Make your home a more pleasant place to live, and then you can profit from it when it's time to sell. How much you spend on renovating depends on the value of your home.

"You'll always get your money back if you spend it in the right places," says real estate maven Barbara Corcoran, who now dispenses advice on The Today Show after selling for $70 million the company she started with a $1,000 loan.

Her newest book, Nextville: Amazing Places to Live the Rest of Your Life (Springboard Press, $24.99), is due out in April.

$250,000 house

Amount to lay out: $10,000 to $20,000

Cosmetic: Make minor improvements. Paint the front door and trim to make a great first impression. Do a total interior paint job in a light, pale color, but not white (too stark). Pale colors enlarge the space, and you want your place to look as spacious as possible.

Structural: Replace the door if warped, and the bell if it doesn't work. If the roof has any flaws, fix them. Make sure there are no water marks on ceilings. People see those and assume the worst.

Landscaping: What's closest to the house is most important. People buy light-colored houses and will pay more for them. Trim down bushes near windows and fill in any bald spots.

$500,000 house

Amount to lay out: $20,000 to $50,000

Cosmetic: Repaint everything. Repaint or refurbish doors and/or hardware on the front kitchen cabinets. Resurface floors, re-carpet where necessary and make it look like a fresh new home.

Structural: Go to a new development with homes more expensive than yours and see what the latest and greatest appliances are. Buy the least pricey one, like an oversized stainless-steel refrigerator. Do more if you have the budget.

Landscaping: Splurge a little more on the landscaping; keep things low near windows but lush.

$1 million+ house

Amount to lay out: $30,000 to $100,000

Cosmetic: Do a quality paint job, upgrade kitchen cabinet improvements (replace hardware, doors), refinish wood floors, re-carpet what's worn or too fashion-forward.

Structural: Splurge on luxuries that flatter egos; improve kitchen, baths. Put in new countertops and replace appliances, even if only 3 or 4 years old. In baths, use sleek ceramic tile that looks expensive (but doesn't have to be), free-standing tubs with water features, multi-head showers with frameless glass enclosures and a flat-screen TV if there's wall space.

Landscaping: Spend the rest of your budget on healthy foliage and the best landscaping you can get.

For every budget:

Get rid of at least a third of your stuff, from knickknacks to furnishings, especially expensive objects and art. Pay to have it packed up and stored if you have to.

Scrub your house from top to bottom. Also clean all the windows. For the best results, hire a service.

Increase the wattage of every lamp in your home. Replace dark lampshades with light ones that allow light to shine through.

Remove heavy drapes, replace all the shower curtains and buy new towels.

Make sure all changes or improvements you make are decoratively neutral.

Lisa Skolnik writes for the Chicago Tribune.