I speak from experience. Even if you want to sell forget it. Not the market. So your best bet is to spend a little dough fixing up the home. That's why from where I sit I think home service franchises will have one of their biggest years ever. I have to spruce up my whole house this spring--it was built in 1989--I do a lot of upkeep and the fabulous people from Floor Coverings International really jazzed it up last year putting in new kitchen, carpeting up the stairs and gorgeous tiling around the fireplace. Now it's time for the heavy hitter sister companies Pillar To Post and CertaPro Painters to come in and do the rest of the place.

Even though Pillar To Post is a home inspection team and I am not selling-I am counting on them to give me the tips on what the place needs--let's pretend I am selling!! They can give you the score on what needs to get done and they won't be biased because they have no stake in it. Here is some sound advice from them.