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Wow. It depends on how much equity you have and what you are willing to spend. I would also consider what other houses in the neighborhood look like and what is needed in yours to "match" or look better than theirs.

I think I would focus on big things. If your paint downstairs looks good, go with it. Just paint upstairs. How do the cabinets look? Are they in good shape? Are they currently stained or painted? If they're in good shape, I may leave them.

Unless your patio has numerous cracks, is stained in multiple places and just looks awful, I would not rip it up. We were quoted $300 to rip up and haul away a 10x10 patio slab. Sod is $$!!!! Plus, that's outside...people pay a lot more attention to inside than outside.

Focus on your kitchen (floors, appliances, countertops) and your living areas. Also, how does your flooring look throughout? Anything there need to be updated?

We recently sold a condo so a smaller footprint and no outside work needed to be done.

We did repaint the whole thing and then had someone come in and scrub from top to bottom.

We stretched and shampooed the carpets

She was about to stage the condo but we lucked out and got an offer the weekend we listed -so we saved $$ there.

I think we spent about $1200 - which wasn't too bad - I just wanted to sell it and it did look amazing all clean and shiny!

We just sold our townhouse last July. It was only 4 years old so there wasn't a lot of work that we needed to do. However we did do a couple things.

- We cleared as much stuff out of the house as we could. Luckily it sold really fast but the days we had showings and the open house, it was practically like a model home, there was so little stuff. We packed up all the extraneous kitchen stuff, clothes, baby stuff, etc and put it in the garage.

-We touched up the paint. Our entire house was one neutral color but it was crappy builder's paint that always showed marks, so we tried to clean those up.

For you guys, I would have your realtor pull a bunch of comps and take a good look at them. Do they have stainless? Do they have perfect outdoor spaces? Have the cabinets been renovated or modernized? If you are facing tough competition in your area to sell and your house doesn't compare well against the comps, then you may need to do more work. But the work your realtor is suggesting will do nothing for the actual appraised value of the house. It may make it more easy to sell though. This was a tough concept for us to grasp when we were buying/selling.

But either way I wouldn't suggest painting unless the colors are awful, because you won't get your money back on that. I also wouldn't necessarily tear up the patio and re-sod either. It'll probably look really obvious where the re-sodded section is.

Well, if you do all of those things, maybe you wouldn't want to move, .

There are definitely areas that putting in some money means you get MORE money out than you put in, and there are some areas where you will put in money and you won't get any of it back.

focus on things that are "deal breakers" for buyers.... I think kitchen cabinets can be a deal breaker.... they could like the house but not like the kitchen adn would walk away because of it. Maybe painting them is worth it. I've painted cabinets before - it's not that expensive but it does take some time. Or, if you're hiring painters anyway see if they can give you a deal on them.

I don't think back patios are deal breakers... maybe add stuff to the patio to pretty it up? Potted plants that you could take with you to the next place, a outdoor area rug, some chairs, grill, etc, to cover up cracks in the patio?

I wouldn't do those big items. Instead, I would look at simple ways to make your home more attractive/updated. We noticed that a big difference in our home vs. others in the neighborhood (same age, floorplan, finishes) was that the trim was painted white and the doors were replaced. Both are relatively easy to do and fairly inexpensive upgrades and they make such a big difference. If you don't want to replace the doors, then try painting.

As far as staging, I think decluttering really helps. When we were house hunting, we were much more attracted to homes that had sparse furniture rather than no furniture or too much furniture. I honestly didn't mind that the homeowner's extra things were stuffed in the garage or closets.

I've sold 2 condos built in the 80s & for one I just had it clean & things "finished" looking, but staged since I'd already moved out, & the 2nd we took a long time to renovate the entire place & also staged after I moved out. In the end, with good Realtors each time, each sold within a month just under/at list. So I think it is most important to find a good Realtor you can trust & then price according to how quickly you want to sell. The dark & blue paints probably would benefit from going lighter (use a good primer for going lighter!), but I'd leave the cabinets & patio alone--other than leaving them both clean, tidy & dressed up a little. We had our oak cabinets painted by a painter & even with a professional doing it, there were lots of places we had to touch up within 1 month of him finishing the job. I also looked into refacing the cabinets before we decided to paint & that was too pricey just for resale. Good luck to you!!

@MaryM: I personally wouldn't do it. We sold our house exactly one year ago & even in the dead of winter we got an offer within 6 days that ended up going through. Keep in mind there will ALWAYS be so many other unexpected expenses arising when selling a home. I would consider the staging if your home sat stagnant for a long period or you were desperate, but not before you even list it.

When did you guys declutter/move furniture/get a storage unit vs listing?

I'm so overwhelmed with this that I don't even know where to begin - and if everything falls into place, it's quite possible that we could be putting the house up for sale in the spring... Which is a few weeks away!

It depends on the value of the house overall. If you're trying to sell a $1-5 million dollar home, you may have to spend several thousand to get it to the level where potential buyers are willing to pay what it's really worth. I've been with potential buyers who were able to spend a few million on a house who were turned off by little things like broken tiles and chipped cabinet paint, because at that level you expect everything to be in good shape or it indicates an overall pattern of neglect. If your home is worth less than $100k, it doesn't make sense to spend much time or money on minor upgrades that won't get you a good return on your investment.

I say you should consider the overall value of your house and how much each change will affect a potential buyer. Simple cosmetic changes with a big impact are worth doing, but expensive details that may go unnoticed probably won't matter unless it's a super high-end home or you're in a very buyer-friendly market.

Our house was in pretty good condition, but before we listed it we put hardwoods in the kitchen (got rid of old laminate), which we laid ourselves, painted the inside of all our closets, painted our ceilings, and stored a lot of stuff.

If your cabinets are dark laminate, I'd totally paint them white - probably worth it to make it look fresh and new.

Our realtor had us leave the nursery orange, as she said perspective buyers would probably have young children.

My friends who staged their homes, sold them super quick (like in a week). Our realtor told us we didn't need to do anything to our home except move some stuff out of the closets into storage - our house was on the market 90 days with him. At that point, we had already moved out and cleaned the carpet. I started with another realtor a couple days later - left paint colors on the walls, walls had a few scratches and the new realtor sold our home to another one of her customers in a week. The buyers loved the paint colors we had too. So in the end we did not put a lot of money into staging or fixing it up but it was on the market for over 90 days.

We sold our urban, 1bed/1bath condo in 2013. We stored clutter and baby gear and did a basic bathroom reno - replaced our bathroom vanity, shelves, painted, new light fixture and shower curtain. With our market timing, I don't know that we got the money back in full, but I don't think it would have sold as high as it did otherwise, and we had to go as we'd outgrown the space.

If I were you I would rent a storage space, majorly declutter INCLUDING storing non-essential furniture, paint, hire cleaners to deep clean. I wouldn't try to change the cabinets, buy new appliances or do any outdoor work. That's all "simple fixes" that might even be a selling point for buyers-- easy ways they can customize the house to their liking.

@MaryM: any update? Did you sell?