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How Can I Sell My House Fast?
Approximately six million homes sell each year in the United States. While this is great for finding a new home, it can make selling your current home a challenge. In such a highly competitive marketplace, you need your home to stand out, particularly if you are concerned about how to “sell my house fast”.
If you want to sell your house fast and you want the best price it’s important to prepare for success. Broadly speaking, there are five main things that you need to consider, they are:
Make any repairs because most prospective buyers don’t want a fixer upper.Choose the right agent to sell your house because they are worth it.Be ready to move at a moment’s notice because you never know when you might get a good offer. Don’t dismiss a lowball offer out of hand. It may be possible to negotiate or if time is a factor the deal may be better than you think.When you get an offer don’t make a snap decision. Take some time to consider it carefully, but don’t take too long.
If you don’t have the time to wait for a regular sale, consider selling it to Opendoor.com. You can get an instant offer and receive the funds in days. All you need to do is input your address for your instant quote. Opendoor can either buy your property or help you to list it. Selling to Opendoor is not only quick, but avoids showings. You can manage the sale totally online.
Tips To Sell a House Quickly
Use a Top Selling Real Estate Agent
One of the most crucial decisions that you need to make when selling your house is choosing the right real estate agent. They will be the first point of contact between you and the potential buyer.
Your agent will also:
Craft the listing, Schedule the showings,Market your property Keep you informed.
Studies have shown that houses sold without an experienced real estate agent can sell for thousands of dollars less than they are worth. Let’s face it, selling a house is hard work. If you lack experience, you could be setting yourself up for failure. Always make an effort to hire the most successful real estate agent for your local area and you will improve your chances of success.
You can use the Realtor website to find expert real estate agents in your area.
Consider Your Listing Price
It always seems like a great idea to list your home for the highest price because buyers are always going to negotiate the price down. But, this is not always the case and ultimately you may be harming your chances of securing a sale. It’s not a good idea to assume that a potential buyer will make an offer that can be negotiated successfully.
In fact, if your home is priced too high for the local market, a potential buyer will have no interest. Eventually, the listing will go stale, the house will sit on the market for too long and you may even have to settle for a much lower price.
The best strategy is to take a close look at the prices of other houses in your local area. Then you have a better idea of a realistic price that’s likely to generate interest and you may even spark a bidding war. This is the best way to secure an offer that is closer to or even higher than you wanted for your house.
Showcase the Property
When it comes to selling a house it’s important to realize that first impressions matter and the appearance is everything. You need your house to have an emotional impact on the potential buyer and this is equally true if the home is vacant or non-vacant. To make a lasting impression there are five crucial updates that you can make.
They are:
Add a fresh coat of paint.Replace aging carpets.Upgrade your lighting fixtures.If you can afford it, update the appliances.Hire a professional landscaper to spruce up the yard.
When you approach these five tasks keep in mind that you want to depersonalize and declutter your home. This will help you to drive a sale because your home will look fresh, clean and new.
If your house is empty, it’s a great idea to hire a professional stager to really boost the emotional impact. This may seem trivial, but please bear in mind that 83% of top real estate agents surveyed claim that staged homes sell faster.
Get Tech Savvy
If you haven’t sold a house in a while, you may be surprised to learn that many buyers won’t buy or even view a home that doesn’t have a great online listing, The internet has become important in many aspects of our life and this needs to be factored into your thinking if you want to sell quickly.
In fact, according to a study from the National Association of Realtors:
Around 52% of buyers found the house they ultimately purchased online. By comparison only 29% of buyers found their house through a visit to a real estate agent.
If you dig deeper into the data, things become even more interesting. We have seen the popularity of smartphones and tablet devices skyrocket in recent years. Around 73% of all house buyers search for a new home using their favorite mobile devices.
So, when you list a home for sale, it’s important to understand that the images will be viewed on a smartphone or tablet. For this reason, it’s a good investment to hire a professional photographer to take mobile device ready pictures.
High definition images will make your house more marketable and it could boost the value of your home. According to the 2020 Generation Trends report from NAR, good pictures are the single highest ranked feature of any web real estate listing!
Consider a Cash Offer
Perhaps you just got your dream job on the other side of the country, you’ve had a sudden change in your finances or some other need for a quick house sale. It may be the case that you need a sale within days or weeks rather than months and soliciting a cash offer may be your only alternative.
A traditional house listing can be a lengthy process and you may not have the time to complete it to match your timeline. It’s true that you may have to take a significant hit on the price of your house, but you can skip the realtor fees and complete far quicker.
There are house selling platforms, such as Opendoor, that make it easy to get an estimate and you can take it from there if you’re interested.
Mistakes to Avoid When Selling a House
1. Being Emotional
We can pour a lot of emotion in selling a home, this is especially true if it was the first home that you owned. After all, you may have taken a great deal of time to find the perfect place, saved for a downpayment, bought the furniture and created happy memories there. So, it should come as no surprise that many people simply cannot control their emotions when it comes time to leave.
Although it’s hard, it is very important to think of yourself as a salesperson when you’re selling a house. The financial transaction should be viewed as such, distance yourself from being a homeowner and focus on the sale. Remember that you’re selling for a good reason and a brighter future.
If you do remember your emotional state when you bought the house try to tap into that to secure the sale. Many buyers will be in a similar emotional state when they are looking at your home and you need to sell them on a lifestyle.
This is another reason why a professional stager is a great investment. They can make changes that will boost the sales price without involving you emotionally because the house will be less familiar as you go through the selling process.
2. Expecting Your Asking Price
Every smart buyer will make an attempt to negotiate the price down and if you want a quick sale you may have to play along. Many sellers list their home price in the anticipation of some kind of negotiation but as we’ve shown above that can backfire.
The final decision may be determined by market forces, are you in a buyers or sellers market? You can usually get closer or over your asking price if you have followed the advice covered earlier in this article.
3. Trying to Sell in the Winter Months
When the weather is colder most people are too occupied with a wide variety of social engagements and they don’t want to move. Many people just want to stay warm at home and this makes winter a bad time to sell your house.
A sparsity of potential buyers will mean that it takes longer to sell and the selling price may be compromised. But, with less houses on the market, you may get lucky and the situation may even work to your advantage. In the majority of cases it’s a better idea to wait until the winter holidays are over and the weather has warmed up a little.
4. Trying to Hide Any Major Problems
If you’re considering hiding major problems to get a faster sale or a better price we would advise you to reconsider your position. After all, most problems will turn up on the buyer’s inspection anyway. So it makes no sense to cover things up. If an unexpected situation arises you have three options to keep the buyer on board and complete the sale, they are:
Fix the problem ahead of the sale.Lower the price of the house to account for the repairs.List the property at the market value and offer buyers a credit to fix the issue themselves.
There is no obligation to fix the problem in advance, but you could put off a large number of buyers that want a turnkey home with no added work. A home inspection is a great idea before you list your home if you want to identify and fix problems.
Certain states have disclosure rules where you need to list all known problems if a buyer asks. Other states have rules that the seller must disclose certain issues about the house voluntarily. Check the rules for your state carefully when you want to sell your house.
What Can I Do If My House Isn’t Selling?
If you’ve followed our advice and your house simply will not sell there are seven alternatives that you can explore, they are:
Wait for the market to change.Consider a rent to own deal.Find a renter.Consider a new mortgage deal.Sell the house for less than market value.Look at a guaranteed purchase program if you’re relocating for a job.Look for a different real estate agent.