So, you want to sell your house – fast! How do you do it? Learn a few of the best tips from the pros and get your house ready for its new owner as quickly as you need it.
Tip 1: Get your house ready to show
Buyers want to come in and see your home, so don’t wait to make it great for them. Like the old saying goes, “You know you’ve got company coming over – then you scrub extra hard!” That goes double when the company who comes over might want to buy the house.
Assess your readiness
Walk around your home and ask: What doesn’t look “nice”? Are the closets overstuffed? Is the yard overgrown? Are there broken cabinet doors or blinds? Make a list of all the broken, “not new” things that you think a buyer will notice. Try to focus on the things that you can fix quickly by cleaning or with simple household tools.
Get a storage unit or dumpster
The first step when moving is to purge. If you have a lot to get rid of – old clothes, broken furniture, boxes of paperwork you don’t need – consider getting a dumpster. You can digitize documents and photos, donate furniture, clothing, and household items, and remove anything that’s not going to your new home.
If you don’t have too much to get rid of get a storage area. Start boxing up the unnecessary items around your house – spare dishes, out-of-season-clothes, your DVD collection – and move them into the storage area. By clearing out anything extra, your home will look larger and cleaner.
Hire a professional to clean
Bring in the maid service! Once you’ve cleared out and made space, once you’ve fixed a few small items and cleaned up what you can on your own, it’s time to call in the big guns.
A professional maid service should clean all the traffic areas. You might contract with them to move or clean the furniture, scrub the baseboards, get cobwebs out of the corners and light fixtures, and other deep-cleaning duties. It will be one of the best expenses you can put forward toward preparing your home for sale.
Hire a professional to organize, stage, and photograph
Your home will be listed on numerous websites and print materials, and professional photos will help you sell your house fast. Bring in a professional organizer, who can stage your home for a photographer. Many organizers can either take pictures themselves or help coordinate with a photographer for the best pictures of your home possible.
Tip 2: Do a little research before speaking with a broker
The real estate market literally changes every day. And everybody knows the number one variable that affects the value of your property – location, location, location. When you want to sell your house fast, price it right. A house that is priced well in its current market will often get the seller at least its asking price. Sometimes, the best-priced houses start bidding wars that make the seller more money than they original hoped for.
The only way to price your house right is research. Of course, you can’t be expected to become an expert on the real estate in your town – let alone even in your neighborhood or on your exact block – overnight. Instead, always speak with a broker to help you list, market, and sell your home.
Check online advertisements
There’s dozens of places online to shop for real estate. Search by zip code and filter results by houses similar to yours – called “comps” (short for “competition). These should be houses that are about the same square footage, built around the same year, the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and even with the same amenities, if you can find them. (Such as a pool or garage).
Rarely will you find an exact match to your own house. Look at a few dozen recently sold and currently-for-sale houses in your market, and you will understand how to price your house right to sell it fast.
Visit some open houses
When scrolling through the current listings, choose a few of your comps and schedule to visit them. Pretend that you’re interested in buying. Come up with a quick backstory. When you go into other houses, you get a real sense of what other buyers see, and you can see how to discuss with your real estate agent how to set your house apart.
It can be fun and easy to get your ready. To sell a house fast, just think quick.