Beware of deferred maintenance. Buyers expect your home to be in decent shape. That means a roof that doesn’t leak, paint that isn’t peeling and household systems (heating, cooling, electric and plumbing) in good repair. If you’ve neglected your home, you face a tough choice. You’re unlikely to recoup much of the cost of your repairs in the form of a higher sales price, since buyers are unlikely to pay you a premium for maintenance you should have been doing all along. Yet not making the fixes may turn off buyers altogether. Talk with an experienced real estate agent about which projects you should tackle before listing your home.

Consider a pre-sale inspection. Hiring your own inspector before you put your home on the market can alert you to problems you didn’t know about, giving you a chance to fix them before they complicate -- or ruin -- a potential sale. If the repairs are expensive, you may face the same difficult choice described above. But that’s better than being surprised once your home is in escrow.