If you think that your work is done once you’ve listed your property for sale, you’re dead wrong. Actually, your work has just started. There are many tips for selling your home that you need to know if you want to get it off the market as soon as possible, and at a good price.
Whether you are looking to upsize, downsize, or move to a different city, selling your home can be surprisingly emotionally challenging and time-consuming. No idea what to do? You can start right here. Here are the best tips for selling your home fast.
Getting the right agent to represent you is probably the first and the most important step.
You need to have a realtor who is fully committed to selling your house – one that will not only guide you through the process but also tell you when you are doing things wrong and teach you how to do things right. Not someone who will just help coordinate showings and stick a sign on your porch.
Luckily for you, there are tons of options online. You can check profiles, experience levels, years in the industry, and professional designation. More importantly, you can see previous clients’ feedback.
You can also ask for recommendations from people you trust, especially those who have been through the home selling process before.
This may seem obvious, but surprisingly, a lot of people make this mistake. Why is this such a bad thing? Simple, the listing agent doubles his/her commission by getting it from you and the buyer. That means you probably sold your property for way less than you should have because the agent negotiated for the lowest price to accommodate the buyer.
Some realtors will keep this a secret from sellers until they get the buyer’s offer. If this happens, it might be too late. He/she will give you every reason why you should accept the offer.
Thus, before you start working with a realtor, tell them you want them to work exclusively for you, not the buyer.
One of the best ways to sell your property fast is to price it competitively. This is why you need a good real estate agent, as he/she can help you figure out the right price for your property based on fair market value, the updates and renovations you have made, etc.
While you definitely want to get the most money out of it, pricing it too high means you are risking it sitting on the market for too long, which will definitely impact its price negatively.
You can, of course, go for the “sell-by-owner” option and do the selling yourself. That is if you are confident with your ability to market the property, accommodate potential buyers, and negotiate. However, if you have important things going on in your life, then getting a real estate agent to do this for you is the best option.
A good way to get the price right is to have your property appraised by a professional appraiser. Obviously, to get the most money out of the sale, you have to get a higher appraisal for your home. To do that, you need to improve your home’s value. There are tons of ways to do this; you can improve the curb appeal, repair and repaint, make some renovations, increase footage by adding a room (i.e. transform the basement into a bedroom), upgrade and update the kitchen and bathroom, install smart and green technology products, etc.
This is probably the best investment you can do in your home selling journey.
A house inspection will not only point out what needs to be fixed or replaced in your property, it will also highlight the best assets. If you have renovated or remodeled areas in your home, the house inspector will include every detail of that in his report.
Can buyers do their home inspections? Absolutely, yes.
However, doing your own home inspection does two important things for you. First, It gives potential buyers confidence to make their best offer. Secondly, it significantly reduces the chances of the sale falling through.
The outside of your home is the first thing potential buyers see when visiting your property. Thus, make sure you boost the curb appeal. Since buying is an emotional decision, you want to tap into their senses by impressing them with a beautiful landscape in your front yard, and a gorgeous walkway, porch, and doorway. This also means power washing your walls or even repainting the exterior.
The best way to do this is to walk across the street and see your house from other people’s point of view. Does it look good? Are there any bad aspects sticking out? What should you remove or add?
When it comes to improving the interior, there are a lot of things you can do.
You can start by removing clutter, personal items, and family photos. Also, take out large pieces of furniture and unnecessary fixtures that make the space look small. You want your space to look larger than it actually is. Allow natural sunlight by replacing the curtains. You may also need to repaint the walls with a neutral color and a few vibrant colors for accent walls. When hosting showings, invest in home staging.
You want your potential buyers to see themselves living inside your home. Stagers are well experienced and equipped to do this. They have the right equipment and tools to make your property more appealing to almost every type of buyer. They can also customize the stage to fit a particular type of buyer if that’s what you deem necessary.
No, your camera phone alone will not cut it. Professional real estate photographers are well experienced and equipped to highlight the best assets of your property. Homebuyers today check photos of listed properties on their computer screens or mobile phones.
Since you will be listing your home online, your photos are the most important aspect of your listing. Thus, you need the best ones to represent your home.
There are lots of good real estate agents out there. But as with any profession, there are also lots of bad ones. Thus, before you get into a contract with your realtor, ask if you can cancel at any time. If his/her answer is anything other than a yes, then that’s a major red flag.
Giving you the power to cancel means you can fire your agent at any given moment and they are no longer guaranteed a commission. This is very important if you feel the agent isn’t doing a good job marketing and selling your property. This is a great way to establish trust.