Websites offer strategies to help you sell your home.

Mortgage rates are at historic lows, but borrowing terms are strict and home prices are still down. So selling a house requires strategy and, often, artistry. Let these Web resources assist you.

• Reader's Digest says to be sure to pick a real-estate agent with an aggressive online presence for listed homes. In particular, that means providing online shoppers with more than six photos of a listed property.

Owners should also "post a video love letter about your home on YouTube," Facebook your listing and invite neighbors to a block-party open house to get them to recommend your property to their friends who might be looking to move into the neighborhood. bit.ly/M4NNGr

• Staging, painting and turning a den into an extra bedroom are among the suggestions for upgrading the sale price of your house. This post at a site called Money Talks News discusses the cheap ways to add curb appeal and value to real estate.

The site says it offers "stories that offer specific advice on saving more, spending less, investing, and avoiding debt." It covers real estate, retirement, taxes and other personal finance topics. bit.ly/MFHtF4

• HGTV's Front Door website has a section on selling a house, with an extensive list of "home-selling resources" and features on "budget updates," selling on your own, or renting or swapping a house that won't sell.

A list of things that "make buyers bite" starts with advice to dramatize the home's entrance with a freshly painted door. The list also includes a lot of expensive upgrades to kitchens and baths that might make a seller wince. www.frontdoor.com/sell

• Instead of seeing a home sale tripped up by revelations from a home inspection late in the sale process, some experts advise sellers to have a home inspection performed before listing the house.

This post at the site of the National Association for Certified Home Inspectors tells why that may be helpful. In particular, an "upstream" inspection would alert a home seller to such problems as radon gas or termite infestations that would otherwise have landed with a thud later in the sale process. The seller can take remedial action, or adjust the asking price accordingly. bit.ly/Pqal5U

By Reid Kanaley The Philadelphia Inquirer

By Reid Kanaley
The Philadelphia Inquirer