Once your home is listed and the for-sale sign is firmly implanted in your front lawn, all is ready for would-be buyers to tour your home. Or is it?
      As anyone in the real estate industry will tell you, it's important to make your home look its best when it comes time to show it. That first impression is everything. Even if you're in a market where homes are selling quickly and for full asking price, it's still key to spruce up your home and prove that it's worth every penny you're asking. And it doesn't have to cost you a fortune.
      In fact, a great first impression, coupled with the decreasing amount of time the typical home is on the market these days, is sometimes all it takes to see a speedy offer come your way.
      "In 2001, the typical home was on the market for only four weeks," said David Lereah, the National Association of Realtor's chief economist. "In 1999 it was five weeks, but throughout most of the '90s the typical selling time was eight

     There is nothing more unappealing to a prospective home buyer than a brown, weed-filled lawn.
      So if you are planning to put your house up for sale in the next few months, here are some surefire ways to ensure that a green lawn is matched in kind by the kind of green that you can put in the bank.
      In all but the hottest areas of the country, the best time to seed your lawn is late summer to early fall because there is less competition from weeds than in the spring, and because the new grass will have two cool growing seasons - fall and winter - before it encounters its first period of heat stress.
      In the spring, soils may be too wet for good seedbed preparation, though in a year such as this one with a fairly dry winter and a cooler than normal spring.
      In most northern climates, mid-October is about as late as you'd want to sow grass seed in the fall. These rules are not hard and fast, because the dates are based on a normal year, and the varieties you plant can help determine what time is best to do it.
      When you sow grass seed, you try to mix several kinds -- the theory is that this allows you to take advantage of microclimates and cover all bases. But even when you sow only Kentucky