I've been shopping for a house for a year now. Finally found a great one.
I've seen a lot, my wife and I only need 5 minutes to see if a house is plausible for us. I can tell you what we looked for. I'm certain it is relevant, at least to young professionals.

Clean!
move in ready.
neighborhood.
modern/updated.

but that 's what we want, which i think we are the stereo typical buyer that has a realtor and checks all the major realtor websites.

But some general good rules.

#1 rule, the more effort you put in (or your friend) the faster and better your results. For example, looking at this picture, the stoop needs to be fixed, there are shingles missing on the roof, tiles off the wall, yard un-kept. This is a fix-me-up, and the type of buyers looking for that is a pretty small part of the market.

#2 research the market, or pay someone else to do it. A good Realtor will research the neighborhood, and other houses with in the same value as yours and tell you what type of buyers you are most likely to attract and how to attract them.

Selling low isn't always your best move. Neither is lots of upgrades. You gotta put in some work if you want to sell a house quick, or at least you gotta pay someone to put in work.

Some things to think about.

Neighborhood: going down, or going up. If the neighborhood looks rough, then it may not be in your best interest to upgrade/modernize or even repair the house. People interested in a quality purchase may not be interested in that neighborhood.

While a nice neighborhood would not be the neighborhood a typical bargain hunter would look in. Craig's List, though a great website, may not be the best place to advertise for a highend buyer.

Price it reasonably. Don't place high, giving yourself some bargaining room if you want to sell quick. Don't low ball yourself, desperation gives a negative vibe. 'Why is this house so cheap?'

Paint is the cheapest, quickest upgrade you can do to a house. Inside and out. YOu can do it really cheap by yourself, or pay to have it done, and it can add thousands to the value of the house. But more importantly it makes the house look clean, fresh, and move in ready.

Even if you have a realtor, don't sit on your thumbs waiting. Keep them on the ball, do some personal advertising yourself. 2 heads are better than none.

Make sure you or your real estate agent have an aggressive plan to market your home and get people looking at it quickly. An effective marketing plan should include listing the home on all the top real estate websites, local newspaper ads, community publications, even "non-traditional" real-estate websites such as craigslist and ebay. The marketing materials should include a good portfolio of professional photographs, a virtual tour, color flyers, listing postcards, and frequent neighborhood open houses (with the fresh baked cookies, of course). You or your agent should follow up with each potential buyer that views the home, if possible, to obtain input and maintain contact in the event a price drop occurs to within the buyers range.

http://www.propertyfaster.co.uk

Declutter the house, clean it and then stage it to give it that homey I want to live here look. Open the cutains and let the light in. The cheapet and best fix is to paint. Clean the attic and basement also. But the best way after all this to sell a house quick is to underprice it in the market. Have a realtor tell you it's market value and knock off 5%. Also clean the outside for curb appeal. Another thing you could also do is let the neighbors know it's for sale as sometimes a person want's to move next to their Parents or have a friend looking to buy near them and you can avoid the realty commission.