help with selling my primary

[Robert Hastings]

i owe about 165k on my primary.

we are planning to list next spring, hopefully for a list price of around 259-269k.  we put down 20% when we purchased and we made significant improvements.  i am compiling a list of things i am doing prior to listing the home.  painting, patching, repairing and changing some things etc.  i dont know what to do about my roof.  there are no roof leaks but i know a home inspector will make an issue about the roofs condition.  

should i get a new roof prior to the sale?  the money i invest in a new roof is going to impact my resources with regards to the new purchase and all transition costs associated with a new home.  im not garaunteed to recoup all money invested in roof.  i dont think a new roof will automatically increase my house value by the money invested in...

should i wait until i find a buyer, wait until the buyer has an inspection, then negotiate the sale price down?  i would much rather negotiate the sale price that come our of pocket.   my wife and i have substantial savings and we make decent money.  we have our eyes on a certain price point and certain features in our next house, we would really like to keep as much cash as we can to make our next offer pretty solid.  

i would like to net at least 70k on the sale.  in order to net 70k i need to sell for around 245 and pay out the commissions to agents and some closing costs, i don't know exact numbers but hopefully clearing 235k.  if i list for 259k-269k, i have at least a 20k margin to negotiate.

i would much rather reduce the sale price than come out pocket....is the the correct approach? 

why and why not?