There are times when we want to sell our home quickly, usually because of a job transfer or a change in financial circumstances. You need to know how to sell a house fast so that you can move on to the next stage of your life/career. If you understand the things that slow down a home sale, you will find that you can sell your home pretty efficiently and save yourself some money at the same time.
How to sell a house fast | 1. Work with cash buyers
Did you know that a substantial amount of home sales fall through because of the buyer’s inability to get financing?
You found a buyer for your home. They love your house, you get the price you want, and the contract is signed. Your buyer then applies for a mortgage loan, and you find out a month later that they did not qualify.
You now have to start the home-selling process all over again.
You can avoid the financing trap by working only with Cash Buyers. At House Solutions USA, we buy houses cash so that you don’t worry about the tranaction falling through because of a mortgage problem.
Selling a house to a cash buyer can also save you a lot of money too. You won’t have to pay any real estate agent commissions, and if you negotiate it right, you wont have to pay any closing costs either.
How to sell a house fast | 2. Avoid over-pricing
Nothing slows down the sale of a home more than pricing it too high. If you’ve ever looked at home listings for sale, you may have noticed that some houses stay on the market for a very long time. There could be a couple reasons for this, but most often it is because the price listed is too high for the current market.
It is very important to set the selling price of your home so that it is both enticing and realistic from the very start of the home-selling process. You can find out how much you can sell your home for using our pricing tool for free.
Alternatively, you can do your own homework by looking at a variety of online sites to review the sale prices of homes in your neighborhood that are very similar to your house. By similar, we mean that they have the same amount of bedrooms and bathrooms, the square footage is very close, and the homes should have the same features (pool, water-front, two story versus one story, etc). Make sure to ignore these online sites’ own estimates of your home’s value (the Zestimate on Zillow). They have never been inside your home so it is impossible for them to give you an accurate value. You can also pay an appraiser to determine your house’s value.
Estimating your home’s value is a lot of work, but setting a good price is paramount in understanding how to sell a house fast.
How to sell a house fast | 3. Make it shine
You’ve probably heard the expression “the best way to attract bees is with honey“. The same thing goes for houses. If you want to increase the number of potential buyers, your honey is the appearance of a well-maintained house. The more buyers you can attract, the greater you chance of you selling your home quickly.
Clean up the Yard
The first thing a buyer sees is the front of your home; if it looks like a mess, they may not even get out of the car and instead go onto the next house on their list. Start with the obvious things: remove garden hoses, tools and the like.
Move on to the yard. Weed the garden beds, trim the shrubs and throw away dead plants. To top it off, consider adding some fresh mulch to your planted areas. You will be amazed how much a $3 bag of mulch can brighten up your house (one of the secrets home flippers use to sell a house fast).
Finally, if you have not painted your home in more than 10 years, think about powerwashing the front walls, the driveways and the walk-ways. It’s not that expensive and when you are done, we guarantee you will ask yourself why you did not do this more often.
Remove the Clutter and Clean Inside
When a buyer opens the front door, you want them to be able to:
- Smell a clean house
- See all the living areas clearly
Every room should have everything put away in storage; think dishes in the cupboard, clothes in the closet, and toys in the toy box. Finish up with cleaning the floors and the bathrooms.
Now when a buyer walks into your home, they can see the space and all the features your house offers. They can visualize where they will put their furniture, and not be distracted by a pet smell or your bathroom hygiene. You may also want to consider staging your home.
How to sell a house fast | 4. Conduct some repairs
The last thing a home buyer wants to be faced with is a bunch repairs. Sellers who know how to sell a house fast understand that you need to take care of some basic repairs if you want to sell your home quickly.
You absolutely do not have to fix everything in the home. The repairs we are talking about are the ones that make a new homeowner’s life difficult. Examples of this are a broken window, a door that can’t open or close properly, drawers with missing handles, a hole in the ceiling or wall and things of this nature.
It should be noted that houses that have been updated recently (think the kitchen, flooring, bathrooms, paint etc) sell the fastest. However, this costs both money and time; the length of time it takes to get these updates done professionally may not fit your schedule.
Finally, if your house is not in great shape or still looks like the 70s or 80s, your fastest way to sell is to contact a cash buyer like House Solutions USA. We don’t care about the condition of the home as we buy the house as-is and conduct repairs and updates later on.
How to sell a house fast | 5. Advertise your home
If you want to sell your home quickly, tell everyone about it! You need to get the word out to as much people as possible. Realtors and experienced sellers know how to sell a house fast by advertising it in a number of different channels:
Social Media
Take flattering photos of the inside and outside of your house, and post them online on sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Share it will all your friends and ask them to like your posts and share it as well. You may be surprised how much people are looking to buy a house.
Websites that specialize in selling homes
There are a couple of websites that focus specfically on the buying and selling of real estate that homeowners have access. One popular one is forsalebyowner.com which does exactly what it says; homeowners can sell their propertly online without using a realtor. Another popular site with sellers is Zillow which does the same thing, except it is much bigger as it shows realtor’s properties too.
Yard sign
Let all your neighbors know about the sale of your home by placing a sign in your front yard. At first you might cringe at the idea of letting them know. However, this may be your best chance of selling your home fast.
A lot of neighbors would love to have their children live in the same neighborhood and jump at the chance of buying your house. Some others may have recently relocated to the area and are looking for a home for their best friends. You can pick these signs up cheaply in a home improvement store near you.
A word of caution on yard signs. Make sure you write “By Appointment Only” on the sign. You will avoid people knocking on your door at all hours asking to see it.
How to sell a house fast | 6. Hire a title company
After doing all that work finding a buyer, you want to make sure that you use the correct paperwork from the start, so you can avoid delays later on. Most states have a standard contract for the buying and selling of residential real estate that is available for free. House Solutions USA buys and sells houses fast in Orlando and Central Florida using the FARBAR contract which has been reviewed by the Florida Bar.
You will want to contact a Title company early on in the process; these companies specialize in the sale of residential property and a good title company will help guide you through the documentation and the selling process from beginning to end. Your other option is to contact a real estate attorney to handle the paperwork for you, but they may cost a little more than a Title company and usually don’t work quite as efficiently as a Title company.
Should I hire a realtor to sell a house fast?
The answer to that question is………………it depends on the realtor. The inherent problem with using a real estate agent is that many realtors will tell you anything to get the business, even promising you a higher selling price than other realtors (competition). Eager to get the best price, you go with the realtor with the “highest selling price”, only to watch the house sit on the market for weeks or months, and then hear your realtor say “we need to adjust the price” (after they have tied you into a long term contract). Hiring the wrong realtor will have the opposite effect; it can actually slow down the sale of your property.
You can sell a house fast without a realtor and have the process go quickly if you are willing to put in the time, and you can save thousands of dollars in commissions too.
A genuinely professional realtor will certainly know how to sell your house fast, it’s just a matter of finding the right one. If you think you still want to hire a realtor, then make sure you interview several agents and contact their references, until you find one you are comfortable with that can achieve your goal of selling your home quickly. You should also consider limiting their contract to a maximum amount of 90 days (if you have that amount of time to move). If they can’t commit to that, then find another realtor or sell it yourself.
What's the best time of year to sell a house quickly?
The answer to this question may surprise you. Conventional wisdom says that the beginning of summer is the best time of the year to sell a house fast. Most parents who are relocating want their children to start in the new school at the very beginning of the school year, so these buyers go house-hunting in the months of May, June and July.
However, the best times to sell can also vary based on where you live. During the harsh winter months, thousands of people visit Florida to get away from the cold. They are affectionately called “snowbirds“, and they typically buy houses in January and February.
How fast can I really sell a house?
There are many factors that will determine how quickly you can really sell a house. Assuming you have set yourself up for success with a clean, well-maintained home and you have priced it correctly, it boils down to a couple of factors.
Buyer type
If you choose to sell a house to a Cash Buyer, the length of time is determined by how long the Title company takes to process the paperwork. The average is about 2 weeks, but at House Solutions USA, we have purchased a house in as little as 7 days.
If you choose to go with a buyer who needs financing, 4 weeks is usually the fastest time to complete the sale in a balanced real estate market. Note that this is the best outcome; if your buyer does not get a loan, you have to start all over again looking for another buyer.
Location
You’ve heard the phrase “location, location, location”. The more desirable the location, the faster you can sell your home.
Your local real estate market
The sales of homes fluctuates in a cycle, swinging from
- a seller’s market (not too many properties available)
- a buyer’s market (an excess of properties available for sale)
You can search online to see where your local real estate market is in the cycle and see the average time to sell a house.
By now you have gotten a pretty clear idea of how to sell a house fast. It starts with working with the right type of buyer, pricing it correctly, getting it ready to sell, advertising the home, and then working with a good title company to close the deal. A realtor can help take some of the workload off of you to sell quickly, but do your due-diligence before hiring one.
If you need more info on selling your home quickly, give us a shout. We buy and sell homes across Central Florida full-time, so we have a lot of experience in selling houses in short time frames.
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