Home Seller Tips: How to Sell Your Home Fast

Selling a home can be an extremely stressful process. On top of all of the painting, repairs, and showings, there is one lingering question, “What if I can’t sell this house?” Most sellers are moving because they found a new home and are on a specific timeline to get their current home sold. In this case, if your home doesn’t sell you could be stuck with two homes and two mortgages. This is just one of the reasons it is crucial to take every step you can to ensure a quick and seamless sale of your home.

Through our years of experience, we know a few things about getting homes sold fast and for the most money possible. We recently sat down with our CEO and founder of Ask Cathy Marketing Group, Cathy Counti to get her top tips to get your home sold.

Landscaping

It’s a little known fact that every dollar you put into your landscaping, you get back in the sale of your home. Remember the first thing buyers see when they pull up to your home is the landscaping and overall upkeep of the exterior of the home. This could make the difference in whether or not a buyer wants to purchase before they even walk in the door.

Paint

Want to know the #1 mistake home sellers can make? Painting their walls WHITE. DO NOT DO IT! Cathy recommends a beige grey color such as Mega Greige at Sherwin Williams. For more paint and design ideas, check out our blog here.

Storage

As soon as you know you are going to list your home (and BEFORE you schedule pictures to be taken) start emptying your closets and condensing the items in your storage areas such as your pantry, basement, and laundry room. Most buyers are either downsizing and looking for as much storage as possible or are upsizing because all of their stuff did not fit in their last home. The best thing you can do to optimize your storage space is box up items you know you will not need for the next 3-4 months (i.e. seasonal clothing, books, some of your more personalized decor, and pretty much anything that has been sitting in the back of your closets for 6+ months.)

Rent a storage unit or find a family member or friend willing to let you store things in their home. The less stuff you have in your home, the more buyers will be able to visualize where they could put their stuff.

Lighting

This is one of the more common tips that a lot of sellers don’t always think about. Know you have a showing coming that afternoon? About 30 minutes before, flip on all the lights (yes, we mean all of them). This includes your closets, bathrooms, bedrooms, pantry lights (if applicable), etc. This will help your home to appear light and bright to potential buyers. No one walks into a home and says “Wow, I wish it were darker in here…”

Pricing it Right

This is one of the most important tips we can offer. Pricing your home right the first time could determine how much you make in the long run. Statistics show that when a seller has to do a price drop, it costs them about 2% more in the long run.

To ensure you do it right the first time, do your research! This means find out what similar homes sold for in your area AND what the market is currently doing (i.e. is it a buyer’s market or seller’s market?) This heavily impacts not only what your house could sell for but also how long it could sit on the market. It’s also important to take into account the current state of your home. Is it upgraded, clean, in good condition?

With so many variables at play, this is the main reason we recommend hiring a highly skilled and experienced Ask Cathy Marketing Group agent.

Want to learn more about our award-winning-listing strategies and how we make our sellers more money? Click here.