated to a buyer touring next weekend.

The pre-inspection trick

Pay 400 to 600 dollars for your own inspection before listing. You will surface the same items a buyer's inspector will, but on your timeline. Fix the small stuff, disclose the big stuff, and remove the two-week negotiation loop that kills deals.

The staging question

Full staging costs 1,500 to 5,000 dollars for a typical home and reliably lifts perceived value 2 to 5 percent. On a 500,000 dollar home, that is a 10x return. On a vacant home in a slow market, it is not optional. If you have taste and can borrow furniture, you can DIY the effect for a few hundred dollars.