10 Tips for Selling Your Home Faster

There are many reasons why you might want to sell your home faster. You might have been hired for a new job, and you need to start right away. You might need the money, so you need to close the sale as soon as possible. Or you might simply stress over the uncertainty of selling a home, and desire to end the process as quickly as possible.

Whatever the situation, there are several strategies that can help you sell your home faster.

Tips for Selling a Home Faster

These strategies and approaches can help anyone sell their home faster:

1. Consider working with an agent. If you want to list your home, it’s often a good idea to work with a professional real estate agent. Some homeowners believe they can save money by trying to sell the home on their own, but in many cases, this approach takes longer and ends up netting them less money. Instead, it’s better to work with a professional who can help you understand your home’s place in the market, and prepare it for the best possible showings.
2. Work with a professional home buying company. Of course, real estate agents aren’t always the right answer. Listing your home and preparing it for sale is a time intensive process. Instead, it may be better to work with a professional home buying company, or a cash-paying investor, who can buy your home immediately, usually as is. You might receive a slightly lower offer than you would otherwise, but the quick, simple process will make your life easier.
3. Declutter and depersonalize. If you’re listing your home online and hosting in-person showings, it’s important to spend time decluttering and depersonalizing the house. Get rid of pieces of furniture, pieces of art, and other items that you don’t really need in the house. You’ll also want to remove or hide personal items, like family photos. The more neutral and open your home is, the more attractive it’s going to be for prospective buyers.
4. Make low-cost improvements. In the weeks leading up to the sale of your home, consider making low-cost improvements where you can. Small changes, like painting the walls or repairing cracks, can instantly make your home more attractive. Just be careful not to overspend, or you’ll jeopardize your return on investment (ROI).
5. Stage the home properly. After you’re done making improvements, it will be time to stage your home; in other words, you’ll prepare it for walk-throughs and tours. There’s an art to home staging, so it’s a good idea to work with a professional, but the basics include arranging the furniture and adjusting the lighting to make your home seem big, accommodating, and interesting to as many people as possible.
6. Get professional photos taken. You’ll need photos of your home before you can list it for sale, so it’s a good idea to have professional photos taken. Experienced photographers will be able to frame their photos in a way that makes the home seem as big, beautiful, and welcoming as possible; they’ll also be able to manipulate light and angles to pique buyers’ interests.
7. List the home everywhere you can. If you’re working with a real estate agent, they should take care of listing your home in as many places as possible. But if you’re selling on your own, you’ll have to take care of this work. The more channels you utilize to list your home, the more visibility it’s going to get.
8. Lower the price. It stands to reason that if you lower your price, more buyers will be interested in paying it. Obviously, this isn’t the ideal move, since it limits what you can make from the property. However, if you’ve had the property listed for some time and you’re not seeing any momentum, it may be the best choice to make.
9. Be willing to make concessions. If you’re working with buyers and you’re eager to sell, be ready to make concessions. Allow as many walk-throughs as possible, and if a buyer makes an offer with a handful of requests, consider honoring those requests to close the deal.
10. Ask for feedback. Inevitably, you’ll encounter buyers who think carefully about the home, but ultimately decide to pass. Ask for feedback from these people; what drew them to the home in the first place? What made them reconsider? Sometimes, you’ll find a common pattern; there’s a certain aspect about the home that turns people away, and it may be within your power to fix it.

Finding the Right Strategy

There’s no single “right” approach to selling a home with speed as your main priority. While some sellers will be more than willing to lower their prospective sale price, others will keep sale price changes as a last resort. Spend some time evaluating your personal priorities, and keep an open mind with regard to any strategy that can help you sell your home faster.