We are in a buyers market. There is no denying that. For every buyer there are dozens of homes that match their specific prerequisites. What can you do to convince these buyers that your house is the perfect match for them? Whether the property is a single family residential home for first time homebuyers, a multi-family condominium for investors, or a multi-million dollar mansion for the super-rich; the first few seconds are what counts the most. It is the first impression that you must work on so that it is so remarkable, the buyer falls in love with the property immediately upon seeing it.

When selling a property most sellers foolishly only think of the comparable sales information of the house. "Mary's house down the street sold for $174 a square foot, so my place is worth $249,000". They put out a pretty 'For Sale' sign in the front yard, slap a price tag of $249k, and sit back, ready to except offers. Now if this is you, you will be sitting in that easy chair for a long, long time. There is one very important aspect you have over looked, how attractive does your property look from the passenger side window of a passing vehicle. You literally seconds to make an instant positive impression. Will that dead grass, broken gutter, peeling paint, and rubbish in the side yard make anyone want to say 'now this is home'? I think not.

"Ok, enough already, I get it. How can I do this 'curb appeal' thing to my property?" Keep the following five items on your mind when you are rehabbing the property and getting it ready for sale:

1) Choose your Paint Colors Wisely: We have all seen it before, driving down a street we find a house that the owners must either have a really sick sense of humor or are just plain color blind. Don't be one of those types of people with the hot pink house with black trim when your neighbors all feature Colonial colors. Yes, you do want to stand out from the crowd, but in a responsible way. Take a look around the street and try to stick with the same general theme of the area.

2) Clean It Up: People do not want to live in a toxic waste dump, so all those broken appliances and loose rubbish piled up against the house need to make it to the local trash dump. If there is a wood fence around the house then pressure wash it. You can rent a pressure washer from Home Depot for about a hundred bucks and it is something you can easily do yourself. Doing so will make the fence look almost new. Also while you have the machine, hit the sidewalk, driveway, etc. If there are stains on the concrete you cannot get up, run over to your local pool supply store and grab a gallon of muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid) it will cost you less than 5 bucks and will remove just about any stain you can find. But make sure you do not get it on your skin, or you will be hating life! You will want to only apply it just long enough to remove the stain but not cause a bleaching effect. It also rinses away with water when you are done.

3) Trim back the trees: Come on, seriously this should be common sense. If you have to duck your head to walk around the house then the trees need a little trimming. Also, do not block visibility of the windows; large bushes in front of windows make a house look smaller from the street. Trim them back, or if they are too big, remove them and replace with a smaller ones. Just remember to keep it simple. Don't forget to mow that lawn too and trim the edges!

4) Special Touches: I am not encouraging you to max out your credit cards here, but a few hundred dollars well spent can easily fetch a few extra thousand on the sale price and will shorten the time the property sits on the market. Replacing the old property address numbers on the front of the house with newer ones and replacing the front door's doorknob are cheap and esay to do. These things may sound silly, but they make a difference. Think about it when you are looking for 123 Main Street what is one of the first things you see when searching for the property '123'. Then when you go to open the door what is the first thing you touch, the doorknob.

Think in terms of what the potential buyer immediately sees and how you can do things to enhance that experience. A great first impression is basically about eliminating any bad elements from the picture. Photographers do this when setting up a shot, actresses do this while applying makeup, you should be doing this when prepping your house for sale.

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