Looking For A Fast Home Sale? Proactive Tips To Make It Happen

With the holiday season winding down, your thoughts may already be racing ahead to the things you hope to accomplish in 2017. Selling your home may be one of the entries on that list. If your home is one of the more than 5.46 million homes expected to be placed on the market this year, you may already be worried about the competition and wondering what you can do to make the selling experience the best it can possibly be.

While you cannot control many factors within the real estate market, such as the number of homes for sale, there are some specific steps you can take to make your home as competitive as possible and greatly enhance your chances of getting it sold within your planned timeframe.

Prepare the home before putting it on the market

Sellers who are hyper-focused on getting their home sold quickly often make the mistake of putting their home on the market in as-is condition. But rushing to market without taking the time to deep clean each room, refurbish tired paint or flooring, take care of needed repairs, and get rid of excess clutter can cause prospective buyers to lose interest and choose to view other homes instead. Taking a few days, weeks, or even a month or two to make sure that your home is immaculate, tastefully decorated, and pleasing to look at before putting it up for sale will save you valuable time on the market and help ensure that the offers you receive are within an acceptable range for your home.

Make sure your home is always available to be shown to prospective buyers

Motivated buyers often want to move very quickly, and if a home they want to see is not available for viewings, they will often move on to other homes for sale that they are able to successfully view on short notice. Sellers who want to sell quickly should take steps to make sure that their home is available for showing with little or no notice. To do this, take a few moments before leaving home each morning to pick up stray socks, load the dishwasher, and make sure the kitty litter box is freshly cleaned. Taking time to attend to tasks like these will make it much easier for you to say yes when an agent wants to show immediately and increase your chances of pleasing the prospective buyer and getting the offer you want.

Price the home properly for the local market

Pricing your home correctly is a critical part of catching the interest of the largest pool of prospective buyers and getting them to want to see your home. Before choosing a listing price for your home, have your real estate professional prepare a detailed comparative market analysis (CMA) using comparable homes in your area that are currently listed for sale or under contract and those that have recently sold. This type of information will help you price the home as accurately as possible to improve your chances of selling it quickly and for market value.