Everybody who is in the home-selling process wants to sell the house for more than they paid for it. However, many homeowners have no idea how to increase their home’s value. It’s actually quite easy to increase the value of your house; all you need are a few tips and tricks.

We’ve assembled a list of what we think are the best ways to maximize your payoff when selling your house.

• Find your own inspiration:

There are plenty of avenues a homeowner may investigate to find inspirational home improvement ideas. A great place to start is flipping through home décor magazines; the pictures inside can give you a good idea of what’s currently in style and the articles are often filled with great (and cheap) ideas for interior design.

• Inspect the property:

Though cosmetic improvements are a great way to increase surface value, any good appraiser will surely dig deeper. That’s why you’ll want to get a home inspector to examine the house to see if there’s anything amiss technically. An inspector will be able to find things like water leaks or termites that could turn into much larger problems. If something is found, it’s far better to put in the money to fix it since renovations are surefire property value boosters.

• Paint (or repaint) everything:

A fresh coat of paint can work wonders on the aesthetics of a house, which makes it a no-brainer for anyone looking to improve the value of their home. It’s important to find a shade that appeals to the widest number of people possible; neutral colors are usually the best for that. A gallon of paint only costs about $25, so you’ll have plenty of money left to spend on rollers and other supplies if you don’t have them already.

• Plant some trees:

This tip is only for those people who won’t be selling their home for at least another year; saplings, while nice looking, won’t add too much to the value of your home. However, a nice, healthy tree can do wonders for the aesthetics outside your home. When it gets big, it can even save you money, since the shade from large trees has been proven to cut home cooling costs by up to forty percent! That’s definitely something to mention to any prospective buyer when the time comes.

• Easy landscaping:

You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to turn your lawn into Central Park. Instead, visit your local home improvement store’s garden section to find plants that will stay green as long as possible. Green looks good and gives anyone looking at your house a feeling of life. If you’ve got a brown bush outside your home, it will have the opposite effect.

• Make your home a breather’s paradise:

One of the things any prospective buyer will do inside your home is breathe the air in every room. Because of this, you should do everything you can to make your house smell better. There are plenty of cheap and good automatic air fresheners that you can buy to spruce up the rooms in your house. Be sure that no part of your house has a strange odor that lingers. If it persists, even with air fresheners, you may want to have a professional take a look to see what’s wrong.

• Get rid of popcorn ceilings:

Popcorn ceilings were all the rage a few decades ago, but now they scream “I’m old and ugly”. If you have them, you should get rid of them ASAP. Luckily for you, this is a home improvement project you can easily do yourself (as long as your home doesn’t have asbestos in it!). All you need to do is go to a hardware store, find a plaster softening solution, and then apply it to the ceiling. Then you just scrape it all off! Though it might seem like a lot of work, it’s definitely worth it in the long run.

• Fix up your lawn:

Nobody likes a patchy, overgrown lawn, especially appraisers and potential homebuyers. You should make sure to mow your lawn, trim the edges, and get rid of any excess leaves (especially if it’s Fall). If you want to be really sure to impress, you might want to pay a landscaping company to give your yard the sprucing up that it needs.

• Clean everything:

When we say everything, that means everything. Not a room in the house should be left untouched, because the first impression a homebuyer or appraiser gets of your house is all that counts. If they see a clean, sparkling house, they’re much more likely to leave with a positive impression. Again, if you’re not confident in your cleaning abilities, you can always hire a professional service, as long as you’re willing to shell out a few hundred dollars.

• Work on your bathroom:

You’d be surprised how much tiny changes can improve the look of bathrooms. Obviously, you should polish all the surfaces in the bathroom first. Then, purchase tasteful towels (in neutral colors, of course), and hang them up. Flowers are great too; they can be fake, as long as they don’t look too fake. You should also get rid of any fluorescent lighting.