When I was preparing to sell my house, I brought in two real estate agents to look it over and tell me what I needed to do to get it ready to sell. (It was an old late victorian in which we had done some remodelling...) They both told me the same thing - buyers look at the kitchen and the bathroom. Those were the two most dismal parts of my house. So I put in a chunk of change, got them fixed up. I finally put it on the market early in April, '99. Twelve days later (!!!) I signed a purchase agreement. It wasn't entirely luck...