The No. 1 thing you can do to make your house stand out from the competition is to clean it from top to bottom.
Cleaning has ranked as the top home improvement suggested by realty professionals in the HomeGain survey since 2003. According to the survey, real estate agents said that spending
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Spending $400 translates to**
**$2,000 more at closing.
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$400 on cleaning is likely to gain sellers $2,000 more at closing. If you are planning to invest in one thing in an effort to maximize you home’s closing price, let it be cleaning supplies and elbow grease.
**Look Up
**Dust the walls and fan blades and replace and dust light bulbs in preparation to shower your home in light. You may not notice the cobwebs in the corner of your living room or the dust on the ceiling fan, but your potential buyers will look everywhere.
**Make It Shine
**Wash the windows, inside and out. To avoid streaking, wash on a cloudy day. Window treatments will also need dry-cleaned, or, at the very least, vacuumed.
**Boost Your Biggest Asset
**The kitchen can be a major asset to your sale. You want everything to shine. If you have burner drip trays in bad condition, replace them. If the trays only need cleaned, soak them in a 50/50 mixture of water and ammonia for a day and then scrub and rinse.
Organize your drawers and pantries – buyers will want to inspect these places as well. You don’t need to replace cabinet doors, but, as a less expensive alternative, deep clean the doors and then apply a wood restorer to make them look like new.
**Watch Your Step
**Shampoo the carpets once and vacuum daily. Visible carpet pile lines “scream clean,” according to The Maids, a residential cleaning service. Wood and tile floors should be mopped. Your home should stand out as a clean home in good condition.
**Deep Clean the Bathroom
**Scrub the shower, sink and tub. Wash the shower curtains and liners. To remove water rings in the toilet bowl, drain the bowl and saturate several heavy-duty shop paper towels with white vinegar. Plaster the sides of the bowl with the towels and let it sit for several hours. Undiluted, heated white vinegar is a great spray to remove hard-water spots and soap scum. Let the spray soak for 15 minutes before scrubbing.
