It may be too late to make that list for Santa, but if you're considering moving anytime soon, start with a list, says the author of a new book on how to prepare your home for sale.

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Alex Newman, author of Hot Property: Easy Home Staging to Sell Your House For More Money in Any Market, says to not only make a list, but to check it twice.

"The process of trying to get your home ready for sale is important," says Newman.

"Think ahead and have a game plan of what you need to do. Don't make hasty decisions that cost a lot."

The list should be threefold: what to buy, what you can use, and what you can borrow to make your home more attractive to potential buyers.

The typical buyer spends six to 10 minutes in a home, she says, so making a great first impression is imperative. But spending a lot of money isn't necessary -- nor will you necessarily make a good return on that investment.

Instead, follow some of her suggestions to create that home that viewers will want to make their own:

- Make sure each room has a specific focus.

"If you have a focal point, play it up," she says. "If too much is going on, it's confusing, so have a single-purpose room."

- Create curb appeal and an appealing front entry. "Everything you see from the front corridor will create that first impression,"

says Jennifer Brouwer, one of the home stagers in the book and owner of Decor by Jennifer. "You want people to want to see further into the home from the first look."

- Basic design principles work for home staging as much as for general decor guidelines, says Newman. "The home should be clean, de-cluttered, and with good traffic flow."

It's all about creating a positive response, whether with colour -- with the "less is more" philosophy of decorators everywhere -- or with using such things as transitional pieces, such as a table/

ottoman dual-purpose piece to make a small space function better.

"It's all about putting the house's best foot forward," says Newman.

Think about whether you might be better off spending the money to create that best first impression on a paint job to freshen up the home, or on hiring a stylist or designer to fix it up.

"Understand your market and know what you need to do to play up your space," says Newman.

Source The Calgary Herald