AS WELL as major improvements likely to add value and make your home more sellable, there’s a lot you can do to make your home more appealing to buyers without spending too much.

Neutral decor sells homes because neutral colours aren’t offensive to the eye and if buyers want to inject colour and pattern, it’s easy to imagine doing so.

Neutral doesn’t, by any means, have to be bland and boring – it’s all about how you put the look together with accessories, flooring and furniture.

Even if neutral isn’t your taste, it’s the safest bet if you’re trying to sell your home, as anything else is more subjective.

It’s notjust neutral walls and ceilings that have wide appeal – flooring is also important. Forget patterned carpets and lino (unless it’s fashionable stripes) and replace any dated or tatty floor coverings with plain and neutral ones. This needn’t be an expensive job.

It’s easy to live with unfinished DIY jobs, but once you’ve decided to put your home on the market, dodgy DIY is a no-no. It can put off buyers and make them think they’ll need to spend more time and money finishing the work than they necessarily will. If you can’t do the jobs yourself, get a pro in – it will be money well spent.

Even if you’ve finished the DIY, you need to keep on top of it because things deteriorate. Common problems include marks on walls that won’t scrub off, hairline cracks that keep opening and chipped paint on your woodwork. Things like this can make your home look shabbier than it needs to, so going from room to room with a fresh eye and putting the problems right is time well spent.

It’s also worth scrutinising the outside of your home. Exterior maintenance is easy to overlook, but it’s something a buyer’s survey will pick up on, so it’s worth pre-empting any remedial work as it could save you time, money and hassle in the long run. Not maintaining the exterior of your home can also lead to problems inside, such as damp caused by missing or slipped roof tiles, or blocked guttering.

Don’t forget about kerb appeal.

Making a good first impression from outside your home is essential and it’s not too difficult to do in spring and summer as you can brighten up the front garden with flowering plants. If you don’t have flowerbeds to put them in, use tubs, pots and hanging baskets.

Inside, a neutral, neat and tidy hallway creates a good first impression. If you don’t have a hallway, make sure there’s enough storage for coats, shoes, hats and scarves, etc – preferably out of sight.

Giving your home a really good clean – and cleaning, airing and tidying it before every viewing – is a must.If you have lots of personal items on display, most of them should be packed away.

While making your home look too sterile won’t help to sell it, having a cluttered home is equally off-putting to buyers. Remember that they may look in cupboards and wardrobes, so stuffing them full of things isn’t the solution because it shows you don’t have enough storage space. If you can’t create more storage in the form of built-in cupboards or loft space, get your extra possessions out of the house and into a storage unit or garden building.

The trick is to make your home easy for buyers to imagine as their home, and to move on emotionally so you can move on physically.