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What to Do to Sell Your House Quickly

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What to Do to Sell Your House Quickly

Are you wondering what to do to sell your house fast? If so, you are in the right place.

Let’s be honest: selling your house is stressful whether it is your first time or your third.  

 

It can sometimes be a difficult situation because there are so many components to keep in mind as the process unfolds. 

 

Do you need some help in figuring out an efficient way to sell your home? 

 

Learn about what to do to sell your house quickly and effectively below. 

 

Find a Great Real Estate Agent 

This is the best way to start out. Find a real estate agent with experience and a proven track record of sales because they’ll make the selling process faster and easier for you.

 

The right real estate agent will familiarize themselves with your neighborhood so they’re aware of the nearby amenities. As they walk through your home, they should be able to come up with changes that will boost potential buyers’ interest. 

 

Choose the Right Time 

Depending on where you live, there are some seasons that are better for putting your house on the market than others. For instance, spring and summer are usually the best times because families want to move before the school year starts.  

 

The weather tends to be milder, making it the perfect time for inspections and to hold open houses. However, this can vary depending on your location. 

 

You’ll always want to take into account your own timeline. Are you moving for a new job opportunity, or are you currently house hunting?  

 

Declutter 

The less stuff in your house, the better. 

 

This means tackling piles of clutter that tend to accumulate on tables and countertops. You can also store or sell certain pieces of furniture in order to open up the rooms and make them appear more spacious.  

 

Determining what needs to be donated, trashed, or given away will also make it easier once it’s time to move.  

 

Depersonalize  

As you declutter your home, it’s also important to depersonalize. This means removing personal photographs, memorabilia, and even refrigerator magnets. 

 

You want potential buyers to walk through the home and imagine the space as their own - this is harder to do if your walls are still lined with your wedding day photos! The goal is to make your home as depersonalized as a hotel or model home. 

 

Consider investing in some temporary outside storage to make this easier. If you choose to use a portable unit, it can be delivered directly to your new home when you’re ready to move 

 

Small Upgrades 

Your real estate agent will help you determine which upgrades are necessary to impress your buyers. In general, you want to avoid complete remodels because you never know a buyer’s preference. 

 

Why spend hundreds of dollars on granite countertops when your buyer might move in and replace them with butcher block?  

 

Instead, focusing on small upgrades is better for your budget and helps improve the overall look of your home at the same time. Here are some budget-friendly ideas: 

  • Fresh paint 

  • New lamps 

  • New light fixtures 

  • New cabinet hardware 

  • Replace shower curtains 

  • New faucets 

However, you shouldn’t ignore repairs that could be red flags to home inspectors or the mortgage company. If you ignore these, there’s the chance that a buyer will walk once they see the problems listed on the home inspector’s report.  

 

Those repairs could be major issues such as a leaky roof or an outdated electrical system, to minor ones like sliding glass doors that have trouble opening, leaky faucets, or windows that stick. 

 

Let in the Light 

As you’re focusing on cleaning and upgrading your home, pay particular attention to the lighting in your home. During open houses, bright, well-lit homes are far more welcoming than dark ones. 

 

Think about the homes you have seen in magazines or on television - none of them feature shadowy interiors. You can let in more light by cleaning windows, changing lampshades to lighter tones, and replacing heavy drapes with sheer, subtle window treatments. 

 

Check the wattage of your lightbulbs and replace them with bright LED bulbs. Cut any bushes or branches that are preventing light from coming through your windows.

  

Find the Right Price 

Pricing your home is an artful balance of what you need financially and what the market will bear. Real estate agents determine this through “comps,” which is comparing what similar homes in your area have sold for or are priced at. 

 

Once you arrive at a reasonable price, you’ll also consider the upgrades you’ve invested in and increase the price accordingly. 

 

It’s important to trust your real estate agent through this process because the wrong price can be a major factor keeping your home from selling fast. 

 

When you price your house too high, there’s the risk that it will sit on the market for a long time. Potential buyers will naturally assume that since no one snatched it up yet, something must be wrong with it - such as costly repairs or an outdated layout. 

 

Setting Incentives 

By making it clear in your listing that you’ll only be accepting offers till a deadline, you give potential buyers an extra incentive to make a decision fast. It’s best to keep it short and simple - you don’t need to explain why there’s a deadline, because a desperate seller can set off red flags to buyers. 

 

You can also offer promotional incentives in your listing. 

 

This can include a free refrigerator or flat-screen television with purchase at a certain deadline.

 

Curb Appeal 

Don’t discount the front yard! Your home’s exterior is a buyer’s first impression as they walk up to the front door, and also the required first photo on the MLS. 

 

Just like the interior, you don’t need to do any major landscaping unless your real estate agent finds it necessary. Focus on budget-friendly fixes that will substantially help the home’s appearance, such as: 

  • Pressure washing the home’s exterior, walkways, and driveway 

  • Painting trim and shutters 

  • Polishing front door hardware 

  • Painting the front door 

  • Planting flowers 

  • Keeping the lawn mowed and tidy 

Staging & Photographing 

Once you’ve cleaned, depersonalized, and removed unnecessary furniture from your home, you’re ready for staging and photographing. A professional home stager will be able to look at your home and make it as appealing as possible from a buyer’s perspective.  

 

good professional stager will be able to choose the right furniture for a space’s size, utilize colors and accent pieces to create a unified flow, and theme your rooms so that they make sense.  

 

A professional photographer utilizes lighting equipment, wide-angle lenses, careful composition, and photo editing techniques to make the house look its best.  

 

Consider Developers & Flippers 

If you want to simplify the selling process, consider developers and house-flippers. Developers will purchase your home for the value of the land itself, then demolish the property to rebuild in its place. 

 

Since they’re demolishing your property, it doesn’t matter what condition it’s in. However, this can be particularly hard emotionally.  

 

Another option is to sell your house to flippers. Although this allows you to sell your home as-is and often for cash, you’ll be dealing with people who demand below-market prices so they can resell the flipped property for a greater profit.  

 

It’s important that you compare offers and see what similar houses are selling for so that you’re not losing too much money.  

 

Start Promoting 

Although your real estate agent is in charge of promoting your home, you can help by posting on your social media accounts and getting the word out to friends, neighbors, colleagues, and family. 

 

Encourage your friends and family to spread the news as well - you never know who in your network might looking for a house. 

 

If you’re an experienced social media user, you can also utilize hashtags that will help bring more eyes to your posts. Use tags that include your city or state to find people who are searching for homes in your area. 

 

If your real estate agent is social media savvy, see what tags they’re using as well.

  

What to Do to Sell Your House: Simple & Straightforward  

As you can see, what to do to sell your house quickly is a fairly straightforward process that focuses on preparation. 

 

Without proper preparation, you’ll have a house that’s not as appealing to buyers and uncompetitive at its current price. 

 

By cleaning, upgrading, staging, photographing, and pricing your house correctly, this initial preparation will reward you with a fast-selling process! 

 

Want accurate real estate and home values? With Hommati, you can find out what your home is really worth!