For most people, selling their home means cashing in their biggest asset. In other words, it must be handled with great care if you hope to protect -- and capitalize on -- your investment. This guide is written with one goal in mind: to give you the tools you need to maximize your profits, maintain control, and reduce the stress that comes with the home-selling process.

TIP NO. 1

Know why you're selling. Your motivations play an important role in the process. They affect everything from setting a price to deciding how much time and money you'll invest to getting your home ready for selling. If you're goal is a quick sale, that can dictate one kind of approach. If you want to maximize your profit, the sales process will almost certainly take longer.

TIP NO. 2

Once you know, keep it to yourself. Your reasons will affect how you negotiate the sale of your home, but they shouldn't be given as ammunition to the person who wants to buy it.

TIP NO. 3

Do your homework before setting a price. Settling on an offering price shouldn't be done lightly. Once you've set your price, you've told buyers the absolute maximum they have to pay for your home. The trick is to get a selling price as close to the offering price as possible. Pricing too high might affect buyers taking you seriously; a price too low can result in selling for much less than you had hoped for.

TIP NO. 4

Go home shopping yourself. The best way to get to know your competition, identify features that are popular and learn what turns buyers off, is to check out other open houses. Plan on spending a few weekends touring other homes on the market to learn what other sellers are asking.

TIP NO. 5

Maximize your home's sales potential. Each year, corporate North America spends billions of dollars on product and packing design. The lesson here is that appearance is critical -- and it would be foolish to ignore this when selling your home.

TIP NO. 6

Rely on other people's judgment as well as your own. The key to effective marketing is knowing your product's good and bad points. In the case of your home, accentuating the good can mean a faster sale for more money; failing to deal with the bad can mean months on the market and a lower-than-desired sales price.

TIP NO. 7

Give yourself room to negotiate. Make sure you leave yourself enough room in which to bargain. Start with the absolute minimum price you would accept, then pick the price you'd get if the world were perfect. This gives you your range to keep in mind when working with your Realtor to negotiate the sale.

TIP NO. 9

Remove all traces of you from your home. The last thing you want others to feel in visiting your home is the sense that they are intruding into someone's life. Make your home as neutral as possible. Avoid unique or trendy color schemes -- paint and carpet in neutral shades of white or beige.

TIP NO. 10

Don't give yourself a deadline. Forcing yourself to sell by a certain date adds unnecessary pressure and puts you at a serious disadvantage in negotiations.

If this all sounds like a lot of work, it is. But it's to be expected when you're selling anything of such great value. And you'll thank yourself for all the expense and hard work when the outcome works to your satisfaction.

I hope this special report provided you with the information you need. Please feel free to call me if you would like further explanation of any of these topics.

Bob Graeve, P.A., CRS
Realtor for the Palm Beaches