Selling a house may be necessary if you want to move to a new place, but it can be a hassle. This is a process that can take months, and possibly years in poor market conditions. And on top of that, it can be confusing, expensive, and complicated. You’ll have to deal with dozens of variables, including timing and marketing, and consider real estate laws to minimize your potential liability.
Fortunately, there are many strategies you can use to make selling a house easier, and streamline this process.
Sell the Home Directly for Cash
Most people turn to the help of a real estate agent when selling a home, and this is arguably a good step. Your real estate agent understands the local market, and can help you with everything from listing the property to finalizing the deal. However, hiring an agent and working with them is still going to take a lot of time—and at the end of the partnership, you’ll need to pay them a sizable commission for their work.
Instead, it may be a better option to conduct a direct sale, selling your home for cash. This allows you to bypass the listing process altogether, and avoid hiring a real estate agent. You’ll also forgo much of the paperwork necessary to finalize the transaction.
There are some downsides to this approach. For example, you’ll often end up selling the home for less than you could get on the open market. However, for the sheer convenience of the home sale process, this is often worth it.
Lower the Price
One of the best ways to make your home sell faster is to simply lower the price. This isn’t the first choice of many home sellers, since most people optimize their home sale for profitability, but it’s one of the best ways to ensure a speedy sale. The real estate market functions like any other market, responding to supply and demand, and with millions of potential buyers scrutinizing prices. If you can offer an extremely attractive price on a home, you’ll stand out immediately.
Look for All-Cash Offers
You can also specifically look for all-cash offers. In an all-cash offer, the buyer won’t have to go through any steps to finalize a mortgage or secure other financing. The process of securing a mortgage may be routine and familiar, but it’s also time consuming and can lead to hiccups in the home buying process. If you want to finalize the deal as quickly as possible and avoid such hiccups, consider prioritizing all-cash offers. Of course, to attract an all-cash offer, you may need to lower your price or market the property to specific types of people.
Make the Home More Attractive
Homes tend to sell faster when they look more attractive. You may be able to fetch a higher price due to your efforts as well.
There are several steps you can take here, including:
- Making small repairs. First, make any small repairs that could make the house look more attractive. If they’re simple and/or inexpensive, just take care of them.
- Investing in curb appeal. You can also invest in curb appeal, making the exterior of the home more attractive. This could mean planting new flower beds or just cleaning off the siding.
- Staging the interior. Consider “staging” the interior by making it less personal and more inviting. This means rearranging the furniture, doing a deep cleaning, and getting rid of personal items like family photos.
- Securing good photos. Finally, make sure you invest in good photography so you can show off the property’s good side online.
Of course, these steps can be difficult and time consuming. If you want to avoid the headaches, consider pursuing a direct sale.
Change Your Approach
Even if you’re not a real estate expert, you can trust your intuition when it comes to selling a home. If your home has been listed for months with no offer, it means you need to change something, such as lowering the price or listing the property in a different way. You’ll need to keep tinkering with your strategy gradually if you want to see results.
Get the Best Advice
Finally, if you decide not to pursue a direct sale, make sure you’re getting the best possible advice. Oftentimes, this comes from your real estate agent, so do your due diligence and secure yourself a worthy partner. It’s also a good idea to do as much research as you can, so you can keep the home selling process simple, fast, and straightforward.
There’s no way to make selling a home completely fast and easy, but there are plenty of strategies to streamline the process. Consider your priorities carefully, and follow the approach that makes the best sense for your situation.