This time last year, we’d sold our house and were frantically looking for a new one. We were lucky we sold so fast, but for anyone who is struggling, the tips in this great guest post might help!
In a perfect world we’d all sell our homes on our terms, taking our time to consider offers and eventually go for the one that feels right, before eventually selling up for a good price. However, the world isn’t perfect and sometimes you need to sell as quickly as possible – for a huge variety of reasons. The good news is that this can be achieved if you’re willing to work for it; here are six ways to boost your chances:
Make it look good
If you don’t have time to completely redecorate, then at least make quick fixes. Repainting walls, changing tiles, trimming the garden and checking for problems like Japanese knotweed – if you find it, you’ll definitely need a Japanese Knotweed removal company to deal with it for you, or you might not be able to sell your home at all – fixing leaking taps and other annoying little tasks don’t take long, but if they’re left untreated potential buyers will assume you’re lazy and wonder what other surprises lurk in store if they buy the home. Also, of course, it’s an extra cost they have to pay.
People will walk around homes and judge, so at the very least, freshen it up with scented candles and a clean kitchen/bathroom. It should take no longer than a day to make your house look great.
Smart pricing
You know exactly what price you’d like, and you’ve no doubt done your research into the housing market and realistic pricing and acted accordingly, but be aware that the people you’re showing round will probably have done the same. Therefore, asking for an inflated price is really just wasting their time as well as yours. They know that they’re in the driving seat, but what you can do is find similar homes that have sold in recent times, find an average of what they sold for, drop your price by 10-15% and save everyone a lot of time.
Depersonalise
Imagine walking into a home and immediately seeing yourself there, cooking in the kitchen, strolling in the garden and waking up in a soft warm bed. If you can swap that feeling over and try to create it for a visitor, you’re creating a psychological enticement for a purchase. Therefore, removing highly personal framed photographs, certificates, and maybe even items of furniture and allowing visitors to mentally imagine their own items in their place could bear fruit quickly. There is also a flip side to this – if you can do it, leaving some good stuff such as the TV or oven might be an enticement.
Put in the work
Prepare the home, but also be prepared to work hard when the home goes on sale. Be willing to show multiple people around the home on any given day or weekend, and be willing to answer their questions online, by phone, face-to-face or through an agent. If you’re on social media, throw yourself into marketing the property.
Be swift: It’s not an exact science, but there might be a correlation between the speed with which you reply to queries and host potential buyers and the speed with which you receive an offer. A quick flow of people coming through the doors; rapid responses to emails and signed forms; and a willingness to pick up the phone straight away will all increase your chances of a swift sale.
Call in the experts: You don’t definitively need to enlist an online agent and/or private seller if you’re willing to put in an incredible amount of hard work, but the job of selling a home will be far easier and probably faster (click here to find out more). Simply put, an online agent or private seller company will be able to get your home on hundreds of property portals and therefore far more potential buyers. They’ll be skilled in negotiation, and plus they’ll be a lot cheaper than a high street agent.
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