Guest Post by Andrea Davis

The time has come to sell your home—are you prepared? Do you need quick solutions to get top dollar for your home? Depending on its age and location, preparing a home for prospective buyers can be as simple as a few touch-ups or as involved as a few remodels and additions.

If your realtor thinks the house just needs a few changes, then don’t spend thousands of dollars on needless upgrades. By performing these quick fixes to increase its appeal, you’ll not only stand out to buyers, but you’ll also have fewer surprises after their inspection:

1.      Declutter

Clutter is not appealing to anyone, least of all prospective buyers. By depersonalizing your home, buyers will be able to walk through and get a feel for themselves living in the house. It’s also a good opportunity for you to decide what goes with you and what might need a new home in a secondhand store.

2.      Paint your walls

Painting your walls is inexpensive to you and refreshing for prospective buyers walking through the home. Repainting allows an opportunity to paint over any patches, paw prints, hand prints or other problems that could detract from room appeal. Stick with neutral colors like whites, greys and browns because buyers may want to personalize the house with colors of their own after purchase.

3.      Optimize your lighting

Walking through a home at nighttime or in the middle of the day requires good lighting to get the best look at every room. This means you should have plenty of natural light through windows or additional lighting. Invest in lighting for the low price of $130 if a room is particularly dark and clean windows to get the sunlight streaming in. LED lights are a good idea because they’re just as bright as fluorescents but not as hard on the eyes. They’re energy efficient, and they don’t emit buzzing.

4.      Enhance curb appeal

Your house needs to stand out to buyers from the moment they drive up. This means the landscape must look appealing from the sidewalk to the front door. You can hire professional landscapers if needed to design the most appealing lawn for prospective buyers if you’re uncertain about doing it yourself. Trim or prune trees and bushes to be the right length and height during buyer inspections. Also be sure to keep flower beds well-maintained and mow the lawn regularly during the duration of the sale.

Andrea Davis is the editor at HomeAdvisor, which connects homeowners with home improvement professionals in their area for free. Connect with Andrea on Google+.

See more of the beautiful Colorado home listed above here.