House sales often drag on for months, but they do not need to. Here are the best ways to sell your house quickly in today’s market:
Tip #1 Price it right
What you need to do if you want to sell your house fast, is find out what it’s worth first of all. You can talk to a professional real estate agent or surveyor who will help provide you with an idea of how much your property is worth.
Price your home 10-20% beneath the suggested valuation. This will drive more potential buyers to view your house and hopefully get you more offers, faster. It is also possible that with more interest and competition that they could drive the price up. Pricing your home correctly is the single best strategy you have to help sell your home quickly. You can’t change the location of the property and it doesn’t make sense spending a lot of money upgrading your home when you’re ready to sell it, so pricing it correctly is essential if you’re looking for a quick sale.
Tip #2 De-clutter
The next step is you want to make sure you de-clutter your home. You want your home to be clear of your personal items so that it doesn’t appear as ‘your’ home to someone else. You want it to look like a house that they can imagine to be their home and make them feel comfortable that it could be theirs. The other thing you might consider is cleaning out your wardrobes and cupboards, possibly renting storage space to move your summer/winter clothes out of sight. This will make the house’s storage spaces look bigger, look like there’s more room for things. If you do rent some temporary storage, you could also use it to get rid of some of your over-sized furniture, again to make your house feel larger.
Tip #3 Repair it
Make a list of items in your house that you know need attention; things that are possibly broken that would turn a buyer off right away. Go through the list starting with the most important and repair those so there’s no glaring issues with your house. Make sure you don’t over up-grade as you want to save money to spend in your new home.
Tip #4 The Kitchen
The kitchen is by far the most important thing you can control when it comes to selling your house after the price. Firstly, make sure it’s clean. This is obviously free and easy to do. Simple things like making sure you don’t have any dishes in the sink, check work surfaces are clean and that there are no food odours in the kitchen. If it is within your budget, consider a light remodel if your kitchen is outdated. Some of the easiest and least expensive ways to do this or give your kitchen a quick facelift would be consider painting the walls or the cabinets using a neutral colour that is going to appeal to more buyers. Another thing to consider would be to add one high end modern appliance and possibly upgrade the others. When buyers see one high end appliance, they just make the assumption that all the other appliances are high end.
Tip #5 Be ready for viewings
You must be ready to show your home at all times because you don’t know when your estate agent is going to call or when a buyer may show up. A tip for being ready for viewings is to keep ‘go bags’ ready, for pets or children that you can fill with snacks or nappies or a lead, whatever you need to get your family out of the property quickly so that a buyer can walk straight in. Another thing to consider is that almost all home owners are ‘property shopping’ online before prior to going out looking at properties, so you want to consider having quality photos taken or even hiring a professional to take photos of your home to post online.
You may also be interested in How To Improve The Value of Your Property
If you are looking to sell your property, the first thing you’ll need is a Home Report. We are RICS Charted Surveyors specialising in Home Reports across Scotland from as little as £85. Get in touch today to arrange a time to suit you. We offer early morning or evening and weekend appointments. Call us on 0131 608 0175 or email us at info@homereportcompany.co.uk
