How do I sell my house fast? Here are 11 expert tips for sellers…
It’s a question many buyers ask…”How do I sell my house fast?” After all, time is money. The longer your home sits on the market, chances are, the lower your eventual offer price will be…that’s a fact¹².
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And if you’re moving very soon and don’t own your home outright, the financial burden of having to potentially carry multiple mortgage payments simultaneously can be draining, for certain.
For these reasons, the goal of selling a home quickly once it’s on the market is a good one. But no home owner really wants to (or should) sacrifice on the sales price in order to sell quickly.
So as a homeowner, how do you ensure your home sells quickly, but also for the highest offer price it can fetch?
Here are 11 pro tips…
How do I sell my house fast? Here are 11 pro tips…
Each of these tips is discussed in more detail in the article below.
1. Nail the curb appeal
2. Make them Fall In Love At Your Front Door
3. Scent Appeal
4. Let there be light
5. Clear the clutter
6. Fix what’s broken
7. Fresh paint
8. Fresh carpet (or at least professionally cleaned)
9. Make sure the price is right
10. Staged houses sell faster, and for more money. Period.
11. Photography is king
Before we dig in deeper to each of these tips, if you are thinking about selling your home, make sure to grab a free copy of “Skyrocket Your Sales Price: 16 Secrets for Sellers” – it’s a free checklist of the 16 most impactful and cost-effective things you can do to prepare your home to sell lightning fast, and for top dollar.
How do I sell my house fast? Here are 11 pro tips…
1. Nail the curb appeal
First impressions matter in life. That goes for you on an interview or a first date, for sure. But first impressions are also important when it comes time to sell your home.
As a buyer approaches your property in their car or on foot, what do they see? If it’s a freshly painted white picket fence or front door, green, lush grass, and gorgeous thriving landscaping, you nailed it!
A busted fence with pickets hanging at half mast, dead grass, dead tree limbs, overgrown landscaping, peeling paint? You didn’t pass that test. If it were a date, you may not get a second one. And bad curb appeal for a house often means that buyers won’t even step through the front door if their initial drive-by didn’t go well.
2. Make them Fall In Love At Your Front Door
As your potential buyers stand waiting for their real estate agent to let them into your home, they’ll have a moment to soak in the entrance area. Their eyes will look around to see if the brick walkway is clean and in good condition. They’ll look up to your shutters, roof…the porch swing.
Stand in front of your front door with the door closed, and take a peek at everything you can immediately see, even from the edges of your peripheral vision. Take note of things that could and should look better, be painted, repaired, etc…and then do those things! Your potential buyers will be smitten before the realtor has the door unlocked!
3. Scent Appeal
“Scentscaping” is a thing. Just walk into any posh hotel, spa or luxury resort and take in a nice, deep breath. Immediately, you will be hit with a super pleasant smell. It won’t be overpowering, or insanely strong. It will be just enough to make your brain say, “wow, this is a nice, clean, posh place.”
The second your potential buyers walk through the front door, you want them to have that same experience.
On the flip side, you do NOT want buyers to be smacked with the smell of your cat’s litterbox which is overdue for a cleaning, or to catch a whiff of last night’s salmon supper…Ewww.
Don’t go crazy on this and buy up the supermarket’s entire supply of Glade plug-ins. Seriously. That will backfire.
Instead, make sure that you are clearing the kitchen smells long before buyers come through your home, and try one of these more minimalist and natural scentscaping ideas instead.
4. Let there be light
“Wow, there’s just too much light in here,” said no home buyer…ever.
Want to sell your house fast? Open the blinds, throw open the curtains, and turn on every single light in the house. And make sure this is done before EVERY. SINGLE. potential buyer shows up to your home. Yes, even if the tour is happening in the middle of the day.
Many homeowners make the mistake of assuming that real estate agents will do this on their behalf before their buyers enter the home. But it doesn’t work like that.
Agents arrive with the buyers right on their heels. They don’t have time to get all the lights on and curtains open before buyers step through the front door. So make sure you’ve done that to give your home a leg up.
5. Clear the clutter
This is imperative. For real. Do NOT put your home on the market if every single closet, cabinet, the garage, the storage areas and more are stuffed to the gills with your prized possessions. Worse? Your stuff is spilling over to the floor space, counter space…EVERY space in your home.
Buyers can’t see through your piles of laundry, your stacks of paper on the desktop, the trinkets on your bookcases, the clutter on your counters. They really can’t. We’d like to think that they have that power, but it just isn’t the truth.
And since “storage space” is high on the priority list for many buyers, your clutter can be a quick deal killer.
Make a concerted effort to get 30-50% of your belongings out of the house, or into designated storage spaces BEFORE your home hits the market.
If you need more details when it comes to decluttering before your sale, check out this post.
6. Fix what’s broken
You may have forgotten that water stain in the family room ceiling from the time Timmy overfilled the bathtub when he was five. But if that ceiling stain is still there, buyers won’t assume that everything has been fixed. Have an active leak? Even MORE important that you go ahead and fix the problem BEFORE your home hits the market.
If you wait, then believe me, it will be spotted, either during tours, or even worse, during a home inspection when you already have an offer…then you’ll be in a worst situation.
Make sure your HVAC system is in order, your roof is in good shape, windows don’t have broken seals (giving them that hazy, cloudy look that can’t be fixed).
Don’t have the funds for needed repairs? That can be ok, too, as long as you’re willing to adjust your asking price accordingly.
7. Fresh paint
Paint is as close to a real estate magic bullet as it gets.
It’s inexpensive, and can take your home from looking tired, worn and outdated to fresh, bright and updated all by itself. If you’re hoping to keep your home prep budget to a minimum before selling, paint is a great line item to leave standing in your home prep budget.
It’s one of the most cost effective home improvement projects you can do prior to selling. You’ll not only recoup the cost of the paint, but fresh paint (in the right shades) will go a long way toward increasing the overall sales price you can fetch for your home.
8. Fresh carpet (or at least professionally cleaned)
No one wants to walk into your home and wonder if that stain on the family room carpet is a previous crime scene or just a very unfortunate event with your Doberman and diarrhea.
Either way, the story being assembled in your perspective buyer’s mind isn’t a good one.
New carpet can be very helpful when it comes to selling your home. You don’t need to buy the super extra fluffy high-dollar carpet with the ultimate, super squishy, really pricey padding, etc. in order to make the carpet purchase a win for your home sale. The carpet just needs to be clean and neutral in color (err on the side of lighter, not darker).
Don’t want to spring for new? OK, then AT MINIMUM get any carpeting professionally cleaned.
Your home has tile or hardwoods? Great! Clean the grout. And for hardwoods, a couple of fresh or clean and updated throw rugs can be very appealing to buyers.
9. Make sure the price is right
Realtor telling you to ask $125k, but you insist on starting at $300k? Well, good luck to you. Your home will be sitting on the market a loooong time.
That said, I don’t suggest selling your home at rock bottom pricing just to sell it fast. Heck no!
Your home is likely the most important financial investment of your lifetime, so making sure you eeek out every last dollar you can from a sale is absolutely in your best interest! Moreover, top dollar is what you should aim for! But wishful, magical thinking is not going to help your cause.
Get opinions from several well respected agents in your area, and do your own research online as far as neighborhood sales statistics go in places like Zillow, Realtor.com, and Redfin.com. Compare things like # of bedrooms, bathrooms, overall square footage and lot size.
Then, dig a bit deeper. If online photos are available, dive into updates and condition of the homes that have sold in your neighborhood the past 6 months to a year (older than that won’t have a substantial bearing on pricing in most markets).
If a neighbor’s home that sold for $450k had an amazing, recently renovated kitchen and you have the same model home without a renovated kitchen…don’t expect your house to sell for $45ok, too. Condition matters.
10. Staged houses sell faster, and for more money. Period.
Study after study has shown and reinforced the power of staging when it comes to selling a home faster and for top dollar. According to Forbes¹:
A staged home will sell for 17% more on average than a non-staged home, and 95% of staged homes sell in 11 days or less.
Home already vacant? There are now virtual staging companies that will photoshop furnishings into a vacant home so that buyers looking online will be able to envision how your home looks with furniture.
**If you know you want to stage your home, but aren’t ready to invest thousands on a professional staging company, I have the perfect solution for you. Our Ultimate Home Seller’s Toolkit will show you how to prepare every single space in your home to ensure it sells quickly and for top dollar with information on cost-effective updates, staging instructions, the best paint colors and more!**
11. Photography is king
The old adage used to be that open houses sell homes. That couldn’t be further from the truth in today’s real estate market. The reality in our digital age is that online photographs of homes sell houses. Period.
According to the NAR (National Association of Realtors) 2020 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report, buyers ages 54 and younger make up 61% of the buyer pool. These buyers are adept at using the internet, and online tools to aid them in their housing search.
In fact the same study found that 84% of buyers used the internet to search for homes, and of the online information available for homes, photos were the most important for 9 out of 10 buyers.
Believe it or not, a growing number of homes are being sold without buyers ever even having physically walked through a home prior to settlement. 3D tours, agent assisted virtual tours, and professional photography are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to selling homes.
from terriblerealestatephotos.com
Before you sign on with any real estate agent, ask to see what kind of photography package they will provide.
If it’s just Amy Agent coming through your house with her iPhone, or her point and shoot camera circa 1992, RUN away as fast as possible.
from terriblerealestatephotos.com
Because believe me, there are still PLENTY of real estate agents taking REALLY bad photos of homes out there still…as these photos attest.
Bottom line? To sell your home quickly and for the highest dollar amount possible, your online photos need to be ON POINT.
And in case you were wondering…
Why are these “expert” tips, anyhow?
Great question! Goodness knows there is a lot of bad info out there floating around the internet. Why should you trust me with advice when it comes to getting your home sold?
I’m Heather. And here’s a little about me:
- Licensed real estate agent since 2014
- Highly published interior decorator
- Real estate investor since 2003
- Landlord and property manager since 2005
While most real estate experts can approach your home ownership, buying, selling and renting questions from one angle, I approach these questions from all directions and many layers of experience.
I’m the ultimate homebody, and I love nothing more than helping other homeowners, and perspective buyers and sellers create a home they love, and maximize the returns on their real estate investments.
If you’re looking for more help when it comes to preparing your home to sell, you’ve come to the right place.
If you’re planning to sell your home, download this great free resource, “Skyrocket Your Sales Price – 16 Secrets for Sellers” – a checklist of the most important things you can do to prepare your home for a sale.
Ready to dig deeper? Check out the Ultimate Home Seller’s Toolkit – a premiere package to help you ready your home to sell that will help you sell your home quickly, and for top dollar, while keeping your cash outlay to a bare minimum!
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