5 Tips for Selling Your Home Faster

5 Tips for Selling Your Home FasterIn some markets, homes sell very quickly. Where the inventory of homes for sale is low, a house can sell the very day it hits the market, sometimes with multiple offers from homebuyers.

That’s usually great for home sellers. Who doesn’t want their home to sell quickly? Unfortunately, not every market is “hot” all the time. Homes can linger on the market for weeks or months. If you’re considering putting your home up for sale, here are five steps for selling your home faster.

1. Price it correctly

The two most important factors in determining how quickly a home sells are condition and price. Assuming you’ve gotten your home into tip-top shape before it hits the market, pricing it correctly from the start will likely determine how fast it sells.

The market determines what someone will pay for your house. No matter what you think it is worth or how much you want to make on it, if it’s priced high for the market, buyers will balk. A house that’s overpriced then usually must be reduced, sometimes even more than once — and a home that is on the market for a while and keeps enduring price drops can give off the impression that something is wrong with it.

2. Enhance your curb appeal

The first thing potential homebuyers notice about a home, whether online or in-person, is its front exterior. The outside of your house is the first photo in every online listing and is what people see when they drive by or stop to look. It’s important, therefore, to have the right curb appeal.

There’s not much you can do about the style of your home, but you can clean or paint siding, install updated doors and light fixtures, and neaten up any landscaping as much as possible. You want your home’s front to put its best foot forward.

3. Stage it

You don’t necessarily have to hire a professional in order to stage your home. You can do it yourself by cleaning, decluttering, and moving things around to make spaces seem larger and more open.

A furnished home allows homebuyers to see rooms with specific purposes and puts room sizes in context, which is why furnished homes tend to sell faster than vacant ones. If you’ve already moved out of a home, you could rent or buy furnishings for temporary use, or even try one of the virtual staging applications that digitally ads furniture to online photos.

4. Enhance your screen appeal

More 90 percent of homebuyers begin their search online, according to the National Association of Realtors. Especially when people are visiting homes in person less, it’s extremely important that your home looks good to online shoppers.

Staging is one way to achieve better screen appeal, but it’s also helpful to have high-quality photos and videos. Professional photographers who have experience shooting homes for sale can make your house look better than, say, an amateur with a mobile phone camera. Virtual tours are also great tools, but they have to come across as well-thought-out and professional to be most effective.

5. Create a welcoming entrance

Just as your home’s curb appeal is the first impression visitors get when they arrive at your home, the interior entryway is the first impression they get inside your home. The more welcoming and inviting it is, the more buyers will feel at home.

Lighting is useful in creating a welcoming feel; nobody likes entering a dark space. Natural lighting should be played up, and overhead lights, sconces or lamps can provide the rest. Your entryway should also set the tone for the rest of your house, reflecting the décor that’s throughout. Finally, keep scale in perspective. A huge foyer with tiny furniture is a turnoff, as is a small entrance cluttered by large pieces.

Finishing up

Selling a home can be stressful, and one of the greatest sources of stress is a long time on the market. You can’t always dictate how quickly a home will sell, but trying a handful of tips can increase the odds of selling your home faster.

 

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