What makes a house sell quickly


Top 9 Steps to Sell a House Fast

In this article

Selling a home can be stressful, but if you are under a serious time crunch, it can be even more nerve-wracking. Whether you need to sell quickly for a new job, for financial reasons or because of a personal situation, there are a few tactics you can use to increase your home’s marketability, decrease your time on the market and attract strong offers. Here’s how to sell a house fast.  

1. Clean and declutter

There are many strategies for selling a house fast, but when you’re short on time, one definite must is making your home’s interior appeal to as many buyers as possible.

2. Pick a selling strategy

When deciding how to list your home, there are two conventional sales options — selling for sale by owner (FSBO) or with a real estate agent — and a few alternatives.

Sell FSBO

One of the big benefits to selling on your own is that you save on the commission (you’ll save the 3 percent you’d pay your own agent, but you’ll still have to pay 3 percent to the buyer’s agent). But if you want to sell fast on your own, you’ll have to be prepared to negotiate like a pro.

Be ready to negotiate escrow timelines, juggle contract paperwork, and consult an attorney to make sure all forms are filled out correctly. Knowing the ins and outs of the process is especially important if you need to sell your house fast.

Hire an agent

The upside to hiring a professional real estate agent is that they know what it takes to get a house sold quickly in your area. They’ll streamline things like contract prep work, negotiations, signing and closing. Of course, you’ll have to pay them a 3 percent commission for their services.

Alternative ways to sell your house fast

If you want to completely bypass the preparation it takes to sell your house in a hurry, consider these alternative strategies:

3. Price to sell

According to the Zillow Group Report, 21 percent of sellers said that their biggest challenge was selling within their desired time frame. Even if you’re selling in a sellers market, where there are many buyers competing for fewer homes, selling your house fast isn’t a guarantee.

One thing that can really speed your selling process is pricing your home competitively. Overpricing will lead to more time on the market, and ultimately, you may end up selling at that lower price anyway — it’ll just take you longer to get there.

You may even want to price your home a little lower than comparable homes in your area to drum up interest and cause a bidding war. The effectiveness of this strategy depends on the state of your local real estate market and how homes are selling in your area.

When setting a price, you also may want to consider the price points that the majority of buyers search for within in your area. For example, if you list your home for $399,000, it’ll show up in search results for anyone that’s looking for homes under $400,000. But price it at just $405,000, and it’ll never show up in their search results. 

Set a timeline for a price reduction

Before you list, take a hard look at your timeline and decide on a day to lower your price if you haven’t received any offers. The amount you discount can be decided later, because it might change based on feedback you receive from home tours, but you should at least have a date in mind. And if that time comes, it’s best to act quickly. The longer your home is on the market, the lower your odds are of selling it for listing price.

Consider sales incentives

If you know your home is going to be a tough sale, either because of some unusual feature or because you’re selling in a slow market, it can sometimes be worth offering incentives to potential buyers to sweeten the deal. Examples include upfront repair or improvement credits, paying the buyer’s closing costs, or offering to include things like appliances, which aren’t always included in a sale.

4. Handle any quick repairs

While you don’t have time for major renovations, it’s still important to take care of any easy fixes that might deter potential buyers:

You may also want to invest in a few minor upgrades that will make your home show better:

5. Stage and add curb appeal

No matter your timeline, every seller can benefit from a weekend spent sprucing up their home’s interior and exterior. After all, making a good first impression with buyers is crucial. According to the Zillow Group Report, 48 percent of recent buyers said having the home staged is extremely, very or somewhat important to their home-buying decision. And 29 percent of sellers said that landscaping their yard was one of their pre-listing activities.

Pack up and hire a stager

Staging is a common tactic in real estate sales, especially if you’re looking for ways to sell your house fast. Staging helps define spaces and makes rooms look larger. If you want to speed up this process, you’ll want to put all of your belongings in storage. A professional stager will bring their own furniture and decor,arranging it in a way that highlights your home’s best features and makes it feel warm and welcoming.

Create curb appeal

Your home’s exterior is the first in-person glimpse potential buyers will have of your home, so it’s important that it looks welcoming, well-maintained and tidy. Here are some tips to make your house sell faster with good curb appeal. And when speed is key, consider hiring a professional landscaper to make quick work of these tasks:

6. Hire a professional photographer

It may seem faster (and cheaper) to snap a few pictures of your house on your phone, but poor listing photos could make your home sit on the market longer. In fact, a whopping 77 percent of recent buyers said that viewing professional photos was extremely, very or somewhat important to their home-buying decision, according to the Zillow Group Report.

Professional real estate photos only cost a few hundred dollars, and if you’re using a full-service real estate agent, they may even include the photos as part of their services. Check to see if your agent or photographer offers a 3D virtual house tour. They are quick to capture and improve listing page views on Zillow. 

Before images are taken, make sure your home has plenty of light. Open the blinds, replace old lightbulbs or update fixtures, and let in as much natural light as possible. This is also a best practice for listing appointments!

7. Write a great listing description

Once you have chosen a listing price and your house is in order, you’ll want to create a listing description that will help you sell your house faster. This is especially important if you’re selling on your own. If you are using an agent, they will probably write the description for you, but it’s still important to know what makes a good listing description.

Where to post your listing

If you’re selling FSBO, you can upload your own listing to Zillow. Sites like Zillow also allow you to post 3D tours or virtual walkthroughs, which can give buyers a good sense for the layout of your property. If you’re using an agent, they’ll post to your local MLS, which will get pulled into all of the major real estate search websites.

If you don’t have an agent, you can pay a flat fee to an agent to upload your home to the local MLS on your behalf. In this case, you’ll be listed as the point of contact for all inquiries.

Additionally, whether you’re listing your home with an agent or going the FSBO route, you can post your listing on social media (via friends and family or with paid placements), as well as place flyers and signs around your neighborhood.

8. Time your sale right

According to Zillow, the best time to list your home is in the first half of May on a Saturday. Homes listed during this time frame sold six days faster than average and for an average of $1,600 more.

The peak selling time varies a bit based on your local real estate market, so check out info for your local area if you need to sell your house fast.

9. Be flexible with showings

When selling your home quickly is the goal, it’s important to be as accommodating as possible with showing requests. Yes, last-minute showings can cause a scheduling scramble, but nobody can buy your home if they can’t see it for themselves! If you aren’t willing to accommodate buyers’ schedules, your home is at risk of sitting on the market for a long time.

Hold an open house

A well-timed weekend open house is a must for selling your house quickly. It’s the easiest way to get multiple buyers through the door. Make sure to prepare accordingly — clean the home, arrange fresh flowers, offer a few treats, and prepare flyers that buyers can take with them after their tour.

Private showings

Buyers requesting a private showing may have never seen your home before, or they could have attended your open house and are returning for a closer look. As mentioned earlier, it’s important to be as accommodating as possible in showing your home, even if it means keeping your house tour-ready around the clock.

If you’re listing your house FSBO, be prepared to host your own tours. If you’re working with an agent, they should either do a tour for you or leave a lockbox for the buyer and their agent. If at all possible, the seller should avoid attending the showing — it can make buyers uncomfortable.

5 No-Cost Tricks to Sell Your Home Faster

By Ramsey Solutions

By Ramsey Solutions

No matter what’s going on with the housing market, selling your house fast is always a top priority. You’ve got places to go, people to see, jobs to start . . .

But more importantly, you want to get the most value from your home sale as possible. The longer a house sits on the market, the more likely you are to get a lower offer or have to reduce your price to attract buyers.

You can find all kinds of advice on how to speed up your home-selling process, but be careful—some of it can be really freaking stupid. We’ll give you the best tips to sell your house fast and for a good price.

How Fast Could You Sell Your House?

As of the middle of 2022, the median amount of time for homes to stay on the market is 31 days.1 Remember, median means that half of all homes sold faster and half sold slower than that—depending on the location and time of year.

To be clear, we’re talking about how long it takes to sell—meaning to go from listing to contract. And it can be different for everyone, even next-door neighbors with nearly identical houses.

Find expert agents to help you sell your home.

If 31 days is too long to wait in your situation, then getting the jump on packing, tackling home projects, and teaming up with an experienced real estate agent early on can help you sell your home faster.

If you work with an incredible agent, your home could sell within a day. No joke—it can really happen. In certain areas of the country, it’s not uncommon for sellers to receive multiple offers in one weekend!

Working with a great real estate agent will also mean they’ll help you time your listing well. For example, not a lot of people are looking to buy at certain times of the year, like in the winter. But an agent can watch the market and list your house when buyers are primed and more likely to purchase!

How

Not to Sell Your House Quickly

When people focus too much on selling their home fast, they get impatient and make dumb decisions. But a home is your biggest investment—you can’t afford to make mistakes, whether you’re buying or selling.

Here are some ways to sell your house quickly that aren’t worth the hit to your wallet.

For Sale by Owner

Some people might tell you your best chance to sell fast is to sell without an agent—otherwise known as For Sale by Owner (FSBO).

It sounds like a good idea when you hear that 77% of FSBO homes sold in fewer than two weeks in 2020.2 But there’s a catch—most of these homes were sold to someone the sellers already knew.

If you don’t have a buyer lined up, you could end up waiting a lot longer to find the right buyer. Plus, last year, homes that were sold with the help of an agent went for $24,000 more than FSBO homes.3

Even if you subtract agent commission fees, selling with an agent still puts around $10,000 more in your pocket than selling by yourself. Is selling your home just a week faster worth missing out on 10 grand? Probably not.

Setting Your Price Too High or Low

We cannot stress this enough: Price your house to sell. You can get a home appraisal before you list your home to get a good idea what your house is worth in today’s market. Then you can use that value to set your price. Keep in mind, going too far under or over will only hurt you.

Don’t let the pressure to sell fast make you set the price too low. Sure, someone might put in an offer on the house before you can cross your fingers and hope for one. But you’ll be losing out on the potential profit from your home! Why would you take money out of your own pocket?

And this is probably obvious: If you set the price too high, no one will bite. Pricing slightly higher than the appraisal value might give you some room to negotiate, but that’s a fine line to toe.

To find the perfectly balanced price between selling your home fast and for a good price, you need guidance from an experienced real estate agent. They’ll help you avoid mistakes so you don’t waste any time selling your home.

iBuyers

Instant buyers, or iBuyers, are real estate companies like Zillow, Opendoor and Redfin that buy homes from private sellers, then resell them for a profit.

If you have no idea what we’re talking about, you’re not alone. Less than 1% of sellers use iBuyer programs.4

This plan isn’t working out well for some iBuyers. And home buyers and sellers are paying the price—literally. These iBuyers snap up your house at a big discount, then put it back on the market for a lot more. That drives up home prices for other buyers. And since you accepted their lowball offer, you missed out on the full profit from selling your home.

Sure, your home will sell quickly, but it’ll cost you. Not worth it.

How to Sell Your House Fast for a Good Price

If you want your house to sell fast in this market, there are two things you need to do: Find a real estate agent and increase your home’s value. And what’s beautiful about those things is that an agent can help you figure out what you can do to add value to your home.

We talked to Dawn Kirkland, a real estate agent in Birmingham, Alabama, to help point out some of the best tips to sell your house fast. Most seller’s agents like her agree on a few tried-and-true tricks that will help reduce your home’s time on the market. So, let’s take a look at these five tips:

1. Hire a Top Listing Agent

The quickest way to sell your house and still make a sweet profit is to work with a real estate agent—one who’s at the top of the industry and has a long history of selling homes like hotcakes.

Gimmicky ways to sell your house (like FSBO and iBuyers) can get the job done fast—but they come at a price. Literally.

Working with a high-caliber real estate agent will put more money in your pocket and sell your house fast because they know how to:

Remember, an experienced real estate agent has been through the home-selling process lots of times already. They’ll guide you and help you avoid mistakes so you don’t waste any time selling your home. Don’t underestimate the value of teaming up with a pro!

2. Declutter and Deep Clean

Dawn admits decluttering isn’t rocket science—but it is the key to creating a pleasing environment. Pay particular attention to common junk magnets, like:

This is a good time to trim down your closet too. “If your closet is crowded, I’m going to think my stuff won’t fit,” Dawn says. Wow buyers by showing them how much space there is for stuff—not the other way around.

Once all the clutter’s out of the way, take a step back and look at the big picture. Think like a buyer—does this space look welcoming, open and (most importantly) clean?

Cleaning your home for home showings is common sense. But don’t underestimate just how clean it needs to be. Get down to the nitty-gritty, from ceiling fans and window blinds to baseboards and tile grout. No surface goes unscrubbed!

Don’t forget to get your windows squeaky clean. “There needs to be as much light coming in as possible,” Dawn recommends.

3. Get Ahead of the Game

In the spirit of selling your home fast, take care of things now that will be a problem in the closing process. Talk to your agent about fixes you’ll need to make to pass the home inspection, like:

These are issues you’ll be expected to take care of before any buyers close on your house—you might as well get ahead of the game to help your home sell faster.

Your agent can also help you decide on any small updates or projects that will add value in the eye of the buyer. Don’t do anything major. But simple updates can make a world of difference, like:

Don’t forget about the curb appeal too. If the first thing buyers see (both in person and in pictures) is the front of the house, make it shine. Spend some time on the garage doors, front door and landscaping.

You might have to spend a little money on these updates and fixes. But the value they’ll add to your house sale more than makes up for any of their costs. Plus, if you take care of them now, you don’t have to deal with them slowing down the sale later.

4. Stage Your Home

To make the best first impression—and get lots of interest from buyers—go beyond cleaning and decluttering and stage your home to sell.

Home staging is an art designed to show off your home in its best light. Using your furniture in a new way, swapping old or past-their-prime pieces, or sprucing up the outdoor space will help buyers focus on your home’s features rather than its flaws.

Start by putting bulky pieces in storage and moving furniture away from the walls. “Oftentimes, the room is arranged so the children can play in the middle of the room or the TV can be seen easily from every chair and sofa,” Dawn says.

An experienced agent can look at your home with a fresh eye and help you reimagine your space. “Go to different rooms and see if there are pieces that you can repurpose for the living room to get the effect you want,” Dawn suggests.

Buyers want to walk in and see an open space that inspires conversation and feels livable. A place that invites them to sit and stay awhile.

An easy staging trick is simply setting the dining room table. Bust out the good flatware and china, put some flowers in a vase, and add a seasonal flair.

“If I see that a family can live here, I will think my family can live here too,” Dawn explains.

Staging paints a picture for potential buyers so they can envision life in your home. You can find more staging tips and advice in our free Home Sellers Guide.

5. Price to Sell

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it a thousand more times: Price your house to sell. Even the price is part of the buyer’s perception, and your real estate agent will help with this too.

Setting a realistic and competitive asking price is one of the best ways to sell your house fast.

Overpricing your home will just scare buyers away, leading to more time on the market. You might end up lowering the price during negotiation anyway—overpricing will just add steps to the process.

An experienced real estate agent will know how to toe the line between making you a good profit on the sale and pricing low enough to drum up buyer interest. They understand the local market and how to plan out pricing.

They’ll also help you set a timeline for lowering the price to make sure selling doesn’t take too long, as well as figuring out ways you can “sweeten the deal.

If you know the market will be slow, sweetening the deal means offering things like paying a percentage of the buyer’s closing costs or including certain appliances in the home sale. The idea is to increase the potential value of your home and motivate buyers to make a move.

Again, pricing your home right is a fine line that only experts really know how to balance.

The Best Way to Sell Your House Fast

Of course, every home is different. Before you spend a dime freshening your home up, ask a real estate agent you trust for advice.

Remember, a true pro knows what buyers in your area want and can help you maximize your home’s appeal without busting your budget.

We’ve found and vetted RamseyTrusted agents who will work hand in hand with you and take your home sale seriously. They care about you, not just their bottom line.

For a quick and easy way to find an agent like that, try our Endorsed Local Providers (ELP) program. We only recommend agents who are experienced in your local market and know just what it takes to sell your house as fast as possible.

Find the best real estate agents near you!

About the author

Ramsey Solutions

Ramsey Solutions has been committed to helping people regain control of their money, build wealth, grow their leadership skills, and enhance their lives through personal development since 1992. Millions of people have used our financial advice through 22 books (including 12 national bestsellers) published by Ramsey Press, as well as two syndicated radio shows and 10 podcasts, which have over 17 million weekly listeners. Learn More.

Conquer the real estate market.

Show Me Local Agents

Conquer the real estate market.

Don’t navigate the housing market alone. Work with a real estate agent who cares more about helping you find your dream home than about scoring a paycheck.

Show Me Local Agents

Conquer the real estate market.

Don’t navigate the housing market alone. Work with a real estate agent who cares more about helping you find your dream home than about scoring a paycheck.

Show Me Local Agents

Psychology: I miss my old apartment - what to do

Several decades have passed since that distant summer, when we moved with my parents from my very first apartment. I became an adult, lived in different places, got my own children, moved with them already ... But until now, when by the will of fate I pass by that house, my heart skips a beat in that courtyard, I feel a complex mixture of emotions. I see that a lot has changed, and the same swings and paths that I ran along are no longer there, the trees that my grandfather planted have grown. And here are our windows: I wonder who lives there now and guesses that we had a TV set here?

It may happen to you too. Quite a few people experience nostalgia and a slight sadness when they find themselves in That Same Yard from childhood. How to deal with such emotions and is it necessary to do it at all?

Eugen Tsvetkov

Moving is stressful, and parting with housing is part of it. One aspect of this stress is the need to part with the old apartment. It all depends on the circumstances, of course. We are not talking about situations when you move from a hated rented apartment to a long-awaited one of your own. Even if a new beautiful house is waiting for you better than the previous one, you still catch yourself on such feelings as sadness, regret, anxiety, sadness (write in more). In X years, you will find yourself feeling nostalgic even if you pass by a house with a once-hated rented apartment. This is completely normal.

Elizaveta Strelnikova/ART DE VIE design studio

The fact is that you are not just leaving some physical object of four walls - you are parting with the space that for a long time was your refuge, your safety. You loved this place, you lived there for a while, you met sorrow and joy there. In this very space you had various important events. It can be said that every square centimeter contains some kind of emotion or memory. Is it possible to take all this and forget at once? Take it and stop worrying? Of course not.

It may be very sad to leave your old apartment, because it seems that you are leaving something important there, as if it were part of your life. It is extremely sad to realize that you will never again enter the nursery where you once brought a newborn baby. That you will never again look out of the kitchen window at the bus stop, as you did in the mornings when you studied at the institute. Give yourself the right, opportunity and time to mourn and "sad" it all.

RELATED…
Psychology: We change apartments in full agreement with ourselves

OlimpStroyService

Fact: it is more difficult for children to move
And they experience moving more acutely. The fact is that they did not make the decision to move - their parents did. Yes, at best, during the period of change of housing, the children were treated carefully and attentively, but they had no choice. And the reasons why the move was made may not have played the same role for them as for adults. When we are not in control of life choices, we get additional stress - children are no exception.

Cosmorelax

Sadness is inevitable - deal with it
There is an option to get over the breakup early, but keep in mind that you will still regret the move after it happens. It's hard to say how long - it depends on the individual. But if your negative emotions continue to be at an intense level for a relatively long time after the move, it is likely that there is something else that is preventing you from letting go of the situation and experiencing it.

For example, a move may have triggered or exacerbated depression, or made you very anxious about your life in general. You may still feel strongly not about the move itself, but about the reason why it happened, such as a divorce or a job change. Then it’s not about the old apartment at all, but about other problems that you probably need help solving.

RELATED…
Stop the Earth: How to move to a new apartment without too much fuss

Maxim Baryshnikov, professional photographer

How to make it easier for yourself and your loved ones to leave your old apartment
1. Make sure you take everything that made your old house your "favorite home": from cute little things on the shelves and cups with a broken edge to the habits and rules by which you lived in the old house. Do not get carried away and drag absolutely everything indiscriminately: take what definitely has nostalgic, sentimental, aesthetic or practical significance for you. For example, I could not approach the analysis of books in this way the first time. Now in the near future I will have to do this in a new apartment.

2. Remind yourself that the important events of your life that happened in this apartment will remain in your memory forever, no matter where you are on the planet. These past events will forever remain associated with this particular place, and, unfortunately, they cannot be packed and taken with you - they will “move” with you in your memory.

3. Do not ignore or suppress your negative emotions about the move, such as sadness and anxiety. This is normal in such a situation, it should take time. On the contrary, if you suppress or reject emotions by saying to yourself, for example: “I should not feel sad about this, because there are so many interesting things ahead of me,” you will encounter the fact that emotions will return later, but in a larger volume and in the wrong way. moment. Therefore, it is always better to accept your emotional world as it is, without trying to remake it.

4. Recreate daily routines in the new apartment as early as possible. It will also help the kids a lot to get through the move. If you had "start fresh" plans, you will most likely need even more strength to adapt.

MARION STUDIO

5. Help children who are having a hard time (even if your teenager is having fun and looking forward to moving). The younger the children, the less they understand, but this does not mean that they do not worry about changing homes. Therefore, talk to children: explain the reasons, tell how you will live, discuss expectations, answer questions. Take things familiar to children from the old room and first of all place them in the new one. For very young children, it can be explained that toys are not thrown away, but carefully wrapped so that they reach their new home safely. If possible, first show the children a new apartment.

6. If you move into an old apartment from time to time or just drive by, while experiencing light nostalgia - this is good and useful, you can write a book. If you are experiencing negative feelings, despite the fact that a lot of time has passed since the move, ask yourself the question: “What exactly am I thinking now, because of which I feel angry, anxious or very sad?”. Finding your own automatic thoughts will tell you in which direction to look for the cause of your negative emotions. Behind your automatic thoughts may be expectations, rejection of yourself in a situation, disturbing images, assessments, assumptions, worries about the future, painful breakups, unclosed resentments.

7. After being sad, go back to what you need to do right now. Think about how much good awaits you in your new home and in the near future.

YOUR TURN…
Share your experience, how many such nostalgic places do you have? What do you feel and what do you think when you pass by? Is it worth fighting your emotions?

How to deal with customer objections

The usual picture: the seller is trying to sell the product, the client objects. You need to be able to work with objections - to build communication correctly, to pick up convincing arguments. This is not about misleading the client and imposing an unnecessary or low-quality product, but about explaining to the client the benefits of the product or service: that it helps to save money, simplifies tasks, frees up time or allows you to get aesthetic pleasure. In 2019d. everyone is used to calls from intrusive salespeople offering something they don't need. To distance yourself from the crowd of annoying managers and prove that you are trying for the buyer, and not begging for money, four methods of working with objections will help. They will allow you to expand your customer base or get satisfied partners - as long as you are honest.

1. Asian method. You present the product to the client, then he says: "I'm not interested", "Not relevant", "We are working with another supplier", "I'll think about it and call you back", etc. In response to an objection, ask permission to tell in a nutshell how your product differs from similar ones on the market and why it is useful. Inform that if the client does not want to cooperate, you will not insist, but simply leave the phone for a possible call in the future. This wording allows the client to relax internally, sets him up for the fact that the conversation will be short and easy.

2. 2D + 2P method (conditional consent, clarifying questions, presentation and call to action).

-Conditional consent: the first step is to agree that the person may have a different opinion, or that their concerns are understandable, or that it is difficult to make a decision quickly. For example, a customer says they won't buy a laptop because it's too expensive. Conditional consent is to say that you understand that the price is one of the main criteria when choosing a product. You softened the objection, but at the same time, you did not agree that the price for such a high-quality laptop is too high.

- Clarifying questions: with their help you need to find out the criteria that are important for the client. Very often, the client does not immediately tell about his main requirements - and the task of a good seller is to find out. A real example: a girl came to a household appliance store who wanted to buy a high-quality electric stove. The manager began to offer expensive models with a timer, a touch programmer and durable enamel. The girl said she would think about it, and then went to another store and bought an equally expensive model - not because it has many features, but because it is safe for a small child. And all because the manager in the first store did not specify what is important for the customer in the stove.

- Presentation: At the third stage, you need to present the product, starting from the needs that the client reported at the second stage.

- And the last one is a call to action. Immediately after the presentation, ask if the customer is ready to place an order. Or you need to offer a meeting and immediately ask what day of the week is convenient for a person.

3. Appetite comes with eating. When a customer says, for example, that he is not interested in a product, ask him if he agrees with the well-known expression that appetite comes with eating. By the way, this is a phrase from the novel by Francois Rabelais "Gargantua and Pantagruel". If he agrees, you can safely continue the conversation. Say that he will certainly agree that first you need to try to use the product, and then judge whether it makes life easier or not. Then immediately ask if it is convenient for the client to meet tomorrow. If a person does not agree with the thesis about the appetite that comes with eating, try using the Asian method.

4. An imaginary retreat. This tactical maneuver makes the opponent, determined to repulse the persistent seller, relax internally. Let's say you are talking with a client in his office, you have already tried all the methods, but nothing helps. The client again offers to postpone negotiations until the next time.


Learn more