Free Republic

In a normal housing market, a relatively quick and painless home sale is by no means a given. It's not unheard of for homes to sit on the housing market for months on end without a buyer -- especially if they're not priced or marketed well. Today's housing market is different, though. Right now, real estate inventory is down, and buyer demand is strong. That puts sellers in a strong position to not just move their homes off the market quickly, but command strong sale prices. If you're thinking of selling your home, there are certain items you should tackle...

<p>NEW YORK -- Like many other California renters in early 2005, Nick Basile and his fiancée, Jackie Neuffer, felt the pressure of ballooning home prices.</p> <p>The couple, fresh out of college, decided to act. They snapped up a house last summer in the San Joaquin Valley town of Visalia where prices had already spiked 40 percent in the prior 12 months.</p>

Consumer confidence recorded its steepest point drop in 15 years in September, as Americans grappled with the economic uncertainty wrought by hurricanes, soaring gas prices and rising interest rates. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell 18.9 points to 86.6 from a revised reading of 105.5 logged in August. That marked the largest one-month decline in the index since October 1990 and put the measure at its lowest level in two years. Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center, attributed the decline to the effects of Hurricane Katrina, high prices at the pump and pessimism...