5 Tips to Sell your Home Fast
How to Sell Your Home Fast in any Market
Buyers’ first impressions are set as they approach the house. Therefore, making your home more attractive and purchase-worthy starts in the front yard.
Spruce up the yard:
Make sure plants are of varied heights and sizes; add color, particularly pink, purple, blue and white flowers; thin out bushes; trim trees; and seed and fertilize the lawn.
Put gravel in any thin strip of property between homes. This will make the space look cleaner and less neglected.
Also, place mulch around plants. Among the many benefits, it’s aesthetically pleasing and provides unity in the yard.
Current buyers want homes that are well maintained and move-in ready. They may not have the money to make improvements.
My advice to sellers: Repair, repaint, update, clean and stage.
Repaint in a neutral color.
Remove clutter and lighten up spaces by getting rid of heavy curtains. Add new lighting
fixtures and placing light-colored place-mats on dark dining tables.
Have the windows professionally cleaned. Place fresh, plush spa-like towels in bathrooms.
Buyers will inspect all closets.
Clean them out and leave them one-third empty, particularly in older homes with smaller closets.
Finally, de-personalize the home so potential buyers can imagine themselves in the space. This may mean you will need to rent a storage space but it is money well spent!
This may also be a good time for a yard sale and can help drive traffic to your house that is for sale.
Hire a professional Photographer!
Once the house is model-ready, have professional photos taken.
Unflattering photos are a huge red flag. Avoid hyperbole in any description of the property.
Some buyers are wary of flippers, so avoid anything that might lead buyers to think that quick and possible shoddy work has been done to the house.
Get Real!
Price your home to sell in the market that you are selling in; Not the one you WISH you were selling in!
This is where a honest assessment of the condition of your home, its strengths and weaknesses and more importantly how it brackets among RECENT competing SALES
(recent = last six months).
Over-priced houses languish unsold on the market in Raleigh on average 3 times longer and fetch less money when they finally do sell. Your Realtor can help you in this area and should be your only source of guidance in this area (not your Auntie who sold her house in 2007!).
To pique buyer interest, suggest your clients consider incentives, such as gift cards or financial assistance at closing.
Related articles
- Staged to Sell – How to Sell Your Home for Top Dollar Fast! (theraleighmortgageguy.com)
- Sell Your House for Top Dollar Through Home Staging (trianglehomestaging.wordpress.com)
- Tips for Organizing Your Home (theraleighmortgageguy.com)
- Buyers Receive up to 3.5% Toward Closing Costs from Fannie Mae! (theraleighmortgageguy.com)
Since relocating from Northern Michigan in 2007 I have lived in Garner (27529) with my wife Melanie and our four children. With personal production of 8MM in real estate sales across Southern Wake County I am considered to be a local market expert in the following communities: Garner (27529), Fuquay-Varina (27526), Holly-Springs (27540), Apex (27502), and Raleigh (27603, 27604, 27606, 27609, 27610)) which spans from downtown Raleigh to Willow Spring including Lake Wheeler. Call or email me, I’m here to help! Ricardo Cobos (919) 526-0183
Do you have any recommendations on a professional photographer in the area?
Jess – I really Like IWP International Photography for all of my video and still video production needs. In fact I recently used one of their images in a post and they have packages for homeowners and Realtor who are selling homes, you can see their work here.
Good tips, Ricardo. When it’s time for the showing, sellers may want to consider leaving some cookies on the kitchen counter — it makes the house more inviting. Another tip is to play some smooth jazz or other soft music. And I always recommend my clients to stage their home.
Kartik – Great tip on the cookies! When we were selling our home, Mrs. Cobos would have batch of cookie dough in the fridge ready to pop in the oven right before the showing, even though most often it was the Realtor who ate them, the SMELL is what has a bigger impact on the potential buyers.
A super-secret Realtor trick is to take the screens out of the windows when taking exterior pictures. It makes the windows look brighter and thus the house looks better.
Justin; That’s a great tip! Thanks for sharing toyoda from the trade.