Let me preface this with some info, here:

I am selling my laptop to get some cash for a new one. It's a nice laptop, so Ill be able to get a few hundred bucks for it I hope. My only worry is, I need everything wiped clean, that means all things saved on the laptop save the operating system (8.1)

So like..when they boot it up, it's like a fresh new default laptop with nothing saved on the HD. Is that possible?

Reinstalling W8 and 8.1 should do that. You'll have to format the disk during the installation process. After installing 8.1, when the screen where you must create your account shows up, you should be able to shut down the computer (at least, you can do that with W7). When the buyer will open his new computer, he should land on that account creation page. Not tested though.