Once you find a Memphis apartment you like, the landlord will take you through an initial walk-through. There are several things you need to look at as you conduct your walk-through. You should make a final decision only after reviewing the condition of the Memphis apartment.

The first thing you should do is check every door. Make sure each door shuts and is secure. This is particularly important for doors leading outside. Test the locks, including chain and dead bolt locks. If the doors leading outside do not have dead bolt locks, ask the landlord if you are permitted to install them. If the landlord says you are not allowed to make changes to the security of the Memphis apartment, immediately consider finding an alternate Memphis apartment.

When checking the doors, make sure they do not stick. If the door is warped in any way, it might jam in the door frame when you shut it. This is a safety hazard because you can get stuck in a room.

Check the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom to make sure they close appropriately. Make sure the hinges are secured so the doors will not break during use. If there are any splinters in the wood, ask the landlord if he plans to fix them before the next tenant moves in. See if the cabinets are clean.

The appliances should be clean and in good working condition. Open the oven and test the door. The oven door should be securely attached to the oven frame. The refrigerator door should also be secured at the hinges and remain closed when not in use. If the refrigerator includes an ice maker, ask if it works properly. Also find out if it makes noises when not in use.

One of the most important things to look for is evidence of infestation. When looking in the cabinets look for evidence of bugs. This can include bug carcasses or droppings. Ask the landlord about his extermination policy. Ask if he has had infestation problems with that particular Memphis apartment.

When walking through each room, examine the walls and ceilings carefully. The walls should have a fresh coating of paint. Look for cracks that may have been painted over. See if any of the ceiling plaster is cracked. Make sure there is no evidence of water spots on the ceiling. Water spots are indicative of problems with the pipes or a flooding issue with the neighbor above.

In addition, check in the bathroom and kitchen for water spots. In particular, look under the kitchen sink, around the bathtub, toilet, and bathroom sink. Test the flooring to make sure it is sturdy. If the floor has soft spots around water pipes, you might have a potential leaking problem.

Make sure the flooring is clean. This includes carpet and linoleum alike. The Memphis apartment should be empty so you can see the entire space clearly. Make sure the carpet is clean around the base board. Again, check for evidence of infestation. If the previous tenant had a pet, there might be a pet odor attached to the carpet. Ask the landlord to have it professionally cleaned.

Open and close each window. No window should be sealed shut. You want to be able to open windows and keep them open in a safe manner. Make sure they shut and lock properly. This is particularly important if you live on ground level. Windows that are not secure invite trouble.

Finally, listen for noise while you are in the Memphis apartment. Do you hear the neighbor above walking around? Can you hear the adjacent neighbor’s television? Do you hear the traffic going by? The noise factor can be a significant deterrent to renting a specific Memphis apartment. If you pay attention during the initial walk-through, you will be able to make an informed decision about renting the Memphis apartment.

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If youre ready to put your home on the market, its time to look at the inside of your home with a critical eye. The good news is that there are many very simple, inexpensive projects you can do that will greatly improve a buyers opinion of your home.

Several popular TV shows now focus on improving the interior appearance of homes in order to increase their market value or appeal. Often, properties showcased on this program undergo amazing visual transformations through very small changes. We can use this attitude more for less to improve the appearance of your home as well.

Always remember our motto more for less. We want to focus on small, inexpensive changes that impact the VISUAL appearance of your home. Wiring the home for high speed internet (things that will not be seen by visiting buyers or only used in situational circumstances) or spending big bucks for major improvements, like adding granite countertops, will surprisingly yield less than you think.

1. Look Down

This is an important factor for many buyers what type of flooring you have and most importantly, what the condition is. Ive literally seen buyers walk away from a home simply because the carpet was overly dirty. You can prevent negative appearance or outright rejection by making sure your floors look their best. If you have carpets, rent a steam cleaner for the weekend and put it to use. They are rather inexpensive and can really rejuvenate carpets, especially older carpets. If you have laminate or hardwood, use a floor cleaner and when it dries, a no-slip floor polish. Make sure you do this in advance of any showings or open houses you dont want the house to smell like the cleaning isle of your grocery store. Speaking of which

2. Destroy Offensive Odors

This ones tough to judge. Often, we get so used to the smell of our own homes, we cant be objective anymore. Enlist the help of a friend (your REALTOR is a good choice) who youre sure will give you an honest evaluation. Here are some common sources of home odors and ways to combat them:
Pets: keep the litter box/bird cage/pet areas spotlessly clean. If you have a room that pets frequent, it might be a good candidate for some potpourri or a non-offensive air freshener. Febreeze is a great odor masker if you have pets (especially dogs) that climb on the couch, chairs or lay on rugs or carpets, give those pieces of furniture a quick spray in advance of your open house.
Food Odors: certain types of cooking can really add strong scents to your home. Make sure you keep your kitchen very clean get rid of any grease that might have collected on your stove, hood, floors or cabinets (check up top too). Get an oven cleaner and wipe out the inside of your oven. Also, make sure any kitchen trash is disposed of promptly. Finally, if you know visitors are coming soon, refrain from cooking anything with powerful odors take yourself out as a treat for working so hard to get your home ready for sale.
Musty Smells: Often the harbinger of water problems that should be checked out, a musty smell is a big turn-off for a buyer. Certain places tend to collect this odor basements, lower bedrooms, rec. rooms off of walk-in basements, attics or sun rooms. You can try to reduce this by using a de-humidifier regularly (if you own one) in the problem location for a few weeks before any showing. Carpets often collect this odor make sure you steam clean them (see above). Also, this might be a good candidate for a non-offensive air freshener. If you suspect there is a water problem, get it checked out by a professional.
Just a couple tips on air fresheners: less is more. Make sure you dont overpower your buyers with air fresheners. This often raises their suspicion that something is being covered up even if there is no real reason for them to be suspicious. Try to use non-offensive odors lavender, chamomile, light citrus heavy scents like pine, rose or heavy citrus can be a real turn-off. There is also a good option that Ill discuss in my last tip of this guide.

3. Fix and Touch Up Walls

Just a few minutes with some spackle, a bit of light sanding and a couple dabs of touch-up paint can repair that hole in the wall from when you bumped it moving furniture, those expansion cracks, nail pops or other wall blemishes, even if you have no repair skills. It just has to look decent, not perfect. Stick down any drywall tape thats peeling with some spackle and touch up it tends to be rather unsightly and is easy to notice. Oh, and.

4. Should I Paint Entire Rooms?

It depends. If you have the time to do it yourself or if things look really bad, painting can be a great enhancement. Plus, if you do it yourself, it can be done fairly cheaply. Try to rent a paint sprayer at your local rental store youll be amazed at how easy it is. Strong colors are often an issue with many buyers. You may love pumpkin orange in the family room, but will they? Neutral colors are the best remember youre selling this house you can paint your new one whatever colors you want, but you have to maximize your homes appeal to as many buyers as possible. Trust me, stick with neutrals here. If there are sections of your home that you feel could really use a new coat, use your judgment. Just remember more for less.

5. Remove Personal Touches

You want your buyers to identify with your home to see themselves living there. One thing that distracts from this is seeing a picture of your family every time they turn around. I know it might be sad to see all the pictures come down, but it needs to happen. Just think of this as part of the packing process. Its also a good time to take all of the homework, pictures and drawings that your children have done off of the fridge or walls.

6. De-clutter Your Way to a Sale

Keep your home neat and tidy for visitors. This is one of the toughest things about having your home on the market the feeling that your home always needs to be at its best. Even a little can go a long way here. Make sure toys are picked up and put away, home office spaces are kept neat and tidy, storage is stacked in an orderly fashion, laundry is put away, workshop organized, the kitchen is in order and all of those hundred other things you do when company is coming over. A neat home inspires feelings of peace and order in buyers both good things.

7. Open up the Home

There are a few easy things you can do and a few more difficult things the good news is that all of them dont cost much. One of the biggest transformations that happens on those TV home makeover shows occurs when furniture is rearranged to create the impression of more space. Take a critical look at each room in your house if you have the time, move the furniture around a bit see if one position is more spacious than another. If you have a digital camera, take pictures and compare them side-by-side. Another option is remove furniture altogether. This is a great idea because not only will it make the house feel more open, but it will give you a jump on packing. I would suggest moving the furniture completely out of the house perhaps rent an offsite storage area or if this isnt possible, store all removed items neatly on one side of the garage. Some buyers dont even look in the garage and if they do, better to have one room full of stuff than the entire home. The final thing is to leave all of the curtains pulled back this makes a room look more breezy and the additional natural light is always a plus.

8. Clean, Clean, Clean

This is a very useful selling tactic, so you really cant get away with not doing it. Keep those carpets freshly vacuumed, counters wiped down, kitchen cleaned top to bottom (the kitchen is the most important room to many buyers), bathroom completely spic and span (bathroom is often the second most important room to many buyers) and everything dusted. A few other tips clean the bugs out of the light fixtures they are a big YUCK! Give any woodwork a once-over with some furniture polish and clean those window sills and panes. Make sure you keep all dishes washed and off the counter dirty dishes are a big turn off. Also, make sure all your closets are organized and neat buyers will be looking through them to get an idea of storage space be prepared!

9. Windows and Doors

Surprisingly, this is fairly high on a buyers annoyance factor. A sticky or noisy door will make any buyer stop a second and go hmmm. The good news is that this is an easy fix a can of WD-40 takes care of the creaks and for those sticky doors, buy a bar of paraffin wax (found in the canning area of your grocery store) and rub it a bit on the area of the door that looks worn. For windows, make sure they open easily start by cleaning the tracks often you will find lots of dirt and grime that prevent the window from opening cleanly. If this doesnt do the trick, try some WD-40 or a little paraffin wax here too.

10. Prepare the Home for Showing

Our goal here is to make the home as bright and homey as possible. There are a few selling tricks that you can use that will really establish this environment.
- Bake something cookies are a good option toll house is fine just dont burn them. Were going for the aromas here. Freshly baked cookie smell is like expensive perfume to home buyers.
- Offer cookies (works out well with the above), or in the summer, cold bottled water. Buyers like these personal touches and they will subconsciously raise their opinions of your home.
- Open all the curtains and turn on all the lights you want your home to feel breezy, bright and open. Change any bulbs that are out. If its winter and you have one, light the fireplace.
- Set the table as if you were going to have a nice meal with company. You want to sell your dining room as an entertaining space and place settings help build this impression.
- Turn on some light music nothing offensive smooth jazz is a good option. Keep the volume low in the background.
- This one is vital: remove any small valuables from sight. Id like to think that all home buyers are always on their best behaviors, but sometimes this isnt the case better to be safe than sorry.
- The most important thing you can remove from your home to help it sell is yourselves. Take your family out for the day or out for a few hours during the open house/showing. Usually, when a homeowner is present for an open house, it never goes as well the buyers always feel like theyre imposing, and thats not what you want. You want them to spend time in your home.

In many cases, a buyers decision to make an offer on your home will not come down to any one factor. Think of it as two cups sitting on the counter one is labeled YEA! and one is labeled YUCK! As the buyer tours your home, features will either do nothing (every house is supposed to have certain things they are expected) or will add to one of these two cups. At the end of the showing, if your YEA! cup is full and the YUCK! is nearly empty, generally you will attract an offer. If its the other way around, the buyer moves on. Our goal here is to reduce the number of things that fill the YUCK! cup. I know many of these things seem like small details, but they add up in surprising ways. There will always be a few things that buyers dont like about your home these are unavoidable there is no perfect house. But all were looking for is a majority of the buyers experiences to be YEA! If you can do this (and we think you can), youre on your way to selling your home.

Nearby businesses and homeowners were concerned when the smell from the chemical grew overwhelming. We've learned both Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau and TOSHA are investigating the case.

It began late Monday night when workers were using the chemical, Methyl Methacrylate, to install the flooring inside the new grocery store. The contractor says he told nearby businesses the smell from the chemical would be strong, but because of the building's poor ventilation, the odor was much stronger than anticipated. Some store owners in the same strip mall say they've been losing business since Monday night because of the odor.

Jose Hernandez works at La Altena restaurant. He says, “There were two tables, two sets of customers, that got up and left because of the strong smell.”

The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau says the smell is not causing any health risks. They say they are continuing to monitor the situation.

We've learned TOSHA is investigating because there is concern some of the workers were not wearing masks or respirators when handling the chemical.

We talked with the contractor, Doug Eller with Piedmont Industrial Coatings out of South Carolina. He says none of his workers were injured. He also says he's used the same chemical at dozens of other work sites and he's never had any problems.