Getting a house ready to sell or list?

Keep to low sheen levels. Use flat paint for walls and low sheen or eggshell for trim. For older wood surfaces, use a satin finish.  Older surfaces have more imperfections. If you use a semi gloss or gloss on older beat up wood, it will show all the imperfections. The same is true of walls, why a flat paint is advisable. 

Touchup. If you have a light color in the house and want to just touch up the walls, you can get away with it if it is flat paint. If it is a dark color the touchups will show slightly and look bad. When touching  up walls, use a weenie roller not a brush as it will blend much better. It is usually a better idea to just reroll the whole wall. 

Front doors. Front doors are always a focal point. Often it is a good idea to use an accent color there like black, red or dark green. Don’t get too cute though as colors like teal and other colors that are not trendy anymore look tacky on  front doors. Best to stick to traditional colors.

Pressure wash the exterior. If you are trying to paint on the cheap outside, best thing to do is pressure wash first to remove dirt and debris. That will give you a clear idea of what paint actions to take to spruce it up.