A Step-by-Step Guide to Selling Your Home Faster
Waiting around for your home to sell can be excruciating. Not only are you waiting to make plans for your move, but you may also be losing money the longer your property sits on the market. Avoid the waiting game by using this guide on how to sell your home faster.
Do Your Homework First
Adequate planning is crucial whether you’re figuring out how to sell a house or looking to buy. And as Redin explains, having a competent, responsive, and empathetic listing agent in your corner can do wonders for the selling experience.
Listing at the right time is also an important consideration. Most sales occur in springtime, says the Mortgage Reports, which often makes it an ideal time to sell. Of course, the price matters, too; listing the property too high can cost you more than the profit you make if it drives buyers away. Listing low, on the other hand, can encourage a bit of competition, when done properly. According to Nerdwallet, using comparables to come up with a reasonable asking price is an essential step toward selling fast, too.
Clean Up for the Best Sales Potential
As Moneywise notes, the biggest homebuyer turnoffs are related to your home’s cleanliness and cluttered-ness. The more “stuff” you have, the less likely a potential buyer is to see the property for its beauty. Ensuring that your home is ready to be viewed can help it sell faster.
Therefore, your first step toward getting your home ready for a fast sale is to clean up. Getting rid of offensive odors and cleaning up minor dings, scrapes, and cosmetic defects can go a long way toward getting list ready. Take the time to touch up paint, fill in gouges in the walls, cover scrapes, and anything else that can catch a buyer’s eye.
Don’t Forget About Curb Appeal
There’s a reason “curb appeal” is a buzzword. The way your home looks from the street (or its exterior listing photographs) can make or break a buyer’s interest. Mowing the lawn and trimming hedges that line the walkways are excellent first steps. But going a bit further can help make your home look magazine-ready and appeal to buyers.
The Spruce recommends easy gardening tasks like edging and mulching any planting beds. Fresh mulch helps the property look well cared for and crisp. Pruning plants below the windows also gives a clean appearance. And while you don’t need to repaint the entire home, giving the front door a fresh coat of paint or adding a touch of color to the molding can go a long way.
Rethink Your Flooring Situation
You might like the cozy carpeting in your current home, but most buyers prefer hardwood floors — or at least laminate. Installing new carpet might be the cheapest, but hardwood floors offer a desirable return on investment. However, a compromise like carpeting in the bedrooms and wood or laminate in the rest of the house can also make a good impression.
If you’re hoping to save on installation costs, going DIY with laminate may be the best option. Laminate doesn’t require much prep work and can be placed on top of bare subfloors. You’ll need tools to cut the materials, but you may find that a weekend install is doable. Then, you can start cleaning up and prepping for showings.
Replace Lightbulbs
It seems like a step that’s too easy to affect your home’s hang time on the market, but lighting can give a home an inviting ambiance. It can also make exterior areas safer, helping prospective buyers get around no matter what time of day they’re touring the place.
With a listing agent who knows the ins and outs of the industry, you may not need to worry about many of the behind-the-scenes steps. But you still need to take charge of some home projects well before your real estate agent comes for a walk-through. The right improvements can prove priceless, both in terms of your profit and the timeline in which the sale happens.
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