Planning and preparation are critical to any successful endeavor. The same goes with selling a home. If you're like most successful sellers, your preparation will begin several months before your home is listed on the open market. It can be a lot of work, but it all becomes very manageable when you have a knowledgeable real estate agent, a professional home stager, and a professional photographer helping you execute your home selling plan.

Below we offer 4 key steps you can take right now to prepare for your successful sale. Even if your plan is to sell in 2016, now is the perfect time to start laying the foundation for a killer listing.

Step 1: Consult with a Professional Home Stager

Your most fundamental step is to consult with a

In our last post we covered how the MLS limits the listing description to 512 characters of text. The MLS has a similar limitation in place for photos: all listings are limited to a max of 25 pictures.

For many properties, 25 photos is more than sufficient to show the entire home. But for some properties, 25 is not enough. For example, consider the home that sits on a wonderfully-landscaped lot with a variety of perennials in bloom throughout the seasons. One great way to market this home is to show buyers the beauty of the yard in the Spring, Summer and Fall. A proactive listing agent will hire a photographer to produce dozens of high-quality exterior photos, so when the home is ready to list all of the exterior photos are ready for publication.

There is an old joke in the real estate business about the "three P's of selling a home". The first P is put a sign in the yard. The second P is place the listing on the MLS. The third P is pray another agent sells it.

Praying can't hurt, but a yard sign and the MLS are proven tools for marketing a home. A yard sign lets all passersby know your home is for sale. The MLS syndicates your listing to thousands of websites across the globe. However, a solid home-selling plan does much more than rely on a yard sign and MLS syndication. A solid marketing plan takes a much more comprehensive approach by selling the many benefits of your home.

One Big Drawback of the MLS

One big drawback of MLS syndication is the limit placed on descriptive text. The MLS