Tips for grazers and gourmands

HOMEOWNERS fretting about putting their homes on the less-than-hot market this spring may be tempted to turn to two new titles to bolster their confidence.

In “Ready, Set, Sold!” by Michael Corbett (a one-time soap heartthrob who’s now host of “Mansions & Millionaires” on TV’s “Extra”), advice worth giving once is worth giving three times. The repetition may cause eye-rolling. “Trust mes” are scattered throughout, as are exclamation points: Keep those emotions at bay! Toss it out! Clean like you’ve never cleaned before! It could make you so! much! money! And in the style of “Saturday Night Live’s” Garrett Morris shouting the news for the hearing-impaired, basic information is stated and then restated in boldface type.

But there is another way to look at this tome. Perhaps it is intended for folks in a big hurry.

This book is a skimmer. It’s easy to collect nuggets of information as you breeze along, reading the big black type and the bulleted lists and scanning the handy checklists: “Repair-to-Sell Hit List” (everything to fix), “Show Prep Hit List” (what to clean and check before showings) and “Must-Have Seller’s Disclosure and Information Package” (what documents to have ready before putting a home on the market).

Most of the information is solid and straightforward, including a lot of the advice on organizing and staging a home for sale. Some of the claims, though, may have readers thinking, “Really?” Is there really a profit to be made from leaving new, neatly folded white towels on the washer and turning your canned goods label-forward? And even if there were, do you really want to do it?

Also, under the “cuckoo, cuckoo” heading, if you’ve had a pesky poltergeist, do you want to go around telling people? Corbett lists such paranormal activity among things he strongly believes should be disclosed.

If “Ready, Set, Sold!” were a $6 burger, “The Fearless Home Seller” would be filet mignon. Before each chapter, author Elizabeth Razzi quotes home-themed passages from books and poems by literati including Walt Whitman, John Updike and Joyce Carol Oates.

But this isn’t a highfalutin book. Razzi’s a consumer journalist, and it shows. Her writing is balanced. She attributes her information to sources, like a good reporter. Ably covering preparation, the sales process and closing, she even devotes a chunk of type to FSBO (for sale by owner), which was high on Corbett’s list of no-nos.

She also writes from the viewpoint of a mom. Parents will appreciate family-oriented advice on the best way to bail out fast for a showing, as well as seeing the sale from the kids’ point of view -- this wasn’t their idea, after all, and for them the future looks hazy. Plus, Mom and Dad have been a pain about keeping the house nice for strangers. Razzi recommends a last-blast sleepover to gather up e-mail addresses and phone numbers. And those are just a few of her good ideas.

Razzi’s Rules to Live By at the end of each chapter are dynamite: great little summations you can read before delving back into the chapter for greater detail. Still, there is much food for thought, not easily digested on the run.

Both Corbett and Razzi have style and detailed information to share.

Which one to choose? It depends on what you need: just a pep talk or a little deeper look at how to get your home sold.

amy.hubbard@latimes.com

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Ready, Set, Sold!

Make $10,000 to $100,000 More When You Sell Your House!

Michael Corbett

Penguin Group: 310 pp., $15

The Fearless Home Seller

Razzi’s Rules for Staying

in Control of the Deal

Elizabeth Razzi

Harry N. Abrams: 352 pp., $16.95