Some homeowners believe that their home’s value will appreciate over time without any effort put into it, just like that. And some do; the neighbor on one side upgrades and sells his home, the neighbor across the street improves her curb appeal. And you, sitting in the sidelines reap the residual rewards. By association and proximity, the improvements that take place in and around your immediate neighborhood may help increase your home’s value by a little. But did you know that a simple task of cleaning and de-cluttering brought homeowners a return of 403% in 2012? Yes that’s right, by simply spending an average of $402 in this very easy task, homeowners were able to add an average of $2,024 to their homes’ sale price. Let’s see what other things the homeowners did to increase their home’s value by an average of 190%.

I often talk to homeowners who are in the process of selling their home by themselves. One of the very first remarks they make is that they didn’t know how difficult, overwhelming and complex selling a home was and if they knew, they would have never attempted it in the first place. They also mention “costly”. And when they share the rest of their stories, I realize that they have barely started to scratch the surface. When I start explaining what they can do and how they can improve, I realize that it is not just one, two or five simple tasks they are missing but the overall concept of marketing and selling. And what’s worse is that even some real estate agents are clueless about certain aspects of the real estate business.

I will start with the most overlooked but one of the most important tools a real estate professional can utilize; a Lockbox.