How to sell your home faster

Given today’s economy, selling your home quickly is more important than ever. With so much uncertainty in the marketplace, time is not your friend. Here are three things you can do to get an offer sooner than the house down the street:

#1 Do not try and sell your house for sale by owner. This is a very appealing way to sell your house for a lot of people because not paying a real estate commission equals less cost, which is always better. This is not 2005 and inventory is abundant. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the National Association of Realtors spend thousands and thousands of dollars each year conducting housing sale statistics. According to NAR, in 2006, only 7% of all home sales were open market for sale by owners. What the statistics don’t say, is that of the 7%, a broker almost always represented the buyer in the sale. Where I live, home prices dropped and average of 40% from 2007-2009 and the number of houses for sale skyrocketed. I don’t have to drive around and look at unlisted property anymore. Any real estate agent in town can find a list of 10 suitable houses for any buyer in any price range by simply searching their local mls. They know they will get paid and how much before they ever pick up the phone. If you sell your home yourself, you are not on this list.

#2 Stage your home. Staging your home does not entail an interior design degree or rummaging through a million color pallets trying to find a paint that will hypnotize a buyer into purchasing your home. Staging your home can be done at no cost and in a very short amount of time. The most important thing to remember as you are staging your home is this: How we live in a home and how we sell a home are two completely different things.

#3 Make your home easy to show on short notice. I talked to a real estate broker the other day who wanted to show one of my listings. Naturally, I asked how many homes she was showing this buyer. She said 19. Showing 5 homes and arranging the best route and best showing order is a chore. Showing 19 is unimaginable. Not to mention sorting through 50 properties to narrow it down to 19. If your home is similar to another home and all a real estate agent has to do is call you, the owner, and tell you a time or leave a message with the showing time on your voicemail, your home will be 1 of the 19 that gets shown that day. The other 31 homes don’t make the list because they require appointments, 24 hours notice, x hours notice, etc. The more showings, the better chance of an offer, the sooner the offer, the faster your home sells. You get the picture.