When you put your home on the market you will go through the motions of staging your house, cleaning every nook and cranny and interviewing agents to find the best one for the job. But what about the actual showing itself? Have you done enough to ensure your home stands apart from the competition? Here are seven tips to improve the odds of selling your home:

Caged dogs should go in a back room or the garage. - Pets are a touchy subject for homeowners. Unfortunately, an ill conceived idea on where to house a pet during your showings could be a deal breaker for a potential buyer. If you're going to cage your pet, especially a dog, make sure it's in a back room or in the garage. Leaving your dog in plain view during a tour will ensure endless amounts of barking and drastically lower your home's appeal to a buyer.

Turn all the lights on. - During sunny days it might be okay to leave the house with the lights off before a showing but if it's cloudy or otherwise, leave them all on. Nothing kills buyer excitement more than walking into a house that would have Indiana Jones searching for a lantern.

Don't leave a car parked in the driveway. - This isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things you need to do while showing your home but its important. When a REALTOR arrives with their client they're most likely in two separate cars. If you have a short or circular driveway with your car in it then you may turn off both the agent and buyers with the perceived lack of space for cars.

Avoid cooking high odor foods if you have a showing that day. - Not something that you can control if you get a last minute showing but high odor foods can be a kiss of death for your home's saleability. I can't even count on all fingers and toes how many times a buyer has run out of a house after walking into a stinky kitchen.

Move bulky furniture out of potential walking paths. - While showing homes recently I saw every seller's worst nightmare: an irritated buyer. Because each buyer has a different set of circumstances (some are pregnant, some have trouble walking etc.) you should do your best to remove any obstructions like folded up treadmills and toys so a buyer can move through your home with ease.

Make sure your front steps are clean. - Here's something a lot of sellers overlook. When a REALTOR is first bringing their client to see your home they always enter the front door. If the agent needs to use a lockbox then the buyers will wait (and look around) while the agent is opening the box to get the front door key. Don't pass up this opportunity to show off how well kept your home is by keeping a neat front entrance.

Label questionable parts of the home. - Have you ever boxed in some utilities or covered up an unsightly part of your home? If so, now is the time to label what's behind these coverings. Other in-home pieces like radon mitigation systems could also benefit from having their purpose clearly spelled out on a label.

Showing your home is the first step to selling it and, as such, should be managed with the greatest attention to detail. Whisking away bulky items, spelling out the not-so-obvious and making your home look like a model home could be the difference between a sale and another hopeless showing.