When it comes to selling a home not only are the financial stakes high, but it can also be pretty emotional. You’re likely attached to your home—and it can be upsetting when potential buyers scoff at your decorating and make offers far below what you think your home is worth.

On top of all this, for many people, their home is their most valuable asset. In fact, it might be a key piece of their retirement plan: They might be planning to trade down to a less expensive house and then use the money that’s freed up to pay retirement expenses.

These days, selling a house can be especially tough. Thanks to the sharp decline in home prices since 2006, it has become more of a buyer’s market. That means you may be competing with other anxious sellers, including sellers who may be in financial difficulty. You may also be competing with deeply discounted foreclosed homes that lenders are trying to get off their books.

Moreover, buyers have become more aggressive and are seeking more financial concessions, sometimes shortly before the closing. This, of course, is a sharp reversal from the heady days of the housing boom, when sellers often benefited from bidding wars among eager buyers.

Consider these tips to help make selling your home a little easier:

• Inspect your own home. Sure, it might cost a few hundred dollars. But if get your own professional inspection before putting up the “For Sale” sign, you might head off some nasty surprises, and you will be able to get necessary repairs done ahead of time. It may also help you set a realistic price and avoid having the sale fall through altogether.

• Ask your real estate agent to provide you with the recent selling price for comparable homes.

• Do your own research. Go to open houses for similar properties in your neighborhood. Check out home values at websites like www.zillow.com. Ask your real estate agent to provide you with the recent selling price for comparable homes.

• Cancel the contractor. Don’t go overboard fixing up your home trying to attract buyers. A new flower bed and a fresh coat of paint may be cheaper ways to increase your home’s curb appeal, but you are less likely to recoup all the money lavished on more extensive remodeling. To learn more about the payback from remodeling, see Remodeling magazine’s 2010 –11 Cost vs. Value survey.

• Consider the carrying costs. If your old home is sitting empty, you should probably be more inclined to lower your asking price and go for a quicker sale. After all, with nobody living in your house, you aren’t getting any value out of the property. Meanwhile, it is likely costing you, thanks to homeowner’s insurance, property taxes, maintenance, utilities and mortgage payments. If you have little or no mortgage debt, there’s also a significant opportunity cost, since the money wrapped up in the house could be invested elsewhere and potentially earning investment gains.

• Be careful of conflicts. Keep in mind that you and your real estate agent likely have diverging interests. You are probably aiming to get a decent price within a reasonable period of time. But your broker may push you to sell the property as quickly as possible. To understand why, let’s say you hold out for an extra $10,000, and that means it takes one more month to sell your home. If you have agreed to pay a 5% total real estate commission, you will gain an extra $9,500 for waiting a month. Your broker, meanwhile, might earn just a few hundred more dollars, despite a month of extra work.

Look on the bright side. If you end up selling your home at a depressed price, it isn’t necessarily a terrible loss—assuming you plan to turn around and buy another home, which is also selling at a depressed price.
A caveat: When you buy that next house, you may have to come up with a down payment, pay closing and other costs, and qualify for a mortgage—and that could be a problem, especially if falling home prices have wiped out the equity you had in your old house.

Remember, selling a home can create numerous financial and tax issues. Your financial and tax professionals can guide you on your choice and may be able to help you find ways to minimize the taxes on a sale.

Written for Women & Co. by Jonathan Clements, Director of Financial Education, Citi Personal Wealth Management.

Women & Co. is a service of Citibank. For terms of use, visit womenandco.com. Women & Co. is a registered service mark of Citigroup Inc.