Please welcome guest contributor, Ray O’Brien, as he shares his expertise and answers the question, “What are some tips for selling my home quickly?” (This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.)
The home selling process might seem daunting. You might feel like you have forty-two thousand line items to hit before your property is in a reasonable condition to sell. You might think these line items will prevent you from a quick home sale.
Slow down for a moment and breathe. Let’s start making the sales process easier on you and your loved ones by outlining the most critical steps you should follow to make the sales process run smoothly and quickly. By simply making the effort to outline your most important steps, the process will become easier and much more manageable.
[convertkit form=5279526]Here are 10 useful tips for selling your home much more quickly:
Photo by Josh Hemsley on Unsplash
The Kitchen is Your Greatest Asset
When homebuyers go to buy a house, they are actually buying a kitchen. It’s that important. According to a survey on Realtor.com, 80% of homebuyers view a kitchen as one of their top three most important spaces.
The average return on investment for a kitchen remodel is also fairly high, making it the best space in the home to upgrade. Be careful though, as the cost of a kitchen remodel can add up quickly. It could make more sense for your bottom line to make small, precarious upgrades instead of large-scale overhauls.
So for example, instead of shelling out $60,000 or more on major changes, you might want to try $5,000 on simple but more pertinent fixes.
You might be surprised by the deals on kitchen and home remodel essentials that you can find on Amazon!
Improve Lighting in the Home
When people tour your home they want to be able to see everything. Obviously. Whether it’s day or nighttime, make sure that your house has sufficient lighting across every room. It helps your colors pop and demonstrates the finer details in your home.
Lighting doesn’t just refer to lamps and overhead lights, it also includes sunlight, so make sure that the shades are open and natural light is being let in. It’s wise to take down the drapes, change out the lampshades, and ensure that lightbulbs have been replaced fairly recently. Your home should feel bright, not just literally but figuratively.
Hide the Dog or Cat
Just because a lot of people enjoy the company of animals, it doesn’t mean your potential buyers will like them. In addition to hiding your beloved K-9 or feline friends, be sure to also hide their beds, toys, food, and water dishes.
More than anything, this shows buyers that you put effort into making the home appear clean for their visit. It might be better to place your furry friends in a pet motel or have them be “pet-sat” by a neighbor for a few hours.
Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash
Be Ready for Last-Minute Showings
Open houses are great, but many homes are sold after private or last-minute showings. Flexibility is key in these occasions. You need to make your schedule loose enough to accommodate these late notice buyer visits, but it helps when you already have a permanently clean and tidy home.
It’s the little things that go a long way. For example, make sure there are no food particles caught in the sink and especially take a look at the bathroom situation. You want to avoid those unfortunate appearances of having a less than optimal toilet or toothpaste and gunk welling around the bathroom sink.
Remember to clean out your dishwasher as well. Even though you may have clean dishes in there, keep in mind that buyers may want to have a look inside. It just looks better when you keep it empty!
Embrace Technology
Quickly selling a home in 2020 involves much more than throwing up a sign in your yard or hiring a realtor. You need to market the property across multiple online channels. Sites like Trulia, Realtor.com, and Zillow are obvious places to start but even social media can prove useful in selling your house quickly.
The more eyeballs that land on your home the better chance you’ll have of selling it. Since more and more people do their home shopping online each year, you’ll have a larger pool of potential buyers than you would from traditional marketing channels.
Keep Your Home Neutral
Personality is great for a home until you go to sell it. Just like we said about dogs and cats, a home should remain as neutral and simplistic as possible. From the buyer’s standpoint, they want to see a relatively blank canvas where they can envision their own personalization taking place.
If you’ve ever seen the show Million Dollar Listing, you’ll understand the importance of staging. This is when you place furniture and accessories in a manner that shows off the best parts of your home and maximizes space. Of course, TV shows have massive budgets at their disposal, so don’t think you have to go out and buy a bunch of new furniture. Try to utilize what you have as best you can!
Additional items that probably ought to go are photographs, large memorabilia, and certain personal keepsakes. Again, the idea here is to avoid overly personalizing your living space.
Empty Your Closets
This covers three important bases. Firstly, it’s a step towards a clean home. Secondly, you don’t want people snooping through your clothes and other belongings. And thirdly, it can make your closets seem bigger than they are.
A good rule of thumb is to remove at least half of your closet items and neatly organize the remaining stuff. Buyers love, love, LOVE looking at closets. Make your closets look big and beautiful!
Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash
Accurate Pricing is Crucial for Selling Your Home Quickly
Most sellers will try to price their homes too high. You must pay attention to the local sales prices and use a reputable appraiser for assessing the true value of your home.
Once you’ve determined the value, be willing to reduce your asking price by anywhere from 10-20%. Don’t worry, this typically helps you receive multiple bids that you can use as leverage for a higher price.
The most important thing to remember is that you should remain reasonable at all times. If you reach too far at the start, your home could remain on the market indefinitely. The longer it goes without being sold, the harder it will become to sell, causing you to lower your price by more than 20% in some cases.
Make the Exterior Look Immaculate
If you decide to skip all of the quick home sale steps above, at least make sure that the outside of your home is in amazing shape. Trim your hedges, mow the lawn, and move your trash cans into the garage if you need to, but make sure the front of your house is a winner on your block.
This helps for taking higher quality photos and it can also grab the attention of people who are driving by. You never know which one of those people will decide to grab a brochure when they see that your beautiful home is for sale.
Photo by Gus Ruballo on Unsplash
Stay Positive and Sell!
Hopefully, you can use some of these home selling tips to get your home off the market and to a qualified buyer more quickly.
The housing market goes up and down like a pendulum, but following these tips will help put you in the very best position to make a sale at a great price. Be patient, stay positive, and the reward will follow!
Author Bio
Ray O’Brien writes real estate tips and DIY content for homeowners, empowering them with the best advice and tools to make the best decisions.
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