Before your first Open House, Brokers' Open, or Showing to a prospective buyer, you should prepare your home for sale or, even, have your home staged by a professional.

To prepare your home for showing, make it as bright, clean, cheerful and serene as possible. Always look at your home from the buyer's point of view. It is best to be absent while the house is being shown to prospective buyers, because your presence will inhibit their actions and conversations. They won’t feel free to open closets and cabinets, test out the plumbing and discuss their observations objectively as they walk through the house. It goes without saying that your children and pets should not be on the premises either.

Quick tips for showings and open houses:

• Immaculately clean your house or have a professional housecleaner come and clean for you.
• Clear away all clutter. Consider renting a storage unit to temporarily store seasonal items or other things you may not need everyday. Consider having a garage sale or donating any unwanted or un-needed items to charity. 
• Depersonalize your home. Temporarily put away family photos, kitschy collections, odd but sentimental items, or anything (even valuable art pieces) that creates too much clutter.
• Speaking of valuables -- unless they are large items being used for staging purposes, keep your valuables out of sight and breakables out of harm's way.
• Shampoo or replace dirty or worn carpets.
• Replace any burned out light bulbs.
• Organize your closets. People always will look inside and you want to have the appearance of "plenty of room" versus "bursting at the seams."
• Attend to your landscape - mow, weed and add potted plants and/or blooming flowers, if possible to help create curb appeal.
• Powerwash the outside of your house, removing dirt, mildew, etc. if neccessary.
• Fix anything that is broken - loose towel racks, closets off the hinge, leaky faucets, whatever. You may have gotten used to living with this, but a prospective buyer will notice and it will affect his or her opinion of your home

Just before the showing:

• Open all curtains or blinds, and turn on all the lights
• Clear all countertops, including most small appliances you use frequently. Less is more often than not "more" when it comes to selling a house.
• Wash and put away any dirty dishes.
• Don't forget to clean and polish the fronts of all major appliances, and clean the refrigerator. Yes, people often look inside here too.
• Set the dining room or kitchen table if you have particularly nice linen or china.
• Simmer a few drops of vanilla on the stove or use a little potpourri - but please, do not over do it - people will wonder what kinds of smells you are trying to cover up.
• Put fresh towels in the bathroom.
• Take any laundry out of the washer and dryer.
• Put pets in cages or take them to a neighbor.

Good luck!