10 Surefire Ways to Sell Your Home as Fast as Possible
Whether you’re selling out of want or necessity, why wouldn’t you look for a few quick ways to sell your house?
When your home languishes on the market, you’re not only continuing to absorb carrying costs like mortgage payments, landscaping, and insurance; your home is also developing a stigma that can be hard to shake.
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When it’s time to say goodbye, here are 10 surefire ways to sell your home fast.
1. Price it Right
In real estate, time is your enemy. There is an ideal time frame for selling your home, and it usually falls within the first few months the home is on the market. When you fail to price your home competitively from the get-go, there are many damaging effects – including missing the sale altogether.
If you are able to price your home just below market comparables in your area, you may be able to trigger a bidding war that drives your final closing price well above listing. One final tip: stack your open houses to ensure that you find multiple competitive buyers in a short period of time.
2. Time the Local Housing Market
Although your location and local housing supply plays a role in the best time to sell your home, most sources agree that Spring ranks among the top with buying behavior continuing into the summer often peaking mid-season as families get settled in prior to a new school year.
While Fall and Winter may see a statistical drop-off in purchase activity, it also means that individuals that need to buy during this time are highly motivated to get the deal done.
To sell your home as fast as possible, speak with a real estate agent who understands local price trends, seasonal fluctuations, and can let you know which months are the hottest home selling months in your area.
3. Prep for the Big Reveal
It’s part of the real estate vernacular for good reason. Home staging can play a crucial role in nailing the all-important first impression.
In fact, according to the National Association of REALTORS® Profile of Home Staging, 81% of buyers find it easier to visualize the property as their future home if it’s staged. What’s more, 37% of sellers’ agents believe staged homes increase the value buyers are willing to offer by 1-5%. If you want to sell quickly, the facts on home staging speak for themselves.
4. Declutter, Depersonalize, Debut
For the quickest sale and to see the highest value for your home, declutter to make the home feel bigger, depersonalize to make it a blank slate for potential buyers, and then debut your home with its new look.
5. Be Easy Going and Available
Nothing will bring a real estate transaction to a crawl faster than an agent’s inability to access the property for showings. If you’re serious about selling quickly, make it easy for potential buyers to tour your home.
Be available so your agent can show the property at a moment’s notice (within reason), and keep your home in “showing” condition so you’re ready when buyers are.
6. Google Your Listing
The National Association of REALTORS® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers tells us that 49% of all home buyers begin their search online. Can your property be found?
Ask your real estate agent where your home will be appearing online, then Google your home’s address to ensure you can find it on all the popular listing portals. If you can’t find it – buyers can’t either. And, that will surely stop a potential sale in its tracks.
7. Write a Love Letter to Buyers You Like
It’s not uncommon for a buyer to submit a letter with their offer telling the homeowners why they’d be a great fit for the house. To get potential home buyers on board quickly, sellers can use this tactic, too.
Create a list of amenities and features you love about your home – everything from the corner bakery that sells the best blueberry muffins to the under cabinet lighting you installed in the kitchen. If you know a potential buyer will value raising a family in your home, for example, describe to them the joys your children had growing up in your neighborhood. Give this to your real estate agent so they can share it with potential buyers when they tour your home
8. Make it a Neighborhood Affair
Seth Williams, founder of REtipster, describes reaching out to the neighbors – whether by mail, email or in person – as one of the best ways to sell your home quickly. He suggests creating a “neighbor letter” that covers the following about your listing:
• Brief Personal Introduction to Explain Who You Are • Explain Your Intentions • Information About Your Property (What’s Interesting or Unique About it?) • Explain Why They Should Take Action • Lay Out The Consequences Of Not Taking Action (They’ll Miss Out!) • Reiterate Why This Is A Deal They Can’t Refuse • Call To Action (Give Them Your Contact Info)
Although his example is primarily for investment properties, the idea translates to traditional sales as well.
Your neighbors are familiar with the neighborhood and likely know someone else who would be interested in living in the community. They may also be motivated to convince their friends and family to move within shouting (hopefully not literally) distance.
9. Sweeten the Deal with Incentives
Leaving a flat screen television behind? Are you willing to pay a portion of the buyer’s closing costs? When you sweeten the deal, you make your home stand out from the crowd.
Figure how the items that you own that carry little extrinsic value on the open market, but may have significant intrinsic value for a potential buyer. Talk to your real estate agent about what’s legally allowed in your market.
This is a tried and true quick-sale tactic, as 37% of all home sellers offer incentives to attract buyers. That black leather couch may not fetch much on Facebook Marketplace, but may mean the world to a harried buyer.
10. Partner with a Real Estate Professional
To truly speed things along, it’s important to partner with a local real estate agent who knows the market and has the connections, network and marketing savvy to get your home in front of the widest pool of potential buyers. In fact, it also pays off financially.
Recent studies prove again that upwards of 95% of buyers search online for a home. That is in comparison to only 15% looking at print newspaper ads. Worthy real estate agents have an Online Marketing strategy to promote the sale of your home across the Internet. Do you?
In addition, second to the Internet, real estate agents are the second most common way buyers found their home. This is compared to 7% of buyers finding their home through yard signs and 1% from newspapers. Only a qualified real estate professional can attract qualified buyers to your listing.
Finally, and perhaps the biggest motivation to seek the assistance of a real estate professional is that for sale by owner (FSBO) homes sell for less than the selling price of agent-assisted homes. A recent study shows FSBO homes sold at a median of $210,000, yet lower than the median of all homes at $245,000.
Often times you hear those opting to go FSBO are doing so to avoid real estate commissions. The data clearly supports that the difference you will make by partnering with a real estate compared to your takeaway if going it alone. The difference will not only cover commission, but in many cases... a new home at a higher price point, a new car, new furnishings, a hefty contribution to a college fund, a way to get out of debt... the list goes on. What will you do with the extra money?
RELATED: Why Never Go FSBO
If you really want to find a real estate agent with the experience to sell your home in a flash, you should consider their track record of success – specifically, take note on how they’ve done selling similar properties in your neighborhood, where there units and volume figures stand when compared to other local agents, and make use of popular real estate portal sites that offer real estate agent reviews such as Zillow, to hear what other clients have to say.
YOUR TURN
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