First, get psychologically prepared. Detach yourself emotionally from your home and start viewing it as a commodity you want to sell. This is difficult for most sellers whose identities are often reflected in their homes. However, it's important to be completely candid with yourself about how your home should look when it goes on the market. Property appearance and condition play a bigger role in the home sale process today than a decade ago. Today's home buyers are usually savvy, choosy and short of time. They'll pay a premium for homes they can move right into. The probable selling price for your home will depend on various factors, including: how many buyers are looking for homes like yours, how many other homes like yours are currently on the market, and the condition of your home relative to your competition. You can't control the supply and demand factors affecting the market, but you can control how your home looks when it hits the market.

At closing, you will most likely sit at a table with me, the broker for the buyer, probably the buyer, and a closing agent. The closing agent will have a stack of papers for you and the buyer to sign. While he or she will give you a basic explanation of each paper, you may want to take the time to read each one and/or consult with me to make sure you know exactly what you are signing. After all, this is a large amount of money you are committing to pay for many years!

The key thing is determining how much your property is actually worth on the market -- called "appraising" a house's value. The most important factor that determines a house's value is recent sale prices of similar properties in the neighborhood.

After years of living in a home, it's easy to fall into a habit of overlooking home maintenance chores. If there's no urgency, many homeowners procrastinate. Often problems don't get fixed until a major disaster occurs, like a roof leak in the middle of a hurricane. Deferred home maintenance can become a problem when you decide to sell. Most buyers want to buy homes they can move right into without having to make a lot of repairs. Sellers need to decide before they put their home on the market whether to fix deferred repairs or leave the work for a future buyer to do. Usually sellers who have the time, money and inclination will do better on the sale of their home if they fix problems before they list their home for sale. A home that is in move-in condition is one that appeals to a broad audience of prospective homebuyers. First-time homebuyers, and buyers with busy lifestyles, often won't consider buying a home that needs a lot of work. They haven't the time or experience to deal with the problems.