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Don't let the slow market get you down. Whether you're a home seller looking for offers, or a homebuyer facing stricter loan requirements, rev up your real estate potential with these helpful pointers from FrontDoor.com.

For Sellers:

 1. Give your house a makeover that adds value and keeps it up with the Joneses'. That doesn't mean you should run out and install Italian marble. But if hardwood floors are the norm in your neighborhood, replace the carpet.
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2. Use the secrets of staging experts, or hire one. Staging can be as easy as a fresh coat of paint, new cabinet hardware and strategically-placed lighting. Think of it as a creative, inexpensive facelift for your home.
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3. Find out what's wrong with the house and get it fixed. Don't wait until that serious buyer finds faulty wiring or a termite problem and then pulls the plug on the deal. Be proactive. Get an inspection before hitting the market.
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4. Come up with a comprehensive home-selling strategy. Don't put an ad on Craigslist, stick a sign in the ground and call it a day. Whether you're going FSBO or using an agent, selling your home in a buyer's market requires a well thought-out plan with accurate pricing, targeted improvements and focused marketing and exposure.
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5. Hire an aggressive, well-connected real estate agent. Find an experienced agent with a proven track record and knows how to pound the pavement. In this market, name recognition is important, so find the go-to person for buyers and their agents in your community.
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6. Help a buyer buy it. Offer incentives that put money in the buyer's pocket, such as buying down the interest rate, absorbing more of the closing costs or offering seller financing.
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7. Consider renting or offering a lease option. Minimize the impact of two mortgages by renting your house out until you find a buyer. Or offer a lease option to a motivated buyer who doesn't have enough cash to buy a home outright.
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8. Make the house move-in ready. Throw in the furniture, flat-screen TV, washer/dryer, appliances, backyard jacuzzi AND the kitchen sink. The less money a buyer will have to shell out to furnish the house, the higher the perceived value.
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FOR BUYERS:

9. Use calculators and tools to evaluate your potential purchase. Be careful not to get caught up in the hype of a buyer's market. Make calculated decisions with FrontDoor.com's "Return on Investment" tool, for instance, which helps you determine your potential IRR (internal rate of return) on a property.
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10. Evaluate and boost your financial profile. If you're having trouble finding favorable terms or interest rates on a mortgage, make yourself more appealing to lenders by boosting your credit score.
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Yes, finally we're getting some positive reports from the media and I thought if you didn't see this interview, then check out the comments from Sam Zell:

Zell sees spring housing market recovery -- CNBC

Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:57am EST

NEW YORK, Feb 26 -Sam Zell was on CNBC's Squawk Box this morning commenting on the housing markets, the economy, and more. Whether you think Zell is genius or just perpetually lucky, he's almost always right. There were plenty of people who told me they thought he was selling too cheap when he sold EOP to Blackstone about a year ago. In hindsight, he really sold at the absolute peak of the market. I am including some of his quotes from the interview for your information. In addition to the normal Squawk Box crew, Jack Welch was also interviewing Zell. Zell and Welch seemed to have a pretty bullish view on the economy at least in comparison to the whole of the media.


All the quotes are from Sam Zell:

"I think the housing market, this spring, will begin its recovery phase."

"I think starts have already pretty much bottomed out, and I think sales will start to occur and we'll start to clean up the inventory."

"We have a serious constipation within the debt markets. I think the only solution is time, and a lot less panic. Everybody has to remember that the crisis we're in is not a cash crisis, it's a mark crisis. So, in effect, when Citibank takes a $10bb hit, that doesn't mean they have $10bb less money the next day, that means that their portfolio has been marked down. History says that mark downs are generally followed by mark ups. So, I think the mark situation is probably the single biggest issue and I think it has exaggerated the overall credit market conditions."

"When we had the opportunity to sell Equity Office a year ago, I made the decision to sell, not based on the crowds and not based on euphoria, somebody made me an offer that I couldn't understand, and I thought it was a godfather offer. I am a CEO or Chairman of a publicly held company and I have an absolute responsibility to respond when I think somebody has made an offer that I think is beyond my own analysis of the future."

(when asked if he is investing in housing at this point) - "Historically, we have all been professional opportunists, so when there is dislocation, that usually creates unique opportunity."

"The definition of recession is two quarters of negative growth. We have yet to have a first quarter of negative growth. Second of all, I really believe the economy is much stronger than everybody thinks it is. We run all kinds of different businesses, other than the newspaper business, and what we're seeing is strong sales and strong activity, we're just not seeing on the corporate side and the industrial side the kind of erosion that you would think by watching television."

"If I were a buyer, I would be looking to buy a house this spring."

"I wonder, if you have a trillion dollars in the bank today and you were in China, I wonder if you would feel like you were in control or were a potential victim. If you look at the valuation of the dollar over the last few years, I would say that China and all the other countries in the world that have held the dollar have suffered to some extent in the short term by the reduction in its value. So clearly, the dollar plays a major role. I think future security of the world is dependent on an intelligent and appropriate reserve currency and I for sure am a supporter of a strong dollar and an economic base that makes sense."

(Joe Kernan asked if he thought we were headed towards a day of reckoning with regard to the value of the dollar) - "I think we're likely to reach a day of reckoning but much more likely in the drip theory than in the combustible theory."

"I think Bernanke's reduction in interest rates has been spot on, because basically we're going to fix the credit markets by creating a big enough spread between the risk free cost of capital and what's available so that greed overtakes fear and the game begins."

Here is the link to the site where you can watch the whole segment on cnbc

http://www.cnbc.com/id/23350846/site/14081545