Amid today’s tight real estate market, homeowners will often come across urgent situations. Whether it’s because of a job or personal-related reason, having a clear plan that carefully covers all areas of this practical problem is a necessary requirement.
That initial plan starts with the obvious question that most people are going to ask: what’s the best way for me to sell my house as quickly as possible? Deciding on whether you want to work with a company that can sell it quickly, taking on the home yourself (by going the “for sale by owner” route), or partnering up with a smart real estate agent is the essential part of the overall solution that you want to make. Figure out what you want to pursue at first and then make the right decision.
Understanding the Need for a Quick Sale
There are many situations that might make you feel like you urgently need to write a ‘we buy houses‘ company and get your house sold, ASAP.
- New job or job transfer:If you’re in this situation, you may feel a lot of pressure to sell your house very soon. You may need to sell your house so you can move to a different city or state and start your new job. If you wait too long, you might have to manage your old home and your new home from far away…and potentially live in your car. Or, you might have to spend too much money on travel from city to city, or a really expensive temporary/ short-term housing situation.
- Behind on your house payments:Before taking the next steps, please look at your different options to stop foreclosure in order to determine what the best action is for you and your loved ones. Even in the best case scenario, your best strategy will likely still involve selling your house, soon. But you’ll probably want to find just the right buyer who can meet your personal needs. Don’t be like most people who wait too long or don’t do anything until it’s too late, and end up not seeing any money from the sale that could help their family.
- Dating or Relationships issues:So, things didn’t go exactly as planned. We get it…It happens to the best of us. But if your house is still a constant thorn in your side, it’s time to sit down with a home investor. Buyers out there are looking to buy your home, and they might be more available than you think.
Proven Methods to Sell Property Quickly
How do you ensure your home is priced to sell, especially in a competitive market? Just as with other steps in the process, pricing a home to sell involves research. Your home’s price needs to be in line with the following:
- Recent sales of similar properties in your area
- Current market trends
- What makes your property unique and/or move-in ready
A well-researched price is not only interesting to a potential buyer, but it’s also interesting ‘as-is’ to any parties involved in the transaction (like real estate agents and mortgage lenders, if you choose to go that route) — anyone who might potentially see the listing.
Again, thinking through how to get a property sold means thinking through the buyer’s journey — the buyer’s mind, at all points — and in this situation, it comes down to negotiation at the end of the buying journey. The buyer’s ‘end.’ A ‘well-presented,’ ‘well-represented’ price should be a price that you are prepared to defend: that’s the price you want, and here’s why… (the buyer sees what you see as the sales price).
Present your home to sell: buyer pull #2: curb appeal?
According to one source, ‘76% of top real estate agents agree…’ that ‘curb appeal’ doesn’t just hook the buyer from ‘the street,’ so to speak. As admitted in the last statistic, you are making so few changes for the buyer in your home the next change you make (or improvement) could be major. A ‘fresh look’ (making it ‘look brand new’: updated fixtures, fresh coat of paint, or even landscaping) isn’t just ‘pepping it up’ — to the observer — to the buyer; it may be a ‘necessary prep.’ (I’m glad we sold it, honey, but… we could’ve… meaning the ‘buyer’ makes it his-home; the seller makes a ‘new’ adjustment; things affecting the seller should not affect the new purchase, the sale: affecting the buyer.
Alternative Selling Options
For a quick and hassle-free transaction, more and more homeowners are seriously considering one particular option: selling your house for cash. This method usually involves selling your property “as is” directly to an investor or a cash buyer—that way, you typically won’t need to wait as long as you would in a traditional sale to close, making every process leading up to that point essentially pointless as well. For those who are really in a bad financial spot (or need to move ASAP), being able to close the sale in as early as a week could make a world of difference.
Learn how the process works, and then hire an experienced wholesaler (who will buy your house at a discount, but will also shoulder all the “work” involved) and maximize your profit. Alternatively, you could also offer the lowest cash price, market the property yourself, and find a cash buyer who is willing and able to pay you a higher price. Either way, you won’t need to have your property renovated—simply let the investors decide how it’s best renovated. Remember, if there are more items to “fix” on your wholesale buyer’s list (even though he won’t provide such a list), he will surely try to beat your price down.
If you insist on using a real estate agent, however (which is not ideal if you want to sell your house quickly), interview at least 3-5 of them. Realistically, many will not make these undertakings unless they think it is worth their while. Some of them are still traditional agents. Some of them have better resources (a bigger buyers list to begin with), so they can facilitate quick house sales. For sure, they will all make different offers—so carefully research these offers to make sure they are indeed legit (and profitable to you). Some of them may really be cash buyers in the guise of wholesalers (or pretending to be a quick sale agent). Some use “quick sale” as a ploy to offer you much less than you deserve, so closely assess their offers as well.
Preparing for Showings and Open Houses
How you prepare your home for inspections could be the difference between making a great, positive impact on a potential buyer or not. Start by taking out all your personal items; the house should be depersonalized, so to speak. While walking through your home, a potential buyer should be able to envision the space as their new home, and not someone else’s. Deep clean your house (windows, floors, etc.) and then consider painting your house with relaxing, neutral tones. A solid white coat of paint on the walls might be a literal interpretation of providing a “blank canvas” of a home, but it’s not ideal. Take a moment, while you’re at it, to make all those small repairs (leaky faucet, squeaky door).
Be ready for a showing at any hour. Yes, you could create your “open to see” hours of 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., but not every family will have those same hours of availability. Be especially prepared for a last-minute “Can we stop by today, this afternoon…?” or “Would you be open to showing this after…?” Holidays, weekends, long weekends, and weekdays after 5 p.m. are all technically non-prime times for a seller’s home, but technically, a “prime” time for a potential buyer to look. The distance, in this case, between the two perspectives on prime time to see vs. view vs. see varies too much.
Not McCormick Field homey (log cabin smell, look, and feel), and not your typical Wes Anderson film homey either (flannel, the color red throughout a motion picture with every Wes Anderson film starting from ’98 onward), but almost Victoria’s Secret, or Kohl’s grand opening homey. Free up your home with fresh flowers around the house; add a few candles, a great leisure suit, or a light sweater to match the huge, new vest and blazer. Avoid making what we would consider “Christmas cookies” right before a visit. Regardless of how wonderful the burning, personal smell might be, both bizarre and disheartening, a new smell to someone, especially in a new home, will linger. Actually, just to avoid the spread of any other natural smells following to all of your arms and hands (perfume smell, cigarette smell if you smoke, etc.), right before a house opens up. Try burning a new scented candle after that: a “Play-Doh”, or vanilla, or sandalwood, or lavender, purposely removing all other personal smells from all potential new buyers, especially.
Selling your house in the current real estate market can be challenging, but there are things you can do to help catalyze a quick sale. You could competitively set the price of the property or increase the house’s curb appeal or the home staging. This project will be huge, extensive, and complex, but another way of saying to take action since that is all it will take to sell a house (or not) in times when the market seems more dismal than sunny. Don’t let the marketplace get the best of you; remember there is more than one way to sell without going the road everyone else is going, which is traditionally selling.
Taking action can mean deciding whether you should sell for cash. Buyers have other homes to pick from, so lenders have happened toward low appraisal bias, if nothing else. Selling for cash results in the quickest and least stressful selling method because it doesn’t take much to get up and go over to another lender, as there are a number of lenders out and about. All you have to do is just talk to a lender. It won’t take more than two or three hours. You might want to talk to other lenders in your neck of the woods as well.
If you’re going to keep selling, be determined and make it work. Test out different plans anywhere from two weeks or more—maybe even on one Saturday. Try it now; start over if you happen to make a public selling blunder and press reset! Now go sell that house and be confident that you will have a great life ahead that just starts with one small house major.