Tips for Selling Your Home

Five Easy Tips for Selling Your Home

If you are about to put your home up for sale, you may wonder what you can do to increase the chances of getting a great offer fast. Making your home look like a bargain can take some work, but it will pay off when buyers make offers or even start a bidding war. This guide will give you tips for selling your home that can help you even in today's difficult market.

Tip #1: Be Prepared

Today's real estate market can be searched and analyzed like never before by potential homebuyers. One of the most useful tips for selling your home is to prepare yourself by getting a handle on the particulars of your local market. Start by searching using the MLS database and any real estate location search tools you can find online. You will want to look for houses that appear roughly comparable to yours: similar square footage, same number of bedrooms/bathrooms, and so forth.

Remember to be realistic. It may be tempting to look at substantially different houses in order to find higher prices, but remember that these are tips for selling your home, not for pricing and selling a more expensive one. If your house has a tiny galley kitchen, it may be hard to compare it accurately with a house that has a gourmet kitchen setup.

Tip #2: Hire a Real Estate Lawyer

You may think that of all these tips for selling your home, this one would cost the most money. However, hiring a real estate lawyer may actually save money in the long run. You can use your real estate lawyer to understand any paperwork you might receive and to help you through any problems with your contract or sale.

Tip #3: Let Your Realtor Work

Realtors are experienced professionals, and while you may sometimes disagree with your realtor, it's important to remember that he or she is highly knowledgable about houses in your local area and neighborhood. Your realtor may be able to tell you tips for selling your home that you hadn't thought of, including specific trends in what local buyers expect to see in a home at your asking price range.

Tip #4: Give Your Home a Face Lift

When a house is cluttered or has significant cosmetic imperfections, it can be almost impossible to get offers. Anyone offering tips for selling your home will tell you: repairs and renovations before you put your house on the market can be well worth it. You may want to ask your realtor whether a particular remodeling plan would be cost-effective for your house's resale value—some renovations might be much more likely to pay off than others.

Tip #5: Maintain Flexibility

Your realtor wants to know if you could do a showing on a Sunday morning at 6 AM. Instead of declining, be prepared: have your house de-cluttered and clean so that you can take showings, even at the last minute. The more showings you have, the more offers you'll receive. These tips for selling your home require you to be flexible with your house—be willing to change things in order to make the sale.