• Ask the sellers to clear out their closets and their clutter. Encourage them to hold a yard sale or donate unwanted household goods to charity.
  
• Encourage the sellers to pack up extra toys, linens, small kitchen appliances, and the like and store them offsite or in the garage.
  
• Be sure the trees are trimmed, the shrubs are pruned, and the lawn is mowed and watered regularly. Turn on the sprinklers for five minutes 30 minutes before the open house. It makes the lawn and driveway sparkle.
  
• Ask the sellers to refrain from cooking anything that leaves a distinctive odor (fish, garlic, cabbage) and from introducing any other unappealing odors into the home.
  
• Ask the sellers to have a professional service clean the home, including the carpets and the windows.
  
• Set the dining room table with attractive linens, dishes, and stemware.
  
• Ask the sellers’ permission to serve cookies and coffee; people will linger longer. But be sure to clean up any mess after the open house.
  
• Arrange fresh flowers throughout the home and have a fire in the fireplace in fall and winter.
  
• Add extra lamps in dark rooms or dark corners, and turn on the lights when you show the home to prospective buyers.
  
• Remove stacks of magazines, ashtrays, sports trophies, family photographs, and other distractions. —Barb Schwarz, in “How to State Your Listings So They Sell Quickly,” The Real Estate Professional, July/August 1998)

7 Tips for Better For-Sale Signs

1. Use reasonably new signs in good condition. Peeling, cracked, or beat-up looking signs reflect poorly on homes—and on you.

2. Position your signs where they’re visible to people approaching the home from either direction on the street.

3. Be sure signs are well anchored so they won’t topple over in a wind.

4. Consider using “talking” signs that play a prerecorded message about the home.

5. Capture the attention of night foot and vehicle traffic by posting your sign beneath a street lamp or under the home’s exterior lighting, or by using a self-lighted sign.

6. Keep the sign simple and uncluttered. Make type large enough to read from a moving car.

7. Include your phone number, company logo, and Web site address.

TIP: Choose color combinations that aid readability—black or blue letters on a yellow or white background or white letters on a yellow, blue, or black background. —From Power Real Estate Advertisingby William H. Pivar and Bradley A. Pivar

• Set standards. Ask the local authoritiesto grant an exemption for signs that conform to a mandated size and shape.
  
• Strike a deal. Ask the city council to allow temporary open-house signs on weekends, even if front-yard, for-sale signs are banned.
  
• Fight back. Organize the real estate professionals in your area to educate community groups, homeowners, and lawmakers about the benefits of for-sale signs, with the goal of having any restrictions lifted.