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Advice For Selling a Home Quickly

By Bill Gassett | February 9, 2021

How to Sell a Home Fast

Do you want to sell your home quickly? There can be many different reasons as to why you would want to sell a home fast.

Perhaps you’re in the process of building your own home, and you need the extra funds to cover construction costs, or you’re just desperate to sell the house fast so you can move somewhere else you've always wanted to be.

If it happens to be a buyer's market, selling your home quickly is no easy feat, but with the right mindset, the proper knowledge, and a little bit of luck, it can be very doable.

Although selling your home expeditiously requires you to play a very active role, you don’t just list your house on the market and pray to God that your ideal buyer literally walks through the door. It requires you to do extensive research, make fixes when you need to, and go out of your way to show off how great your property is.

In this article, we have some tips for selling a home as fast as possible. Let's take a deep dive into how to get a buyer for your home in a short period of time.

Sell a House Quickly
How Do You Sell a House Quickly?

Choose The Right Agent to Sell Quickly

Selling a home fast requires serious dedication and as well as a lot of passion.

And for this reason, you’re going to want a real estate agent who is as passionate as you are about selling your home. You’ll know you’ve found someone like this when they tell you exactly what you need to hear.

Some agents are afraid to give sellers advice for fear you'll think they don't like your home. Sometimes the best advice is the cold hard truth. It would help if you had honesty from your agent, not a sales pitch.

Sound advice can be things like letting you know about the improvements needed to the property. Explaining how you need to organize items in your home, pointing out flaws that can be corrected or offering staging advice.

You don’t want someone making a minimal effort, as you’re looking to do as much as you can to ensure you can sell your home as fast as possible.

Getting the right real estate agent who knows how to prepare a home for sale can seriously make a difference. The easiest way to find the best agent for you and your home is by getting referrals from your friends and family who’ve been in the same situation you have.

Depersonalize and De-clutter Your Home

You’ll know this from your own time spent checking out property; one thing everybody does is that they try to envision themselves within the property, imaging their pets running around and their kids playing.

But what makes this difficult is if they can spot family photos on the walls and papers lying around that have no place in the home. The last thing you want is for your home to look disheveled.

Depersonalizing the interior of your home will allow potential buyers to fantasize about all the good times they’re soon going to have when they purchase your property. One of the better ways of making your home look fantastic is to get a PODS moving container. You can store all of the excess stuff in your home right in your yard for easy access. By removing any unnecessary clutter, you'll make it far easier for a buyer to picture themselves in your home.

There are many portable storage container companies to choose from besides PODS, so if you see another reputable local company, by all means, use them. Be sure to get your storage questions answered, so you make a sound choice.

Another option if you have too much stuff for a portable storage unit would be to use a local storage facility. Again, make sure you ask the right questions of the storage company to make the best choice. There are likely to be numerous options to choose from. Do some due diligence and ask around for any reviews from folks who may have used one of the local companies.

Get Your Property on The Market at The Right Time

While time is against you since you're trying to sell your home as fast as possible, you can still be strategic about when you should list your home on the property market.

It's not impossible to get a house sold in November or December, but it's much more likely to sell it in the spring, as the market is much more active at this time as people are out and about looking for their forever home.

We’d recommend listing your house no later than February if you want to take advantage of the early buzz within the real estate market. Sometimes real estate markets can vary from one part of the country to another, so always consult with a local agent to get their take on when to list. It's possible the market could be more active right now than you think.

Get High-Quality Photos Taken

When you’ve got your property on the market, you’re going to want to make sure it looks good. This goes for in the real world as well as in photos. Sure, you could take these photos yourself from your smartphone and give them to your real estate agent. Your real estate agent could also do the same. This is NOT what you want!

Make sure the real estate agent you plan on hiring has an excellent photographer. There are not many more vital tasks when trying to get a home sold quickly than having brilliant photography. Your photos will be the first impression the buyers in your local market have for your property. It would be best if you made it count. Not having exceptional photography will be a lost opportunity you won't get back.

Knowing your real estate agent is spending a little extra cash on getting professional photos taken will make all the difference in the world.

Be Realistic With Your Pricing

Selling a home quickly means pricing it right! There is nothing that will stop a home sale from happening quicker than the wrong list price.

You need to price your home correctly from day one if you want it sold fast and for the most money. Getting top-dollar does not mean putting an unrealistic price tag on your property and seeing what happens. This strategy is the kiss of death that has failed numerous homeowners.

To have the best chance of selling your home fast listed to the advice of the expert. The agent should be presenting you with a detailed analysis of the value through comparable sales data. Look at this information through the eyes of the buyer. Try to take your personal attachment to your home out of the equation. If you have a challenging property to price because it's unique or there are very few comps, you may want to hire a professional appraiser.

The cost of an appraisal is relatively inexpensive to ensure you get the price right from day one. Appraisers will look at your property carefully, offering another set of eyes and opinion of how it relates to other similar properties.

Being realistic with pricing will give you the best chance of selling your home as soon as possible. I am not suggesting you underprice your home to sell it quickly (although this can work). What I'm saying is that you should be smart about your listing price.

Checking out the properties in your area will help you get an idea of what sort of price you should set it at when listing it on the market.

Every real estate agent you speak with will emphasize the importance of pricing in order to sell a house quickly.

Set Yourself Apart

Buyers could be looking at 5 to 7 houses per day when trying to locate their dream home. It's easy to have your home forgotten in the huge list of houses they're checking out every week.

Your agent should be doing what it takes so there is a lasting impression. As mentioned already, killer photography can help do that.

The agent should also be focused on writing memorable creative listing copy as well. While it is true that if you blow the photos, nobody will be looking over the advertising copy, when you get that right, they will be reading!

Your agent should be focused on highlighting what makes your property great. Feel free to help them with this. After all, you know your home's best features better than anyone else.

Make Sure You’re Always Getting Feedback

When you want a quick sale, and it hasn't happened yet, you need to know why. What are people saying about your home? Each time someone looks around your house, they can very quickly give you feedback, which can help give you an idea of where you’re going right and where you may be going wrong.

Now, not everyone will leave feedback, mostly because they just can’t be bothered (again, people are seeing countless houses a day, so they just don’t have the time). However, one way you can extract more feedback is by making sure your agent is always following up with the buyer’s agents to see what the buyer thought about the house.

There are some pretty nifty feedback systems for real estate agents that allow them to quickly gather thoughts from agents after a showing takes place. They should be utilizing these tools for you!

You'll Be Moving Fast

When you follow the time tested advice found here, you'll be on your way to your next home quicker than you thought. Make sure you have your moving plan in place. Are you going to hire a professional moving company or rent your moving truck?

Some folks love the do it yourself aspect of moving and will choose a company like U-Haul for moving. Doing your own moving will save you a few bucks in the process as well.

Two of the more vital moving tasks you'll want to put at the top of your moving checklist are finding moving boxes and changing your address with the post office. For obvious reasons, not squaring away these things could make your life a lot more stressful. Nobody wants to be scrambling for moving boxes at the last minute or finding out they didn't receive a vital piece of mail. Do these tasks early on.

When you sell a home quick it is easy for important things to slip through the cracks. Don't let that happen to you.

Final Thoughts on Selling a Home Fast

Selling a home fast is all about having a carefully put together strategy. It would help if you were better than the competition. Selling homes is not rocket science. It is following sound advice that is time tested. The real estate agent you use should have this blueprint to get the job done.

Hopefully, you have enjoyed these tips for selling a home quickly.

Other Helpful Real Estate Resources

  • Tips for renting a room - do you want to rent out a room in your home? One way homeowners who are strapped for cash can make money is to rent a room in their home. There are some obvious pros and cons for doing so. In the article at Active Rain, get a complete rundown of what to consider before renting a room in your house.
Bill Gassett is an authority in the real estate industry with 38 years of experience. Bill is well respected for his informative articles for buyers, sellers, and fellow real estate agents to make sound decisions. His work has been featured on RIS Media, the National Association of Realtors, Inman News, Newsbreak, Credit Sesame, Realty Biz News, and his own authoritative resource, Maximum Real Estate Exposure. He has been on of the top RE/MAX agents in New England over the last two decades.
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