10 steps to take before you sell

1. Spruce Up Your Entrance

First impressions are important. “While the agent is fumbling for the key,” says realtor Keith Shapiro of Coldwell Banker in Framingham, “buyers are looking at the door. You don’t want them going in with a negative attitude.” So paint the front door, add potted chrysanthemums and other fall flowers, and groom the lawn and bushes. If the storm door or mailbox is rusty, replace it, and if the front steps are rickety, fix them.

While you’re at it, make the backyard as attractive as possible, too, especially if you have only a small patch in the city. “I had a client with a brownstone who had a filthy grill and rats in her backyard,” says Maureen Reddy, owner of DaVinci Designer Gallery, an interior design and staging firm in Winthrop. “That yard was a quarter of the living space, and it was horrific.”

2. Subtract Yourself

“When buyers go in, they want to imagine themselves in the house,” says Zaragoza Guerra, a stager and an agent at Tony’s Realty in East Boston. “They get distracted with personal pictures and objects.” Pack away items that express your unique personality and interests, and place the boxes in the attic or in storage. If you have such a passion for Beanie Babies that they cover your bed and dresser and window seat, store all but one or two of them until your house is sold.

Photographs, says realtor Frank Celeste of Gibson Sotheby’s in Charlestown, may show a lifestyle that doesn’t fit the buyers’ image of themselves. “I had one client who was a major bodybuilder,” he says, “and he had trophies and pictures of himself all over. It was kind of intimidating.” Another problem is that if your photos tell an intriguing story, they can distract buyers. “If people stop for five minutes and look at the pictures,” says Celeste, “when they leave they’ll have no clue where they even were.”

When you’re finished subtracting yourself from the property, take away your pets, too -- but only while your home is being shown. Before potential buyers arrive, remove animals from the house and stash their food and toys in a box in the basement. And, even if you can’t smell your pets, others will. Clean upholstery and draperies, and store litter boxes in an out-of-the-way area in a closed plastic bag, using room spray where they’ve been.

3. Clean Like You Mean It

It sounds basic, but clean the house. Hair left in bathroom sinks, filthy carpets, and cat footprints on the countertops can make buyers turn tail. In the bathroom, put any items with an “ick” factor, like your toothbrush, in the medicine cabinet or linen closet, and take some bleach and a stiff brush to the tub or shower area until it sparkles. “A well-maintained bathroom can last almost a century,” says Tony Giacalone, owner of Tony’s Realty. “But if it looks grimy and dirty, people are going to think they need a new bathroom. It needs to be mold- and mildew-free.”

Clear all horizontal surfaces as much as possible -- for example, take the blender and toaster off the kitchen counter. If your closets are stuffed, pack away some of the contents. “Don’t keep a console TV in a closet with clothes jammed over it,” Celeste points out. “People want to picture themselves buying a coat at Neiman Marcus and being able to hang it up. You want them to come in and say, ‘Wow, there’s so much room.’ ”

Finally, tidy the basement. “A messy basement is probably a sign that you’re a messy homeowner,” says Giacalone. “Maybe you’ve cleaned up the house to put it on the market, but if you don’t clean the basement, you probably haven’t cleaned your gutters or chimney.”

4. Consider a Stager

“People go to a lot of open houses,” says Ann Kelleher, a professional stager in Charlestown, “and you want yours to stand out in their mind so they won’t forget your place. You have to make it pop so they really give it a second look.” That may mean something as small as the correct placement of a colorful pillow or as large as a wholesale redecorating.

Most stagers offer at least two tiers of services: complete and consultation. For as little as $75, you can get a consultation in which the stager gives you tips on what needs to be done, and it’s up to you to follow through. If you can’t afford a consultation, have an objective, brutally honest friend -- preferably one with good design sense -- come in and give you a few pointers. Reddy also suggests you walk through your house and take digital photos of it from every angle. “You walk by this stuff every day, and may not notice the wallpaper falling down after three years. But when there’s a picture, it’s like, ooh.”

If your house is empty, you should hire a stager to furnish the place. “Rooms feel a lot smaller if there’s no furniture in them,” explains Guerra. Adding a sofa and other pieces can also help hide problem areas -- where the hardwood floor is scratched, for example. “Furnishings will detract your eye from that,” Reddy points out.

5. Get a Home Inspection

This may seem counterintuitive: Why would a seller need a home inspection? Who knows your house better than you do? Well, as it turns out, according to Bill Richardson, president of the American Society of Home Inspectors, based in Des Plaines, Illinois, “even though you live in your house, there’s a lot of things you don’t see.” That list includes infestation by wood-boring insects, patches of mold in the basement, and junction boxes that aren’t up to code.

“If you don’t get it inspected and I’m representing the buyer and my inspection turns up things that are wrong,” says Peter Lake, owner of Lake Real Estate in Marblehead, “I’m going to beat you to death for a price reduction. If you’ve had your inspection, you have the opportunity to fix things and also disclose things. That way, they can’t come back to you and try to get a price reduction later.”

A so-called maintenance inspection can cost as little as $300 and make the difference between a quick sale and months of negotiation. “People don’t do it because they don’t want to know the bad news,” says Sean Rizzo, co-owner of Tiger Home Inspection in Braintree. “That’s just silly. Either they find out today or tomorrow.”

6. Take Out Your Toolbox

Assemble a list of house repairs to make -- the findings from a home inspector and a stager (or your brutally honest friend) should help you. Start with the cosmetic work, from patching picture holes in the walls to freshening tired paint.

On the next tier, price-wise, refinish floors if necessary and repair any water stains on walls or ceilings; even if the leak was fixed, a stain will make people wonder about a large repair bill down the road. Get the heating and air-conditioning systems and hot-water tanks serviced, and keep the receipts for the work. This tells buyers they won’t need to replace these appliances in the next few years.

Bigger-ticket items such as a new roof or sliding-glass doors may be worth the cost. “A roof can be $4,000 or $5,000 to replace,” Giacalone says, “but a leaky one can scare away dozens of buyers.” Repointing the foundation, treating for termites, and removing lead paint or asbestos can also fall into this category. If you can’t afford to do the repairs, get estimates on their cost to have handy when buyers ask; it will cut down on negotiation time and also let people know what they’re getting into.

Buyers these days don’t like to do repairs, say realtors, but just how high their tolerance level might be does depend on the neighborhood. People looking in Dorchester or East Boston, for example, know there’s very little completely rehabbed housing stock, whereas in Wellesley or Newton, fixer-uppers just don’t move very well. “It all depends on the general shape of the homes around the house you’re selling,” says Guerra.

7. Study Home Prices

“Any house will sell if it’s priced right,” says Lauren Harper, a nationally recognized real estate coach in the Chicago area. “People have got to let go of what their house was once worth, what they paid for it, what they need out of it, what they think it’s worth. A house is worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it.”

And how do you find out what a buyer is willing to pay? By hiring an appraiser who will study the comparable properties that have already sold in the neighborhood. “Sure, I can tell you pretty accurately,” says Lake, “but for $350, you can get a professional appraiser to do it. You can list your house at $600,000, but if the appraisal comes in at $500,000, buyers won’t get approved. They might pay the extra cash for the house, but most people can’t do that nowadays. They’ll walk away.”

8. Get to Know Realtors

If you don’t have the real estate know-how to market the house yourself, hire a realtor. Look for one who has a detailed marketing plan and is a good communicator. “Is the realtor going to keep you informed on changing conditions?” asks Harper. “A lot of realtors don’t systemize their businesses, and not enough of them take on the concept that they need to lead the buyer to the right decisions. That’s why we say 10 percent of the realtors make 90 percent of the money.”

Not to mention, as Giacalone points out, that this is someone with whom you may have a pretty long-term relationship. He suggests meeting realtors at open houses rather than interviewing them. “It’s a casual way to get to know them without anyone feeling rejected.”

Make sure you like the realtor you choose, but also remember to check his or her sales history, commission percentage, and knowledge of the area. “Talk to people who’ve used that realtor,” says Celeste. “It doesn’t matter if he’s sold $100 million worth of real estate. People have stories.”

Once you choose a realtor, tell him or her things you love about the property that might not be immediately apparent. “Maybe the den gets a breeze in the afternoon,” Celeste says, “or there’s easy proximity to this or that.”

9. Post Perfect Photos

A 2008 survey by the National Association of Realtors found that 87 percent of home buyers use the Internet to search for homes before they start pounding the pavement -- and that means, says Reddy, “your photographs need to be top-notch.” Harper agrees. “Realtors are not photo-graphers,” she says, “and neither are sellers. It blows my mind the amount of money in real estate transactions, and people are still not spending the $150 to $250 to hire a professional photographer to take the photos and do a virtual tour.” Some realtors will absorb the expense of photography upfront; if yours doesn’t, find a photographer yourself who specializes in real estate.

10. Get Mortgage Savvy

If you’re selling your house, you’re probably also planning to buy another one -- and you need to talk to a mortgage broker as early in the process as possible, for two reasons.

First, it gives you time to develop a relationship with your broker. “It’s definitely somebody you want referred to you,” says Mark Glynn, president of Asset Mortgage in Natick. “Don’t choose someone from the Internet. This is the biggest financial decision most people make in their life, and you want to make sure your broker returns phone calls, doesn’t lie to you, that kind of stuff.”

Second, and probably more important, is that you need to “really understand what your financial condition is,” according to Celeste. “Now with all the loan conditions, it’s pretty strict. You may need more of a down payment than you thought, or you may find you don’t have as much to spend as you’d like. You don’t want to pull the cord on the sale and have the house on the market, then find out you can’t afford to go to Newton because you’ll only have $200,000 down.”

Similarly, if there are any problems with your credit score, talking with a mortgage broker early can give you time to fix them. “There are a lot of legitimate ways of improving your score,” says Glynn, “and a good broker can advise you how.” And, in this market, preparation is everything.

Elizabeth Gehrman is a freelance writer in East Boston. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.