One thing we can always count on in life is change. Sometimes these life changes require you to quickly figure out how to sell your house fast. Let’s say it’s a new job offer that you need to act on quickly that requires you to relocate. Getting to work as soon as you can requires you to settle your affairs much faster than usual. Or perhaps your family is about to expand. In fact, one of our clients has a two year old and they are expecting twins! They need a larger home quickly.
Whatever the situation is, here are some tried and true things to consider to make that home sale move as quickly as possible.
Fast Impressions - Outperform the Competition
Like many businesses, one of the first important hurdles to overcome is to maximize the number of potential customers who see your product or hear your marketing message. In your case, you need as many potential buyers as possible to see your property quickly. This is where a little bit of strategic thinking can be very helpful.
Find out what is for sale in your area, say, within a few or so miles. Study what is currently active as well as what has recently sold in the last 3-6 months. See what different homes are listed for. What is a 2 bathroom, 3 bedroom selling for right now? What about a 1 bath, 2 bedroom? Or a 2 bath, 4 bedroom? Use this data, along with your comparative analysis from your realtor, to see what a very reasonable asking price for your home would look like. Be sure to also look at direct comparisons to your own home, or as similar to your own home as possible in style, rooms, square footage, and lot size. We wrote a helpful article on pricing that you can read here: 7 Steps to Selling A House for the Price You Want.
Once you have that market based value, simply lower your listing price by about 5-10% at the most. Just enough for buyers to see a great deal but not too much to give the impression something is wrong with your home. Don’t worry, the end result is that buyers will see a golden opportunity and will flock to see it first. The market demand will drive up your price and still maintain a speedy sale.
It’s important to note, do not list high with the intention of seeing what kind of fast offers you MIGHT get with the idea that you can simply lower the price in a week or two and still have a fast sale. This would be a gamble and a mistake. As we pointed out in our article, Avoid These Mistakes When Selling A Home, when it comes to how to sell your house, if your listing price is too high, you run the risk of getting a stale listing and you will defeat the purpose and fail to get a lot of viewings.
...one of the first important hurdles to overcome is to maximize the number of potential customers who see your product or hear your marketing message. In your case, you need as many potential buyers as possible to see your property quickly.
First Impressions - The Yellow Brick Road of Curb Appeal
Once you’ve arrived at that sweet deal of the year listing price, now you have to pave the way to your home with a fairytale like drive up experience. This may require a bit of sweat equity, but it’s amazing what you can do in a weekend or 3 day vacation time. Be sure you at the very least cure these three homeowner first impression ailments.
Messy Front Yard – Take the time to hire a landscaper to clean up the property. Remove all personal items, mess, and give your front yard a decent makeover. Nothing too dramatic, just enough to give a very clean and inviting curb appeal.
Outdated Flooring – Just as there is curb appeal, there is also walk-in appeal. Some things you might need to do to speed up the process is to change anything that would be an immediate turn off to a buyer. Unsightly, damaged or horribly unpopular flooring types (think Pergo and Saltillo tile), we would recommend updating. If you find the right contractor, sometimes these can be done fairly quickly.
Loud Paint – Fresh paint can work wonders, especially if you have some very loudly painted rooms. Essentially, you want to do a little research into what buyers really dislike, and make sure none of those features are the case in your home.
Free Impressions - A Key on How to Sell Your House Fast
When we say free, we don’t mean without costs. What we mean is, make your home as clutter FREE, odor FREE, and dirt FREE as possible.
Before you list, make sure you essentially move out all personal items that are not essential to living. Clear counter spaces in the kitchen, bathrooms, vanities etc. Rent a storage unit if you need to. We have a great article on How to Declutter Before You Sell Your Home.
Smells are a normal feature of living life. Your goal is to remove any scent at all. Avoid those overpowering air fresheners, you’re going for a neutral odor. Or, at the very least, a “new house” smell which if you did some painting and some flooring upgrades, you’d automatically inherit.
Finally, you want to deep clean your home. Every nook and cranny. Steam, scrub, vacuum, stain remove, degrease… the works! You want that deluxe car (but for your house) wash that you never pay for. This will help with odors too.
In the end, you want to quickly and at low costs overwhelm your house showings with that wow factor. Move in ready, turn key homes, sell and close fast. With our assistance and professional network of contractors and cleaners, we can speed up the process even more.
