We can all agree that selling your home is a stressful experience. Add things like "new job" and "moving across the country" to the mix, and suddenly the excitement you felt when you got the job or made teh chocie to move disappears.
When you move long distance, you don't always have months to meticulously plan and schedule your move. Sometimes you only have a few short weeks to pack, stage, and sell your home. So how do you sell your home quickly before you move long distance? Dave from Follow Up Boss is joining us to share 5 ways to ensure a quick sale.
Moving can be fun, especially when you’re relocating for a job offer.
Better pay, more perks, travel opportunities, plus you get to network and interact with a new clientele. What’s not to like?
But before you get into gear and become besties with your coworkers, you’ll have to deal with one ball and chain (yes, that lovely house you enthusiastically bought a few years ago) heads on. You may need to sell it and sell it fast.
Unfortunately, selling your home fast isn’t going to be a cut and dried process. According to Zillow, most homes stay up to 68 days on the market.
Luckily, you can do several things to make your home look desirable in the eyes of potential buyers. Here are 5 golden tips from real estate professionals that will help you sell your home fast in an overcrowded market place.
1. Improve Your Curb Appeal
You have heard it a dozen times. Curb appeal matters.
You don’t get a second chance to make a great first impression. So groom your home before putting it on the market and your effort will pay off.
Walk around your home and take a deep look to see its shortcomings. Is it clean, attractive, and well kept, or does it need some serious renovation work? What about the landscape, is it well-groomed and the lawn manicured?
The truth is, it can be difficult to make an objective decision, especially if you’ve lived there for a while. So take suggestions from your friends, neighbors, or a real estate professional on how to improve your curb appeal. If your home is attractive and appealing from the outside, buyers will most likely want to take a tour of the inside.
2. Take Quality Photographs
It’s no secret that most home buyers start their house hunt online—52% of first-time buyers, according to NAR.
With everyone posting their house photos online, the quality of your photographs can really make you stand out from the competition.
So how should you do it?
If you don’t have a quality camera, be sure to hire a professional photographer. Most of these photographers are experienced in real estate photography and know how to stage a home for a quick sale.
Next, leverage aerial photography. Drone photography renders fantastic birds-eye view shots of the property.
The good thing about aerial photography is that it highlights more property features, such as backyards, pools, walking paths, landscaping, and other features that would normally require multiple shots to cover, yet which are very important to buyers. These great images are what inspire buyers to come to your open houses or request a tour.
3. Spread the Word
Your neighbors can be your greatest salespeople because they know everything about your neighborhood. Make sure they know your home is for sale. But the word of mouth alone is not enough. To sell your home fast, you’ll need to utilize all the available marketing mediums. Here are two marketing mediums that you should prioritize:
Social Media
Social media is perhaps the most impactful marketing medium for real estate. With over 2.7 billion active users, you can see why social media is a bus you don’t want to miss.
To get the most out of social media, make sure to share your listing on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, among other social networks. For example, you can host a Facebook Live Video at one of your open house events to showcase your house and all its glory to your followers.
Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn video marketing can also go a long way in helping you attract buyers. For more info on this, Follow Up Boss has put up a very informative article on real estate advertising ideas that should guide you on how to harness the power of social media to market your home.
Real Estate Listing Sites
The easiest way to market your home is to post it on one or several of the available real estate listing sites. Some popular sites include Realtor.com, Zillow, and Trulia. While some of these services might cost you big, they attract millions of homebuyers every month and are best structuredto help you sell your home quickly.
4. Clear Out Your Clutter
It’s hard to not accumulate stuff after staying in your home for years. While some of this stuff may be important to you, it can put off potential buyers.
Why?
Some stuff such as large sized furniture can make your home look smaller than it actually is. Besides, no one wants to settle in a home that looks messy and disorganized.
If you want to sell your home quickly, be sure to clear out the clutter so that the dimensions and square footage can easily be determined. Also, make sure to remove personal items such as family photographs. You may also want to hire a stager to help you make better use of the space and spark the imaginations of potential buyers
5. Set the Right Price
Nothing kills a real estate listing faster than an overpriced property.
Today’s buyers have access to more information on comparable homes than ever, and they will know how much a home is actually worth even before scheduling a visit. An overpriced house stays on the market for long even after the price is cut.
What to do: find out what your home is worth, then knock 10%-15% off the price. If your home is attractive, you’ll be stampeded by buyers with multiple bids, some even higher than what it’s worth.
We hope these tips will help you to sell your home fast.
Dave is the Head of Marketing at Follow Up Boss. In his role he spends a lot of his time 'under the hood' of many of the highest performing real estate teams in North America, helping them grow their businesses and collaborating with them to share their learnings and experiences with other ambitious team leaders.
