How to present a house well – without spending too much money – is the challenge facing anyone planning to sell their home right now.

Big renovations – like full bathroom and kitchen overhauls – have traditionally been considered areas where homeowners will recoup costs in a subsequent sale, but that could be questionable in a downward trending market.

Still, you want to put your best foot forward. Ray White chief operating officer Daniel Coulson says it’s actually more important at this time to make sure your house is in as good a condition as possible to meet the market.

“When buyers have choice, they will prefer a done-up home to a do-up,” he says. It makes sense to begin with the fix-up jobs where you’ll get the most bang for your buck.

READ MORE: * The secret life of home stagers * Expert tips on how to style your home on a budget before selling * 10 tips to make your open home a success

Declutter and get packed up

Unless you go professional, decluttering is a no-cost job.

You can adapt famous declutterer Marie Kondo’s “Does this spark joy?” prompt by asking yourself whether it would also spark joy for a broad range of prospective buyers.

Bayleys Nelson real estate agent Rachel Eggers says moving is a perfect time to get rid of stuff – you need to be packing up anyway. Fill the garage with boxes, is her advice. Buyers are not put off by a full garage, she says.

Clear the benches and shelves, remove photos and clothing, and even furniture that can make a space look over-filled.

Once again, if you have access to a water blaster, this is a job most householders can manage – and even enjoy – themselves. Otherwise, getting the professionals in may well be worth it.

Firm The Housewash Company provides guidelines for costs, saying a house up to 120 square metres will cost $250 to $300, whereas a two-level house up to 175sqm will cost between $300 and $400.

A DIY job is certainly possible here, although it will probably be a lot more trips to the refuse/recycle/green waste station than you anticipate.

Pre-sale is not the right time for expensive new landscape design, but a beautiful outside space will appeal to buyers.

Mike McFarlane, owner of Good Natured Garden Services, based in Wellington, says Kiwis do try to leave their green spaces looking good for new owners. In a difficult market, sellers realise that a well-tended lawn and garden makes an impact on prospective buyers, he says.

Most pre-sale tidy ups cost between $500 to $1000, he says, although some require several thousands of dollars to be spent. “It depends on how well cared for it’s been. Sometimes it’s just a case of doing the lawns and edges.”

Many sellers will get away with thoroughly washing walls – removing fly dirt, scrape marks, smears and smudges. But if it’s been some years since the walls were painted, a new coat of paint will freshen up the room.

Similarly, if the wall colours are dated or not to most people’s tastes, repainting is a relatively low-cost exercise, particularly if DIY’ed.

The most economical way to buy paint, if there is more than one room that needs painting, is getting a 10L pail for about $220.

If you decide to call in a professional painter, the costs naturally rise, up to about $10,000 for the entire interior of an average-sized house.

Figures from Auckland-based Superior Painters put painting a home interior or room cost at about $35 to $55 per square metre, with a single room costing “anywhere from $675 to $825”.

Considering the cost of new curtains is 100% a “how long is a piece of string” equation.

However, if you have worn, mouldy or ugly curtains, replacing them is one of the jobs that Coulson deems easily worth doing.

For less than $200, it’s possible to buy readymade pencil pleat curtains in a decent quality block-out or thermal fabric.

For example, Harvey Furnishings has its Denvor brand charcoal curtains in the largest size (with a drop of 240cm and to cover a track up to 3m) for $159.98.

Most of Briscoes’ thermal range is also available for less than $200 a track, alongside other big box retailers.

Eggers says home staging is a must in a competitive market, so that a home meets its competition on an equal footing.

Professional staging, which can include everything from houseplants at the front door to outdoor furniture on the deck – and everything in between – costs from about $1500 to $5000 for a large house.

Harmeet Panesar, from Homebase Stage Style and Interiors, believes presentation will help sell a house first – important when there are fewer buyers attending open homes and putting in offers.

The essence of home staging is to “depersonalise, neutralise and modernise”, he says.

“It allows people to see themselves living in a home.”

The company often sees people with old-fashioned furniture in a modern home, and that is jarring for buyers.

What would a sample overall budget be?

Assuming your house requires all the elements mentioned above, and with the less technical jobs done on a DIY basis, the calculation could go something like this:

The total for those lower-cost, high-priority jobs comes to $7,825. The return on investment, once your sale contract becomes unconditional, should make the expenditure well worth it.