Planning to sell your home. Learn what needs to be done whether you plan to sell your home yourself or have it listed with an agent. Review these home selling tips to sell your house quickly.
Set Asking Price
Before you can sell your home, you need to know what it’s worth in its current condition. Research what similar homes have sold for in your area by checking online sites like Zillow, Redfin, and Trulia. Have an agent provide you with a comparable market analysis or hire an appraiser to provide you with an appraisal.
Upgrade, Fix, or Repair Items
Recently renovated homes sell quicker than homes that haven’t been updated. Not sure what upgrades to make, go to open homes in your neighborhood to gauge your competition. Find out what renovations were made or have an agent tell you what improvements were made in recently sold homes. Once you know what upgrades to make, hire professional contractors to do the work.
Contact a home inspector to let you know what repairs are needed. Address those items before you list your home for sale. Make sure holes in walls are patched before they’re painted. Stick with neutral colors when choosing a paint color. Replace any dim light bulbs or light bulbs that have gone out and repair or replace broken doors and windows.
Clean and Declutter
When showing your home to buyers, ensure your house is clean and feels spacious. To do this clean your house from top to bottom. Hire a professional cleaning crew or do the work yourself. If you are going to do the work, remember to wash interior and exterior windows, clean carpets, and polish, re-stain or refinish hardwood floors.
Create space by packing up and storing personal items like clothes, books, trophies and diplomas. Remove and store extra furniture. Let the buyer imagine what the home will look like with their belongings.
Pay special attention to the exterior. It’s the first thing the homeowner will see before seeing the rest of your property. Consider trimming any trees, bushes, and shrubs, adding bright colored flowers and plants, cutting the grass, and raking the lawn. Ensure exterior surfaces look good by power or pressure washing walkway, steps, driveway, deck, and porch. Remember to clean or replace the mailbox, replace dim exterior lights and paint the front door.
Market
Before marketing your property, take professional photos of every room and the front and back of the house. Create a listing sheet that you can give to buyers. Include the price, location, age of home, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, any upgrades and improvements, nearby landmarks, and school districts on your listing.
Use the information from the listing sheet to create your ads. Place ads in newspapers, on online sites such as ForSaleByOwner, Redfin, Trulia, Zillow, Craigslist, and social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You can also pay a flat fee with ForSaleByOwner to have your site listed on MLS.
Prepare for Open House
Have an open house to get potential buyers interested in your property. Schedule the open house around the time that works best for you or when you know you will get more buyers like a holiday or Sunday afternoons. Put up directional signs in your area. Have copies of a listing sheet that has information about your home and your contact information. Move trash, valuables, paperwork, and mail out of site. Once you start receiving offers select the best one and take it to settlement.
Sell Your Home to Us
Selling your home can be time intensive but it doesn’t have to be. DMV Area Homebuyers can buy your house in its current condition. Call us today to get an offer on your home. No need to make any repairs, market, or stage your home. Call 877-263-1346 to receive a fair offer today.