If you think buying a home is stressful, selling a house takes the stress meter to a level 10. In normal times, home sellers will give themselves ample time to secure the best offer for their home, but not everyone will have the time to let their house sit on the market. Some home sellers can be under the stress of a short time clock to get an offer for their home. Maybe they’ve taken a new job in a brand new city, or a personal situation has created a financial crunch and requires them to downsize.
Whatever the case may be, homeowners need to be aware of what to do and what not to do if they have to sell their house quicker than usual. Here are some tips that you can use to make sure that you won’t lose out if you have to sell your house fast.
Clean and Declutter
If you’re running short on time to sell your house, then you must make your home as appealing as possible for potential homebuyers. That means it’s time to clean and declutter your home to get ready for a short sale. First, rent a storage unit to keep any belongings that that will make your home feel small. Square footage matters a lot in home sales, and the more room you can make, the better offer you could get for your home. Next, clean out and organize your closets. Again, this contributes to space, and homebuyers love closet space!
You can add even more to the value of your home bu putting in such amenities as a brand new deck or whimsical art prints. Studies have shown that such amenities can not only add to the enjoyment of the home but all its value.
You may also want to put away personal keepsakes such as family photos and other personal items. The reason for this is to get potential buyers envisioning themselves in the home. By leaving in personal keepsakes, it can give off the impression that you may not be ready to part ways with your home, and that can easily be a turnoff for potential buyers.
Finally, do a deep clean of your home. A deep clean is especially important in the world of COVID-19, in which potential homebuyers will not only look at the amount of space within your home but also its cleanliness. Scrub down kitchen cabinets, mop the floors, vacuum the carpets, and scrub and clean every part of your home. If you’re short on time, maybe consider bringing in a professional cleaning service to get your home sparkling in a quick manner.
Repair or Replace any Broken Appliances
While you may want to take some home appliances with you to your new home, most will have to stay behind for the new homeowners. This particularly holds for kitchen equipment, and if you have any malfunctioning appliances, get them repaired ASAP before putting your house up for sale. Having broken appliances, such as a refrigerator that won’t cool or a malfunctioning stove, could be a turnoff for potential buyers.
Make Sure Your Exterior Is Sound
As much as you should make the outside of your home look clean and spacious, you should also pay attention to the exterior of your house.
In particular, pay close attention to the roof of your home. If you have a roof made of asphalt shingles (which the majority of older homes have), you should have your roof inspected for any damage as these types of roofs only has a shelf life of up to 20 years. Roofing contractors can come and inspect your home and recommend whether or not your roof will have to be repaired or not.
Ideally, if you’re on a short timeline to sell your home, it helps a lot to have commercial roofing professionals come out to look at your roof before you put it on the market.
Get Your Heating and Cooling System Inspected
After getting your place neat and clean, make sure that your home’s heating and air conditioning system is in working order. Professionals that specialize in heating and cooling services can come into your home and inspect your system to ensure it’s in working order. Problems with your heating and AC unit can be a huge turnoff to potential buyers.
If you have an older home that doesn’t have a centralized heating and air conditioning unit, contact local professionals that specialize in HVAC installation to install a centralized HVAC unit to your home.
Even if you do have central heating and air, there could still be problems that you may not be able to detect right away. If you run into problems with your HVAC unit, call a company that does HVAC repair as soon as you can. Remember, you’re on a short timeline to sell, so the sooner you can get this repair done, the better.
Have A Home Selling Strategy In Place
Now that the insides and outsides of your home are taken care of, it’s time to put it on the market! Before proceeding with this step, have a selling strategy in place so that you can get your home sold quickly. This process will involve having to choose whether or not you want to hire a real estate agent, sell the home yourself, or explore alternative ways that you can proceed with a fast house sale such as an auction that involves cash home buyers or selling your home to a realtor listing company such as Zillow.
Pick The Right Real Estate Agent
If you go with a real estate agent, make sure that you have the right one for this tight sale. Preferably, you will want to look for a real estate agent that has experience in selling homes quickly. These experts can tighten up the homebuying process, streamlining certain parts of the process. That includes contract work, negotiations, and closing the sale. A typical commission fee for real estate agents is three percent.
Search for the best short sale real estate agent in your area that can get you the best offer in the tight timespan that you have.
Super Quick Ways To Sell Your Home
If you’re really on a tight timeline, then you could consider these options to sell your home quickly. The first is going with an investor. An investor will buy your home, fix it up for you, and put it back on the listing for market value. While this could be a quick way to sell your home, be advised that the offer an investor will make to you will be below market value most of the time.
Another way you can get your home sold quickly is by putting it up for auction. Much like selling to an investor, you will more-than-likely sell the house for lower than the market value. The upside to this option, of course, is that it will allow you to sell fast if you’re in a tight time jam.
Lastly, you can sell to cash home buyers such as Zillow, who will buy your home for cash and allow you to avoid the process of listing the home. Again, these buyers will often offer you a deal below market price, but you’ll have extra cash in hand that you can put into a nest egg for your new place. There are many cash home buyers in the market, but it helps to go through professional buyers like Zillow, who will make you a fairer offer for your home.
Price Your Home To Sell
Every homeowner looking to sell their house is always on the lookout for the best possible offer on their home. In the normal process of selling a home, you’ll have ample time to consider the best offer available. However, what happens when you’re on a short clock and may not have the time to wait on that best offer? Believe it or not, you can still get a great offer for your home even on a shorten timespan.
Always follow your timeline to see just how low you can price it and when you can reduce the price if you don’t get any offers. Make sure your home doesn’t linger on the market, as the longer it’s on the market, the less chance you’ll be able to get an offer at your listing price.
Embrace Incentives
Not all homes are easy to sell as it depends on a multitude of factors such as its condition and age, the market conditions, and its location. For homeowners who may find it tough to sell, you may want to think of sweetening the pot to lure potential buyers, and by that, we mean offer incentives. Using incentives could speed up the home buying process and make your home more attractive to potential buyers. Maybe you want to pay the closing cost for the buyer or include such amenities as window blinds that could make the offer sweeter.
What NOT To Do When Selling Your Home Fast
While you’ll have a lot of ways to sell your home at a quick pace, there are things that you should avoid so that your fast home sale will go smoother. Never, ever assume that you can hide problems in your home from potential buyers. These days, homebuyers are being extra cautious, so make sure that if any major repairs are needed, it should be taken care of before you show your home.
For example, if your heating and AC unit is having issues, don’t cover it up because it could lead to the depreciation of your home’s value. Instead, contact a residential HVAC inspection service to come out and look at the unit, then make plans to have it repaired.
Keeping these sorts or problems away from potential buyers could force you to sell the home below market value, which could be a red flag for potential homebuyers that there could be problems with the house. That’s why it’s imperative to have your house inspected by professionals to ensure that there are no major issues with the home.
Also, avoid being non-accommodating to potential homebuyers. Remember, you’re trying to sell your home quickly, so if a potential buyer has any questions or requests, try your best to accommodate them. Never give off the impression that you are non-accommodating, as it could easily scare away potential buyers.
Selling your home in such a short timespan may encourage you to overlook the qualification of potential buyers. As you would in a normal home-selling process, you should still request that a potential buyer show you either a pre-approved letter from a lender or have proof of funds to show you that they have the finances available to purchase your home. Also, before you put your signature on the dotted line of contact, it is highly recommended that you include that the sale of your home is contingent on the sale of the buyer’s property.
The bottom line here is this: Selling your home fast is never an ideal scenario. It takes the traditional home selling process and crams it in a condensed timeline that could have some pitfalls. It all comes down to learning how to sell your home.
Make sure your home is cleaned, spacious, and inviting for potential homebuyers. Don’t cover up major issues, and instead, get a professional out to inspect your home before you put it on the market. Once that’s complete, get yourself financially and mentally prepared for offers that will less than the market value or having your house sit on the market for some time due to market conditions.
Probably a major takeaway to selling your home fast is making sure you have a plan in place. Planning will go a long way to making your home sell run smoothly, efficiently, and quickly. Know how you want to market your home. Know how you want to price your house and a timeframe when you can reduce the price and close the deal.
Selling your home on such short notice can be stressful. Having a plan in place will go a long way to making this stressful venture more calmly.